After the dramatic ups and downs of the past year, I wanted to take a step away from my typical style of content this week to recognize the achievements of some of my friends and colleagues here at Chestnut Park West. 2020 started out by being anything but certain – I’m sure we can all remember what we were doing almost exactly a year ago now, when businesses started closing their doors, grocery...
As temperatures are beginning to edge back above the freezing mark and our days are getting longer, we’re finally in the home stretch of this year’s long pandemic winter. While it hasn’t been an easy season for many of us, perhaps for no group is this truer than those folks who have been trying to get a foot in the door of the local housing market. Competition among buyers has been fierce...
Earlier this week, we got underway with the first of what will be an ongoing series of short community profiles about some of the smaller real estate markets which surround the Kitchener-Waterloo area. As prices have increased in larger urban areas over the past several years, we’ve seen an influx of buyers turning to these communities as more budget-friendly (and peaceful) solutions to their need...
A few weeks ago, I posted a short article which outlined the dynamics which are causing smaller-market towns all over Southwestern Ontario to experience a surge in buyer interest and new home construction. As a quick recap, there are two primary forces at play here: 1) Ever-increasing average prices in markets immediately surrounding the GTA over the past several years have caused prospective buyers...
Real estate markets in Waterloo Region weathered 2020 in far better shape than many initial projections would have suggested. For example, who else remembers that now-infamous CMHC report from last spring which forecast a drop in average sale prices of as much as 18 percent? In reality, average sale prices in Kitchener-Waterloo increased over the one-year period between December 2019 and...
As the cost of entry for home ownership continues to defy gravity in the Waterloo-Wellington area, it was always inevitable that we’d eventually see a consequent bump up in average monthly rents here, too. People need somewhere to call home – and when they’re being priced out of home ownership in ever-greater numbers, they turn to the rental market. There’s a yin and a yang to this...
Real estate news in Kitchener-Waterloo was absolutely dominated in 2020 by massive increases in sales prices year over year in every part of the housing market. And when the average sale price of a single detached home surged above $850,000 for the first time ever just this past month, eclipsing even the 16.9% average increase we saw between December of 2019 and December of 2020, why wouldn’t this...
It’s a common assumption when a market starts to cool that the worst-case scenario is imminent. But instead, let’s take a moment to revisit what the previous market was like from a buyer’s point of view. The action was fast and furious with homes being listed and then sold, often in a matter of hours. Buyers struggled to understand prices as houses sold for far over asking in multiple offers....
The charming Auditorium Neighbourhood is one of Kitchener’s oldest neighbourhoods. Fondly known as the East Ward, the East Village, or just ‘the Hood’ among residents, it’s a place where neighbours not only know each other but also become close friends, known to have impromptu porch gatherings and the occasional game of road hockey. Location Weber, Krug, Ottawa and the Conestoga...
Have you read the latest article in the Kitchener Post about the summer slowdown in Waterloo Region's housing market? Not only do things typically slowdown in the summer, but there are more things in play than just seasonal conditions. The market over the past couple years was unsustainable over the long term. It was great for sellers, obviously, but the intense competition amongst...
