Saugeen Shores Real Estate Buzz

This little tidbit comes via a mortgage broker that I work with.  To give him credit, his name is Jim Cook and he is with Mortgae Intelligence (519-389-6900 or 519-396-6800).  Jim has been known to put in many, many hours in order to best serve his clients and does so with his client’s best interest in mind. 

Yes, there are a number of people who are in difficult times because they have lost their employment and/or their stock portfolio is just not what it used to be.

Not to minimize these situations, it could be so much worse.  If the auto industry collapsed, if the airline industry collapsed; what if the federal government fired all it’s civil service staff??

But as long as Southern Ontario wants electricity and as long as large, central nuclear stations remain the low cost provider of electricty in Ontario and as long as Bruce Power ontinues to require new engineers /operators, I think that we live in a good area financially speaking.

The commercial business keeps coming along to both Port Elgin and Kincardine; a new Boston Pizza in Kincardine and a hotel under construction, a WalMart about to open in Port Elgin, Crabby Joes settling in and now we are a town of 8(EIGHT) stoplights!!

Difficult times; yes!  However, with the relative stability of our employment enviroment and the continued growth of our communities, I think we should all be thankful that we live and work where we do.

In looking at the weather forecast yesterday (Saturday), I did not see anywhere where they (?) were predicting snow for our area, let alone enough snow to last the winter!!  When I took a little drive this evening at 7:00, I had to wonder just where all the plows are; possibly an early Christmas break?  The roads are rough and on my short journey, I saw 2 cars in the ditch.  If we were in TO, they would be bringing in the army!

Michael Polzer from RE/MAX Ontario Atlantic Canada Inc. forwarded some information to us yesterday.  It was about an incorrect story in our National Newspaper. 

 He wrote “The headlines screamed “Housing sales hit 20-year low as real estate slump widens” followed by huge sub-head noting an 11 per cent decline in prices and a 44 per cent drop in Ontario housing sales in large RED print, based on the December 15th press release issued by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The only problem with the article is that it is incorrect. In the third paragraph, the author writes “Between May and November, the average price of an existing home in Canada fell by 11 per cent, matching the drop in 1990 that coincided with the onset of a painful recession. Housing prices would go on to fall about 20 per cent and it would be another decade before they managed to make new highs.”
Unfortunately for the Globe, there was no 20 per cent drop. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Canadian average price actually rose approximately 15 per cent from 1990 to 2000. There were three moderate dips in housing values in the decade – 1990 (3.4 per cent), 1995 (4.6 per cent), and 1998 (1.5 per cent). Average price in Canada has climbed consistently since 1998. It’s also important to note that the decline in national housing values have typically been modest and have bounced back almost immediately. Finally there are no two consecutive years of falling prices.
While the national housing picture has been a picture of stability, average housing values in Ontario have seen slightly more volatility over the past 27 years. There have been six decreases in average price noted – with five of the six occurring between 1990 and 1996. Prices fell 17 per cent during that time frame, after climbing a phenomenal 70 per cent between 1986 to 1989 ($107,158 to $182,186). Residential average price has been on an upward trajectory since 1996 – the longest uninterrupted period of growth since 1980.

 My thoughts on this;  perhaps the media should have all of their facts straight before they put their articles in the paper, on the radio, or the TV.  After making sure that the info is correct and checking it twice, if the article is proven to be wrong, it should be retracted on the front page and not beyond the front page where it may not be seen.  The world is going through a rough enough time at the moment, we do not need things made worse by relaying false and negative information.

Well, I guess it is officially here!  Now, I will admit that I do like to have some of this white stuff for the Christmas season but I do think there needs to be a limit on it.  However, I also realize that this is not my decision to make nor do I have any control over it, unless of course, I want to move to the sunny south which is not going to happen anytime in the near future.  So…I will make the best of it and only hope that we have a white Christmas but a green winter!!  Yeah…right!!!!!

This is about an incident that I was told about the other day.  A young girl who works at one of our retail stores was waiting on a customer and greeted said customer by saying something along the line of “Hi, How are you today?”  Now, those may not be the exact words but it was some form of engaging the customer in some sort of small talk as opposed to greeting the paying consumer with silence at the till.  Now, I did not witness this but I was told that the said customer was very rude back to the young employee and basically told her to …” save her breath as she did not really care how she, the consumer,  was doing”!  Now, I think that into today’s economic climate with the preceived idea that both the local and the global economy is taking a hit, I am sure that there are people who are experiencing a little bit of uneasiness.  But, to take it out a salesgirl who is only trying to make small talk at the till is, in my mind, taking it a bit far.  Someone should perhaps tell this customer that it takes more muscles to make a frown than it does to make a smile!

There you have it; the economic forecast may be dim and grim (who knows with a possible change in the government) but we at RE/MAX Land Exchange Ltd. Brokerage in Port ELgin keep plugging along selling your properties.  We can’t even get a picture taken without one of us being called to the phone!!!  If you looked closely, you will also see that we won an award for the best Space Saving tree; trying to cut back on the hydro consumption.  Anyways, just wanted to give you a smile for the day.