Blog entries

"Listings Frenzy" Currently Taking Place in BC

Sharleen Whiteside

stings as opposed to their normal 18 or so. At Waterfront West, we have been equally as busy with over 70 new properties on the site in the last week. It seems as though the market is rapidly turning into a buyer's market. A nice change for those buyers who have been waiting by the sidelines and refusing to give in to the pressure of bidding wars and "no subject" offers. Judging by our site traffic (which is currently forecast to be abour 4, 000 unique visitors more than la [...]

Landcor Report Shows Sales to Albertans Down 21% in First Quarter of

Sharleen Whiteside

h/Northwest, while Greater Vancouver, the Okanagan and the Kootenay regions saw an increase in total sales value compared to the same period in 2007. Overall, total sales value in BC increased 5.6% over 2007 while the total number of actual sales decreased by 11.38%. In addition, of interest to the recreational property market, sales to Albertans decreased by 21% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year.

While you can't argue with the hard st [...]

BC Real Estate - Listings Up, Waaay Up and Mortgage Rates Increase

Sharleen Whiteside

cent from lastyear. In the meantime, major banks raised their mortgage rates by 1/2 percent last week, which may add to the slow down.

So what does this mean for the recreational market? Judging on traffic to the site (which is still well above last year's numbers) and email inquiries to our sellers, well-priced properties are still creating quite a stir. We have also seen this in the local market in Courtenay. I believe the key to selling right now is for sellers to pri [...]

RE/MAX Releases Recreational Market Update

Sharleen Whiteside

balanced markets.

Salt Spring (Island) and two other areas in Canada (located in Sask.), were mentioned as the only exceptions. According to the report, inventory levels in these areas remain relatively low implying a prolonged sellers market. This came as a surprise to me as I have spoken to several Salt Spring agents in the last year and have found that at least anecdotally the rec. market there had slowed down as early as last summer due to the US housing woes and lack of US buyers who [...]

Property for Sale on Waterfront West Showcased in Times Colonist

Sharleen Whiteside

c Deerlepe property in Sooke which is showcased here on Waterfront West was printed on the front page of the business section today.

Due to the article, traffic has increased about 30% so far and we expect to get some more sales of large estates on the site soon so stay tuned if you are interested in these types of exquisite properties!

Luxury Home Trends for 2008

Sharleen Whiteside

pularity of the destination or spa bathrooms and gourmet kitchens, a few more extras showed up that might surprise you.

Building Trends:

Pet Showers
Walk-in or no lifting areas to wash off bowser are big on the list of desires. Home Elevators

It seems that the boomer market is looking at elevators with an eye toward their later years. Rather than buy a rancher, just install an elevator to avoid the dreaded stairs.

Floating [...]

Vacation Rentals a Great Way to Evaluate Waterfront Locations

Sharleen Whiteside

occurred to me that renting a vacation property is an excellent way to test out the location of your future real estate.

Even if you can't rent out the property you plan to purchase, you can make some observations you normally might not think of by renting out a nearby home for a couple of nights. Here are some considerations you might not think of until you actually stay at the location:

Public Access: Family or Party Beach?

When you stay at a vacation r [...]

Luxury Marina Slated for Victoria's Inner Harbour

Sharleen Whiteside

long. The marina is being built partly in response to an increase in these types of yachts being built (770 last year alone). Developers of the project expect some of the owners to be from Victoria but many international "mega-yacht" owners as well as Victoria is increasingly becoming a real estate haven for the ultra-rich. Some approvals are still pending on the project including a provincial water lease.

Have a great long weekend!

Good News for Buyers - Statistics Point to a Balanced Market

Sharleen Whiteside

nce after yearsof a frenetic pace, multiple offers and lines of buyers waiting to buy new condos.

In Vancouver, the listings inventory has spiked in the last few weeks and hearsay from our member real estate agents across BC is that the market is more balanced than in the last few years allowing buyers to chose a home more carefully. Don't get me wrong, I still hear about the occasional bidding war and multiple offers for the right property (and price)-it just seems that [...]

Controversy Surrounds Cultus Lake and Shuswap Development

Sharleen Whiteside

project, proposed by the New Futures Building Group, was to include 218 year-round residences, a 160-berth marina and commercial space. Due to its location at the mouth of the river, famous for its salmon run, it faced by strong opposition from the Shuswap Environmental Action society who believe it will pose a threat to the salmon run.

In light of the opposition, developers agreed to completely remove the marina from their plans and also lowered the height of the planned com [...]

Landcor Report Shows Strong Gains in 2007 Market , Positive for 2008

Sharleen Whiteside

, in 2007, the residential property market showed gains of 15% over 2006 in dollar volume reaching a record high of 62 Billlion. Overall, property sales (incl. single family, townhomes and condos) only slipped a slight 0.6% from 2006.

Here are some of the other main points of interest:

Recreation and land property sales increased 20% over 2006Dollar value of vacant land sales increased 38% over 2006# Sales increased in Greater Vancouver, Van. Island and Kootenays# Sales de [...]

Hot Picks: A Few to Properties Gander At

Sharleen Whiteside

ew weeks. Of course, I haven't seen these in person and don't offer any guarantees, but if you like what you see, they could be worth a gander.

The first property is a private sale on Nelson Island on the Sunshine Coast. It features 2.6 acre, sheltered deep water moorage and 26' oceanfront. There are two winterized cabins on the property. With prices what they are on the mainland of the Sunshine Coast, this might be a nice alternative for someone wanting a recreati [...]

Edmonton Oilers Owner Investing in Comox Valley?

Sharleen Whiteside

people from both Edmonton and the Valley in attendance.

Various real estate agents and developers were at the event, including Island Coastal Resorts, who are currently advertising their luxury spa and resort in Campbell River, The Grand Coastal, and plan to announce further developments in the Comox Valley in the near future. In addition, the Edmonton delegation made mention of several developers who had come to tour the area.

One of the most high profile investors [...]

New Changes to Our Site

Sharleen Whiteside

nu will appear to your left with all of the options previously available in the drop downs. We hope these will be easier to navigate than the previous drop down menus.)
Addition of large search buttons to our four main areas (Search Page, Find an Agent, etc...) on the home page.
Changes to our main search page, find an agent and find a development pages making the text links to different regions easier to find.

All of these changes have been done to [...]

New Float Plane Flights from DT Vancouver to Comox Harbour

Sharleen Whiteside

http://www.westcoastair.com/" target="_blank">West Coast Air and is scheduled to begin April 1st.

I can tell you as a Comox Valley resident, this service is definitely needed. Many times I have wished for this service with friends coming to visit and/or needing to be in Vancouver for business. The question is, will the price tag of $149 one-way be the right price to make the service fly when harbour-to-harbour flights are available from Nanaimo at nearly half the price? Only [...]

B.C. Recreational Market Heating Up for Summer

Sharleen Whiteside

s almost doubled since last year and shows no signs of slowing. The stats listed below show unique visitors to our site last January, February and March as well as this year's numbers:

January 2007 - 5, 862

February 2007 - 6, 601

March 2007 - 7, 405

January 2008 - 9,861

February 2008 - 9,323 (leap yr) [...]

Going in for Surgery Tomorrow

Sharleen Whiteside

Some of you may have noticed I did not write a blog last week. I have been "under the weather" since November and am going in for surgery to hopefully fix me tomorrow! I will try to write something next week, pending a speedy recovery. Cheers!

New! View Virtual Tours Directly from Search Pages

Sharleen Whiteside

the most popular ways of viewing properties so I had been contemplating how to incorporate them onto the site. The initial thought would have been to provide virtual tour production as an extra service and host them directly on our site: quite a big undertaking considering most of our members already work with virtual tour providers and have their tours hosted online through these companies. We have always allowed our members to post links to these tours from within the actual ad content; howeve [...]

Nakusp An Affordable Kootenay Gem

Sharleen Whiteside

ops, Merritt, Zeballos and Nakusp. Although many of these places may be worth more investigation, the one that I noticed immediately was Naksup. I had been there for a wedding a few years back and found the picturesque countryside and quiet serenity of the lakefront a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Last year, we featured an investment project on Arrow Lakes (Galena Shores) on our site. The developer, from Alberta, received many inquiries about the proj [...]

Increased Interest from UK, German Buyers in 2008

Sharleen Whiteside

g at our site stats, I have also noticed an increase in visitors from the UK and well as Germany recently.

From Jan 30, 2007 until today, the percent of UK visitors to our site was 3.3 and Germans made up 1.7%. If we look at the stats for January of this month; however, UK visitors are have increased to 4.6% of our visitors and Germans to 2.9%.

Freddy Marks, our member real estate agent who works in the Cariboo, reports that many of his buyers are from Euro [...]