A House Pricing Story

My way of writing stories now is a lot different than the way I used to do so in my old Website. I do not have the same reason for writing now as I did before.

For me, these days, I write just because I like to do so. It is not a “hobby” although it might seem like one. I do act in the way that I used to do so before when I used to write online. I still try to do all the research that I think is necessary for the story from the sources that I think are required. Then I write and complete my story in the best manner that I possibly can.

Where I am different, however, is that I am writing now on a whole bunch of topics that are a lot different than I wrote previously. I do that because I do not have the same reasons for writing as I did before. These days I just want to write about what interests me whether it involves me creating one story or a series of them. Oh sure, I do post stories on some of the same subjects as before but I also post stories that are a lot more personal now and cover issues that may not be all that important except I enjoy writing about them.

It is fun reading comments from newspapers to radio and TV shows to magazines and educational stories. After reading something that I find fascinating, I sit down and prepare something for you to take a look at, dear reader, setting out my perspective of it. In addition, it is just as interesting to take a look at material from individuals that may give me a reason to write something.

I hope that you coming to my website is still of value to you. I hope that the topics that I write about are of interest and that you will keep coming back just to take a look at what I have to say.

Now here is a subject that I would like to discuss with you.

HOUSE PRICING

Supposedly, the house prices in Toronto and Vancouver not doing all that well these days. They are apparently dropping in amounts received on sales by some significant percentages. Oh well, they have risen dramatically so it is hardly a surprise if they are going down a bit.

What is significant as well is that house prices have risen dramatically all around this country over the past little while. If you live in Windsor/Essex, you know that your prices over the last several years have risen dramatically:

“Windsor was among the Canadian markets that enjoyed one of the largest increases in home prices in 2018.” (CTV Windsor, January 13, 2019) 

Here are some of the statistics set out in the story:

---two-storey homes in Windsor had a 17.2 per cent in 2018 increase over 2017.

--bungalows had a 7.1 per cent increase over 2017.

--condominiums had a 28.7 per cent increase over 2017.

Here are some interesting comments made by Royal LePage in their latest report. It would not surprise me if prices in our area keep going up even if not as high a rate as in 2018: ()

“Secondary cities outperform larger cities led by Windsor, Kingston, and Moncton...”

“Of the regions studied in the Royal LePage National House Price Composite, Windsor and Kingston saw the highest appreciation rates in Ontario, rising 14.7 and 13.8 per cent year-over-year, respectively.”

Sure, prices are not expected to go up as high in 2019 but they will go up. Here is why price increases started going up a little bit slower in 2018:

“The invisible hand that guides our complex economy hit the real estate reset button in 2018 and that is a good thing,” said Phil Soper, president and CEO, Royal LePage.

“Major market home price inflation through much of the decade had led to dangerous overheating in our most populous regions. Government regulatory intervention and rising interest rates, when combined with property price overshooting, triggered the correctional cycle we find ourselves working through today.”

I noticed on Facebook that some of the real estate agents in town are telling us about sales where the sale price increase over the asking price of a specific unit has been dramatically higher even now. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

Notwithstanding how wonderful everything seems to be, the real problem is, even though one’s unit price has increased significantly and which will produce a significant profit over the original purchase price, how does one pay for a larger unit whose price has also risen dramatically!

That is the real problem for which I do not know the answer and which I expect will keep the price increase size down this year if we actually get one. Seriously, who can predict these days as to what will really happen in the next 12 months.