Kimberley residents are familiar with the varied lifestyle options and the range of activities available in and around the community.
Realtor Dan Keeley and his family, who chose Kimberley as a place to relocate from Abbotsford, B.C. in 2018, have experienced much in their relatively short time here. Winters might include great skiing close by at Kimberley Alpine Resort, swimming at the Aquatic Centre, skating or taking in a Dynamiters hockey game at the Civic Centre or simply enjoying a family dinner in town. For Dan, warmer weather means getting out his motorcycle and riding the area, or working on his pair of 1967 International trucks in between taking day trips to local lakes and rivers.
“It’s family friendly and a good place to raise kids,” he says, adding there’s numerous ways to get involved in community activities as well. “Everybody’s happy to be here.”
A hidden gem in the Kootenays
Travelling around and living in the area has given Dan, an agent with Royal LePage East Kootenay Realty, good perspective on the people who live here and the residential and investment real estate market.
“I see Kimberley as a hidden little gem,” says Dan, who moved here with his wife and three children from Abbotsford, a busy city in southwest B.C. “It’s a ski town, but we haven’t seen the price increases that other ski towns such as Fernie have experienced. That means it’s a lot more affordable for families.”
Demand for rentals strong in area
One aspect of the local housing market he’s noticed is the low level of available rental accommodation – the city has a vacancy rate of less than one per cent. “That’s good news for someone looking to purchase an investment property,” Dan says. He not only has a good handle on that area of the market, he’s experienced in property management and strata management. That comes in handy for helping you find good tenants and setting appropriate rental rates.
To sell or renovate?
Kimberley is blessed with many older homes that still have “good bones,” which is leading many homeowners to undertake renovations on their kitchens, bathrooms and other living spaces. Drawing on his years working with homeowners in the busy Fraser Valley real estate market, and his understanding of sales trends here, Dan can advise you on whether it makes financial sense to do a major renovation, or sell and find a home that better suits your lifestyle.
He invites you to give him a shout at 250-581-6683 to talk about your property ownership options in and around Kimberley. You can also email him at info@dankeeley.com.
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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.
