I was at a function called Green Drinks at Doc Willoughby's Thursday and met Dion. We got chatting about being environmentally friendly and eventually ended up on the topic of real estate. He came up with the perfect name for what we experience in Kelowna from time to time with real estate prices and number of sales. The Doughnut Effect! It perfectly describes how as you go farther out from the center of Kelowna (the doughnut hole) the number of sales are fewer and prices are slower to respond to a upward swing. Those hubs, made up of the actual doughnut, tend also to be the first to suffer the effects of downward price movement as we recently experienced. Areas like Lake Country and Glenrosa would be good examples of this. We've got a lack of inventory in the $300-$400,000 range so prices in that range are being squeezed up. Glenrosa and Lake Country are still seeing stagnant sales for the most part. There's some great value out there in those doughnuts!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
October Stats for Kelowna Real Estate are In
October stats are out and they paint a very good picture for the future of real estate in Kelowna. The market adjustment was minor compared to other parts of the country. Prices are down about 10-15% across the board, interest rates are still historically low, and continued world-wide attention has propped up housing values in Kelowna. After seeing sales drop off considerably they've been steadily marching back with monthly gains in sales and dollar volume.
In October there were 215 residential sales, up from 210 sales last month. Certainly a healthy number compared to the 91 residential sales in October 2008! It's interesting to see that sales for condos and townhouses are up too as the current inventory is absorbed. Apartment sales for October 09 were 73 over last years 34 and townhomes showed 56 sales this October versus a paltry 18 last year at the same time. I talked about increased lakefront real estate activity in early October and it's up an incredible 400% over last year!! OK, seriously, there were 4 sales in October and none last year!
Listing inventory is starting to drop off as it tends to do this time of year. With serious buyers still out there and fewer homes to choose from, this can be a very good time of year to sell! Give me a call at 250-862-6464 if you're thinking about it.
Talk to you soon...
Paige
In October there were 215 residential sales, up from 210 sales last month. Certainly a healthy number compared to the 91 residential sales in October 2008! It's interesting to see that sales for condos and townhouses are up too as the current inventory is absorbed. Apartment sales for October 09 were 73 over last years 34 and townhomes showed 56 sales this October versus a paltry 18 last year at the same time. I talked about increased lakefront real estate activity in early October and it's up an incredible 400% over last year!! OK, seriously, there were 4 sales in October and none last year!
Listing inventory is starting to drop off as it tends to do this time of year. With serious buyers still out there and fewer homes to choose from, this can be a very good time of year to sell! Give me a call at 250-862-6464 if you're thinking about it.
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Monday, November 2, 2009
Dressed up as a Kelowna Real Estate Agent
Hope everyone had a GREAT Halloween!
A funny thing happened to me on Saturday night. I worked until about 7 o'clock and when I came home the ghosts and goblins were slowly making the long hike up to my front door... but wait, that's another story!
I was still dressed for work and had some flashy jewelry on. I opened the door to this cute little pink fairy who took one look at my jewels and asked me "What are you dressed up as?" I said "a realtor". She looked so adorable as the look on her face went from confusion, to understanding and then a big smile lit up her face and she said "I want to be a realtrice when I grow up too!" You go girl!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
A funny thing happened to me on Saturday night. I worked until about 7 o'clock and when I came home the ghosts and goblins were slowly making the long hike up to my front door... but wait, that's another story!
I was still dressed for work and had some flashy jewelry on. I opened the door to this cute little pink fairy who took one look at my jewels and asked me "What are you dressed up as?" I said "a realtor". She looked so adorable as the look on her face went from confusion, to understanding and then a big smile lit up her face and she said "I want to be a realtrice when I grow up too!" You go girl!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
How we market kelowna real estate
Back in 2008 I saw a YouTube video called "DID YOU KNOW". It was loaded with interesting tid-bits on how fast our world's technology is changing. I just saw the 2009 version and it too shows how quickly things have changed from even last year.
This all relates to buying and selling real estate in a number of ways. Gone are the old days of newsprint advertising. That was always a hit and miss because you never could accurately follow where the leads were coming from.
Todays techno crazy world makes it easier if you know how to follow the traffic. Every time someone visits a page it's tracked and gobbled up by google. We can regularly check where our traffic is coming and going from right down to which are the favorite words they use in their searches. This is incredibly useful to keep on top the latest trends and for me to be able to maximize client's marketing packages for selling their homes. For buying real estate, there is also oodles of information on-line that is helpful for buyers. YouTube is a growing trend with mini "shows" about realtors and/or their properties. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all useful tools as well. Is it too much or not enough? How do you use social media?
For those that didn't see the 2008 "DID YOU KNOW"... it's pretty interesting as well!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
This all relates to buying and selling real estate in a number of ways. Gone are the old days of newsprint advertising. That was always a hit and miss because you never could accurately follow where the leads were coming from.
Todays techno crazy world makes it easier if you know how to follow the traffic. Every time someone visits a page it's tracked and gobbled up by google. We can regularly check where our traffic is coming and going from right down to which are the favorite words they use in their searches. This is incredibly useful to keep on top the latest trends and for me to be able to maximize client's marketing packages for selling their homes. For buying real estate, there is also oodles of information on-line that is helpful for buyers. YouTube is a growing trend with mini "shows" about realtors and/or their properties. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all useful tools as well. Is it too much or not enough? How do you use social media?
For those that didn't see the 2008 "DID YOU KNOW"... it's pretty interesting as well!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The new face of Kelowna real estate
I went to the 2nd Annual OEIA(Okanagan Environmental Industry Alliance... a mouthful for sure!) Conference on Tuesday. In a nutshell... WOW. Here's a group of people who are all committed to sustainability in the Kelowna real estate sector. Their mandate is to promote the developmemnt and growth of residential, commercial, and industrial markets for environmental products, services, and technologies.
I came away realizing there are some amazing, affordable, and totally do-able things we can all do to keep our valley green and be able to sustain growth here for the long haul.
In addition to learning more about things that some have heard of before, (i.e. BuiltGreen, LEED Certification, and Geothermal heating for instance) there were speakers who brought ideas and concepts from all over the world. For instance, we learned about Green Roofs and Walls (yes... plants growing from walls and ceilings). We learned about how to integrate building design with environmental friendliness. This for instance, can be as simple as thinking at the planning stage to turn a building around so the main doors don't have cold north winds blowing in. There was also a panel and open discussion about advances in renewable energy... solar, wind, and heat recovery to name a few. With waterfront development being such a touchy issue in Kelowna it was very interesting to hear how a local developer has completely changed his way of thinking to be able to accomodate the growth we will continue to experience as well as protect and provide for the delicate eco-system in and along Okanagan Lake.
All in all it was an incredible experience and I was thrilled to see so many like-minded people all in one place with the same goal... to keep Kelowna real estate sustainable!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
I came away realizing there are some amazing, affordable, and totally do-able things we can all do to keep our valley green and be able to sustain growth here for the long haul.
In addition to learning more about things that some have heard of before, (i.e. BuiltGreen, LEED Certification, and Geothermal heating for instance) there were speakers who brought ideas and concepts from all over the world. For instance, we learned about Green Roofs and Walls (yes... plants growing from walls and ceilings). We learned about how to integrate building design with environmental friendliness. This for instance, can be as simple as thinking at the planning stage to turn a building around so the main doors don't have cold north winds blowing in. There was also a panel and open discussion about advances in renewable energy... solar, wind, and heat recovery to name a few. With waterfront development being such a touchy issue in Kelowna it was very interesting to hear how a local developer has completely changed his way of thinking to be able to accomodate the growth we will continue to experience as well as protect and provide for the delicate eco-system in and along Okanagan Lake.
All in all it was an incredible experience and I was thrilled to see so many like-minded people all in one place with the same goal... to keep Kelowna real estate sustainable!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The trickle up effect
We've all heard of a "trickle down effect", but what about the trickle up?
The kelowna real estate market has experienced a major shift in the last 12 - 18 months. From an extreme sellers market, things quickly turned around to become a buyers market. The laws of supply and demand then took effect to create a strong balanced market that we're in right now. The problem for some sellers however, is that they're priced in a range that's not getting much action. This is where we're now seeing the "trickle up" effect happening.
Back when the prices first tumbled we saw a huge number of investors and first time buyers snapping everything up in the $300-$400K range. The homes that those people bought created a new group of sellers moving up to the $400-$500K range. When those sellers sold to those buyers, it created a new group of buyers looking in the $500-$600K range... and so on.
At long last, this "trickle up" effect seems to be taking hold. When you look at the number of sales over the last few months between $600K and $1 million the numbers are growing... 16, 20, 23, 27, 33.
Confidence is gaining momentum and people that have been taking "wait and see" approach are gradually coming down off the fence. I believe we can expect to see the real estate market remain strong!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
The kelowna real estate market has experienced a major shift in the last 12 - 18 months. From an extreme sellers market, things quickly turned around to become a buyers market. The laws of supply and demand then took effect to create a strong balanced market that we're in right now. The problem for some sellers however, is that they're priced in a range that's not getting much action. This is where we're now seeing the "trickle up" effect happening.
Back when the prices first tumbled we saw a huge number of investors and first time buyers snapping everything up in the $300-$400K range. The homes that those people bought created a new group of sellers moving up to the $400-$500K range. When those sellers sold to those buyers, it created a new group of buyers looking in the $500-$600K range... and so on.
At long last, this "trickle up" effect seems to be taking hold. When you look at the number of sales over the last few months between $600K and $1 million the numbers are growing... 16, 20, 23, 27, 33.
Confidence is gaining momentum and people that have been taking "wait and see" approach are gradually coming down off the fence. I believe we can expect to see the real estate market remain strong!
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Green Housing Symposium a HUGE success
The Green Housing Symposium held in the upper mission neighborhood of Kelowna was a fantastic success. Very impressive to see that over 200 people who attended were interested in my certified Gold BuiltGreen(R) listing and finding out how to green up their own homes! There's a lot of info out there and some very affordable ways to make your housing Green. If you'd like more info please call me direct at 250-862-6464 or check out my websites at www.kelownahome.com or www.greenkelownarealestate.com
Talk to you soon...
Paige
Talk to you soon...
Paige
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