Property sales in the Fraser Valley bounced back in June as buyers and sellers adapted to COVID-19 measures, according to the region’s real estate board.
The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board says it had 1,718 sales in June, more than double the number of sales in May.
Over the last few months, the pandemic nearly brought the real estate market in the Fraser Valley to a standstill.
“It’s never happened in the board’s history that we’ve had an increase of that much from one month to another, from one May to one June,” said Chris Shields, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.
Daniel Planko is finally ready to sell his mother’s large Cloverdale home now that some COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted for weeks. (Mike Zimmer/CBC)
According to Shields, there are three factors at play: historically low interest rates, pent up demand, and buyers and sellers who are feeling a bit more comfortable operating in a post COVID-19 market.
“During the lockdown period with COVID-19, there were a lot of people who were planning on buying or selling and put their plans on hold,” Shields said.
“Because we’re deemed an essential service, only the people who had to buy and sell were coming out during those months.”
The president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board Chris Shields is cautiously optimistic that the market is stabilizing under the new normal of COVID-19. (Mike Zimmer/CBC)
Daniel Planko is one of those people who put plans on hold when the pandemic began, but he’s finally ready to sell his mother’s house.
“When we were ready it was the middle of the lockdown,” he said. “Stay at home was the messaging we were getting, so we just stayed at home.”
Surrey Realtor Lucky Gill agrees the real estate market has completely turned around since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It’s definitely a seller’s market right now. We’re seeing a lot of demand on the buyers end so we have a lot of organic, multiple offers happening.”
However, Gill is still urging some caution.
“Any buyer that’s entering into the market needs to do all their homework and make sure that the financial stability, job security, everything’s there. They need to do their due diligence before entering. It’s a calculated risk.”
Surrey Realtor Lucky Gill is warning buyers to make sure their finances are in order before venturing into the real estate market. (Mike Zimmer/CBC)
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
