Frank Steinhausen, Broker
FSteinhausen@REMAX.net
RE/MAX Rouge River Realty Ltd., Brokerage
Phone 905-428-6533
Fax 905-668-1850
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Archive for the 'Oshawa' Category
What’s Happening In Your Neck Of The Woods? Local Real Estate Updates
July 6th, 2008 Categories: Ajax, Buying real estate, Oshawa, Pickering, Selling real estate
As I was reviewing the June statistics, I looked over the detail that is always presented and is usually glanced at.
Here is what I found:
- In South Pickering:
– 4 condo apartments were for sale and none sold.
– 10 condo townhouses were actively for sale and 4 sold with the average sale price of $231,700.
– 2 linked homes (attached by the garage) were for sale and none sold.
– 5 freehold townhomes were listed for sale and 1 sold.
– 6 semi-detached were for sale and 6 of them sold with an average price of $232,000. That’s a rare site to see everything sold.
– 48 detached homes were for sale and 27 of them sold. That’s a solid 56% sell through rate. We only worry if it stays below 40% for a number of months. - In North Pickering:
– 15 condo apartments were listed for sale and 14 sold. Pretty good odds.
– 49 condo townhouses were for sale and 16 sold for an average sale price of $208,000.
– 6 linked homes were for sale and 2 sold. Not a popular option in Pickering this month.
– 32 freehold townhomes were listed and 15 of them sold for an average of $253,000.
– 18 semi-detached were actively listed and 3 sold.
– 199 detached homes were listed for sale and 60 of them sold for a sell through rate of 30% and an average price of $339,390. - In Ajax: (let’s start at the top)
– 344 detached homes were listed and 124 sold for an average price of $318,750.
– 29 semi-detached were for sale and 9 of them sold for an average of $255,500.
– 53 freehold townhomes were actively listed and 22 of them sold.
– 8 linked homes were for sale and 3 sold.
– 31 condo townhomes were listed and 7 sold.
– 3 detached condo were listed in south Ajax and one sold.
– 17 condo apartments were for sale and 6 sold.
The days on market is holding steady at about 30 days giving buyers the chance to be sure of their decisions.
Want the magnifying glass to deeper and find out about your neighbourhood, I can give you what you need.
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GTA Resale Housing Sales Ease in March
April 4th, 2008 Categories: Ajax, Durham Region, Oshawa, Pickering, Pickering Village, Real Estate News, Whitby
TORONTO, April 3, 2008 — Low inventory levels kept the Greater Toronto Area resale housing market brisk but well off record levels last month, Toronto Real Estate Board President Maureen O’Neill announced today.
“Overall sales in the GTA declined 22 per cent compared to March 2007, 27 per cent in the City of Toronto and 18 per cent in the 905 suburbs,” said Ms. O’Neill. “It’s important to recognize though, that despite the worst winter in decades, 6,631 homes changed hands last month in the GTA and that is still a significant number.”
Diminished listing inventory, which at 20,533, was down six per cent from a year ago, kept prices strong in March.
Compared to last March, the average price in the GTA rose four per cent to $380,338 and two per cent in the City of Toronto to $404,361.
As well, a few neighbourhoods experienced increased sales activity last month.
Bowmanville (E17) saw a three per cent increase in transactions compared to March 2007, driven primarily by strong detached home sales.
Sales in Burlington (W25) were up 18 per cent compared to a year ago, with brisk activity in most housing categories.
Thorncliffe Park (C11) saw a six per cent overall increase in transactions, based mainly on semi-detached sales.
Increased semi-detached transactions also drove sales in Georgina (N17) up one per cent compared to last March.
Ms. O’Neill says March’s moderate performance isn’t disquieting given that Canadian economic fundamentals are holding steady.
“Forty per cent of international households that come to Canada settle in the GTA, giving us robust immigration evels; employment and wages continue to be strong; borrowing costs remain at historically low levels and there is a wide variety of mortgage products from which to choose,” she said.
“This means that there is a steady demand for housing and consumers should have the financial resources to buy homes; with such pent-up demand it is an excellent time to sell your home.”
“We remain concerned about the land transfer tax in Toronto and the economic slowdown in the United States,” added Ms. O’Neill. “Home sales in the City of Toronto spiked towards the end of 2007 probably in a bid to avoid the Toronto land transfer tax, but have since dropped off since the introduction of the tax.”
Go to the source the Toronto Real Estate Board.
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Is Durham Region Growing? A Tale of New Home Starts
March 24th, 2008 Categories: Ajax, Durham Region, Oshawa, Pickering, Real Estate News, Whitby
I was flipping through the Durham Business Times that comes with my News Advertiser once and month and I hit on an article with the headline, “Oshawa’s February housing starts edge higher.”
I am a kind of scanner when it comes to the newspaper, so I immediately dropped down to the table included in the article to see if I was interested in reading on.
This is what I saw, as the Oshawa numbers:
Single family starts: February 2007–-46; February 2008–-33
Multiple family starts: February 2007–-0; February 2008–-0
Total: February 2007–-46; February 2008–-33
It’s been a long time since grade school—although I do help my daughter with her math, those numbers don’t look like they are edging up. To me, they are sliding down.
Here are the totals housing starts for February for the rest of Durham:
Whitby: 2007–25; 2008–49
Oshawa: 2007–46; 2008–33
Clarington: 2007–29; 2008–34
Pickering: 2007–2; 2008–4
Ajax: 2007–39; 2008–23
Uxbridge: 2007–16; 2008–2
Brock: 2007–0; 2008–0
Scugog: 2007–0; 2008–0
Oshawa CMA: 2007–100; 2008–116
Source: Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
The numbers that show an increase are Whitby and Clarington. They push the numbers up for the Oshawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). I guess that is the broad brush that they paint the east end of Durham with.
You can also see that development is a little slow for the other areas of Durham for February. For us in the resale market, seeing a slowing of new builds means that people might be looking at existing homes to purchase.
What I also see, it pays to read the small print, not just the headlines.
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Oshawa Revealed: The changing real estate landscape of east Durham Region
March 4th, 2008 Categories: Area interest, Durham Region, Oshawa, Real Estate News
Saturday mornings I venture into Oshawa for my son’s hockey games. The new slogan for the city is “”Prepare to be amazed…” and I must say, as I drive by little pocketed communities that hold onto the word “community” like it was their birthright, and then past a suburban-nation, I am amazed.
An article in the National Post last weekend gave me a good flavour of what Oshawa is doing to re-invent itself:
So if you go, take Park Road
and have a good look around.
Prepare to be amazed
That’s the slogan of the city where I was raised.
But I’ll come running back each time.
- Cuff the Duke, Rossland Square
Check out the article on Oshawa de vivre.
Have a look, you just might be amazed.
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Revisiting Flanders Fields
November 11th, 2007 Categories: Ajax, Area interest, Durham Region, Oshawa, Pickering, Pickering Village, Whitby
This is no ordinary reading of “In Flanders Fields.” The three people narrating are all World War II Veterans, for whom this poem has special significance. | Currently No Comments »
Curiouser And Curiouser: Will it be a record year for Ajax-Pickering, Whitby real estate?
November 6th, 2007 Categories: Ajax, Buying real estate, Oshawa, Pickering, Pickering Village, Real Estate News, Selling real estate
The Toronto Real Estate Board president, Maureen O’Neill, put out the latest figures on how the real estate market is fairing this year. All things point to the second best year on record:
With 7,915 transactions, activity was up 10 per cent over the previous best for the month, set in 2003. Sales were also up 15 per cent over last October.
October’s strong performance has pushed year-to-date activity 12 per cent ahead of last year.
“There is every indication that 2007 will be a banner year for resale housing activity in the Greater Toronto Area,” said Ms. O’Neill.
The overall activity for Pickering, Ajax and Whitby is up this year. There were less listings, 1024 active in October 2007 vs. 1173 in October 2006. And there were more sales this October—396 vs. 342. Which means the market should be pretty good.
Let’s throw some other numbers into the mix:
- Percentage of listings sold: If there were 396 sales and 1024 active listings, then only 39% of the listings are selling. So you have a one in three shot at finding a buyer for your house. CMHC reports that anything less than 45% list to sales ratio is a buyer’s market.
- Average sale price: The average sale price in the 3 communities of Pickering, Ajax and Whitby was $291,028 for last October. For this October, it was $299,850. Not bad, a 3% increase. Increasing prices usually indicate more of a seller’s market.
Any statistician is going to caution you about looking at statistics in isolation because there can be a lot of variables that influence any of these numbers.
For example: the average price can spike upwards with a few luxury homes being added to the mix.
Bottom line is that it is a balanced market. Buyers are getting what they want, nice houses at good prices and sellers are getting what they want, home appreciation.
- As a seller, you need to be the best house for the money to entice a
buyer and be in the 39% that are selling. - As a buyer, prices are steadily rising and expected to continue that trend next year. It is a great time to get in the market and ride that upward slope.
None of this information should scare you away from the market. It is information that you can use to make a good decision about buying or selling a home.
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Crystal Ball Gazing: Are Real Estate Market Predictions Worth Their Weight?
September 14th, 2007 Categories: Buying real estate, Durham Region, Oshawa, Pickering, Real Estate News, Selling real estate
It’s been said that a weatherman is the only person that can be 
wrong, do his job badly and still keep it. Trendspotters in the real estate market could be in the same category. With all the gadgets and gizmos, I keep hoping that the weather predictions will get better, especially for my hurricane-season Florida trip. Throwing humans into the mix to predict what is going to happen next in the real estate market, might be a job for Nostrodamas.
What do the experts at CMHC say is going on in the real estate market:
- Things look good for Ontario. The Ontario housing market is running at a good pace with the number of existing home sales increasing along with the average price, when you look at the summer of 2006 compared to the summer of 2007.
- Toronto is holding its own. The greater Toronto area resale market is healthy with 17% more sales than last year and an average price increase of 5%.
- Oshawa, not so much. Oshawa has more sales than last year, but the average price has fallen 1 1/2%. The rest of Durham Region, as we walk farther from Toronto, through Pickering, Ajax, and Whitby, we would expect to see things somewhere in between. Pickering showed a 2% increase in price over last year. One reason for the difference in the market status is, as the region moves away from the healthier diversified job market of the GTA to the stumbling manufacturing-laden job market of Oshawa, prices soften.
How did CMHC do last year at predicting this year’s market?
I’m not sure if any of the trendspotters are looking to be weathermen, they could look into it.
In their Fall 2006 report CMHC expected Toronto to have an 11% increase in sales and only a 3.8% increase in price. In Oshawa, they were hoping for a smaller increase in sales and 1 1/2% increase in price.
Knowing their past history, we can ask CMHC to pull out their crystal ball and tell us what they think 2008 will look like.
They are expecting to see similar growth in the real estate market with the average price continuing to increase at a pace that is greater than inflation–good for your investment. Oshawa is expected to have a slower increase (2.3%) than Toronto (4.2%).
If CMHC are true to the breed of a conservative Canadian, we will expect the real estate market around the GTA to perform well in a balanced market.
Want a hot tip? Look at Sudbury.
It’s had an almost 20% price increase over last year and is expected to continue to record a double digit price increase next year.
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