Red Deer Real Estate Blog

Spring has sprung, well mostly it has sprung, OK it should be springing any moment. 

It’s time to start looking at houses if you are planning a move this spring or early summer.

Century 21 Advantage is hosting April is Open House Month.

From LOGOS

Come in and talk to one of our associates during an open house in the month of April and you could win 2,100 Air Miles!!  Ask them how you can earn Air Miles when buying or selling with us, or ask them questions about the market.

The Real estate market is changing weekly and monthly, don’t be left behind or in the dark if you are planning a move this spring or summer.  We are now taking listings for May.

As always view this weeks open house list at www.RedDeerOpenHouses.com

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot.

Two comments or questions asked of us that we hear most often today:

• “Is the market going down more?”
• “I’m waiting for the prices to come down further”

Quite often people are surprised when I mention that houses are selling.  I think too many people are listening to CNN or Canada Am, and getting national news or news from other regions mixed up with local news.  The reality is yes homes are selling and yes it is still a buyers market.  February experienced the fourth highest sales volume for MLS sales.  Sellers today have to be price competitive and if they are their home will have an increased probability of selling.  Not all price ranges are selling at the same rate, so to generalize that “I read that it is picking up” would not be in your best interest.  You need all the facts and news articles and Blog posts share only portions of the market at a time.

What price ranges are selling?

As you can see all price ranges are seeing some movement (the above is for MLS sales from Jan. 01 – March 19, ’09), however the main activity is centered around $300,000 today.  In fact we do encounter multiple offers when homes are priced just right.  Buyers are searching for a good deal.  When a good deal is spotted more than one person are interested.  Yes there is pressure on price.  The old supply and demand influences price daily.  How much will prices go down?  Will they level out and when will they go back up?  I’m sorry to say that my crystal ball is not all that clear on that one.  Expectations are that prices for 2009 will be down 3% to 5% from 2008 levels.  If you are looking to sell a higher priced home there are less buyers today so it will take longer and be more of a challenge unless you are willing to price your home where the buyers are.

The above graph illustrates sales volume by units for the month of March so far for the city of Red Deer.  There have been a total of 78 sales this month, while we presently have 624 properties listed for sale  (12.5%).  In February there were a total of 87 single family home (houses) sales.  Today we have 366 houses for sale in Red Deer. The odds of selling today then are 25% or 1 in 4.  The odds are not even across all price ranges.  Your chances of selling go down as price goes up.

How do you become that 1 that sells?

1. Price has to be bang on or better. Now is not the time to be fishing for that one buyer that will pay more.
2. Be show home ready as much as possible.
3. Be open for business.  Do not set exclusive hours for viewings.  Why make it hard for buyers to see your home.
4. Get your home seen and marketed professionally by a Realtor that knows your “Local” real estate market.

We have detailed steps and more in-depth approaches to looking at the market and getting your home sold.  If you are considering a move we can help.  Call or email for a sellers consultation.  We will evaluate your property free of charge and discuss with you how your home can become “SOLD” in today’s competitive market.  The top two Realtors in Red Deer work with Century 21 Advantage, so should you.

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot

Stats are from the Central Alberta Realtors Association MLS.  Numbers are for the City of Red Deer unless otherwise indicated.

Normal Market may be an applicable descriptor for the month of February.

February 2009 recorded the 4th highest sales volume for single family homes when comparing to previous February sales volumes.

Recent years February Sales Volume:

Looking back at the last19 years of sales volume for February Single Family Homes.

February 2009 was a pretty darn good month.

Your Friend in Real Estate

Patrick Galesloot

February is over and March is coming in like a Lion today allowing time to catch up on stats and planning.

Sales increased as did the volume of listings from the previous week as indicated above.  Sales activity increased by 28% from the week before.  Expectations are that March will have more positive sales growth with the reduction in interest rates.  Now lets hope mother nature cooperates to provide conditions favourable to viewing homes.

February ended in Red Deer, and it ended on a positive note.  After experiencing a few months of sluggish sales we experienced an increase over January.

The bulk of the activity is occurring in the $250 – $350,000 range.  The activity that occurred in January in that range probably pushed the wave up into higher ranges for February.  People moving up from that starter to the larger home.

I believe now is a great time to be buying real estate.  Buyers have selection, negotiating power, and the lowest interest rates in decades.  If you have secure employment and are in the market to buy, then why wait?

The average sale price in February increased by 25.29% over January from $239,821 to $300,465.

Total sales Volume increased from 62 sales in Red Deer to 113. An increase of 82.26%.

The question is for those of that were waiting for the “bottom”, has that passed or was February an anomaly?  Just like knowing when the peak is, we don’t know where the bottom is (was) until it has passed us.

Real Estate is LOCAL.  The numbers are different in Blackfalds than Red Deer, Red Deer is different than Calgary and Alberta is different than a national average.  Before you make a real estate decision talk to your Realtor, they should have these numbers for you.  Not all do however, this tends to separate the great Realtors from average or even the “part timers”.

Do you remember 2005?  It may surprise you but 2005 was a record year before 2006, 2007, 2008 for sales.  The first three months looked like this:

The headlines and interest rates announcements looked like:

18 October 2005
Bank of Canada raises overnight rate target by 1/4 percentage point to 3 per cent

While the Oil and Gas market today is in decline rather than incline, mortgage money is plentiful and at more affordable rates than 4 years ago.  Should we be hiding from the economy and the economic outlook or doing what we can to change it?

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot