How about a little bit of positve news for a change! The days are getting longer, the sun is shining more and Spring is here. The real esate market has picked up somewhat over the last few weeks. According to the stats from the Grey Bruce Real Estate Board, March 09 has surpassed February 09 sales in the Saugeen Shores area. In February, there was a total of 8 sales; 6 of them residential and 2 farm land. For the same time period in March, there has been 20 sales; 1 cottage, 1 commercial, 1 vacant lot and 17 residential.
It is my opinion that we are seeing an increase because the Sellers are pricing many of the properties to sell and are realizing that the prices have decreased from the last few years, there are Buyers out there who have been looking around for awhile and the availability of low interest rates; 4.05% on a 5 year closed was quoted to me by one of my mortgage brokers.
…a great way to start the Spring!
I remember when my girls were small and they insisted on having lemonade stands. It did not matter one bit that where we lived at that time, there was hardly any traffic; car or foot!! I would try to discourage them from having this stand as I knew that they would be very dejected because of the slow business. But, it was all to no avail. I liken this to telling people what their homes are worth in today’s market. It does not matter how much time I spend chatting with them or showing them everything I possibly can for comparables, some Sellers just do not realize what is happening in the market. “My neighbour’s house sold for such and such last year so mine should be worth that and possibly more this year”!! It is not going to happen. We had 2 good years but unfortunatley, if you did not sell then, we are back to some lower prices now. So just as my daughters proceeded with their lemonade stands, shouting out to any passing traffic that there might be, there are Buyers out there who are determined to over list their homes and the result in the end is the same; dejection!! Bottom line; if you need or want to sell; price it right!!
I am not about to impart good news here! If you are at all familiar with not only our local real estate market but the real estate market at large and even beyond…you will not be surprised when I tell you that our house prices have fallen. In the best of times, it is not necessarily the easiest thing to tell someone what their home is worth because even though we do this on a daily basis, there is always someone who thinks that their house is just a little nicer than the neighbours and therefore worth $20,000 more! Not! Now we are into a time where not only have the prices dropped
but with the new assessments just released, we are sometimes seeing houses prices now below the new assessment price as done by MPAC. The good news is, yes there are Buyers out there and yes, they will buy ,but no, they will absoluelty not pay more than what the market dictates even if you do have central air and central heating as well as a beautiful location with lots of trees! The bottom line homebuyers is this, if you want to sell, you need to price your property realistically for today’s market and not for the market that we saw in the last two years.
I just wanted to take a minute and thank Abby Bolton and her helpers for her perseverance in getting this dog park off the ground. I know that we enjoy it, our doggies enjoy it and, from what I have heard, several people enjoy the chance to get there with their dogs. It is nice to see them running, playing and interacting with the others. If you would like more info about this park, google “Saugeen shores dog park” your dogs will love you for it!
