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March home sales on the rebound

Our local housing market continued its recovery last month, with 859 homes exchanging hands. 702 detached homes sold in March, up 27.4% from the previous year, along with 157 condos, an increase of 33.1%. This marks a return to pre-Recession levels. (It’s important to note that home sales last March were down over 22%.)

“The stats have been up for six months running,” says Richard Thyssen, 2010 LSTAR President. “Listings are up as well, 20.6% for detached homes and 6.3% for condos.

That’s good news for our Spring market and for our local economy as a whole, given the considerable economic spin-off of real estate sales.”

61 homes sold in London’s Sister City of St. Thomas in March, up 10.9% over last year, for the average price of $181,787. “In the case of both St. Thomas and London, it’s a question of recovering lost ground rather than any kind of boom,” says Thyssen.

“That’s the beauty of this market. It’s resilient. In 2009, which was a bad year for everyone, we saw a dip in sales of only 3.42% overall, compared to 2008. Now, we’re pretty much back where we were before the financial meltdown & gaining momentum.”

An increase in average house price also points to recovery. Year-to-date the average price of a detached home was up 8.3% to $239,101; while the average price of a condo yearto- date was up 15% to $170,303.

Despite price gains, London remains affordable when compared to other Canadian centres.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association’s Major Market MLS® Statistical Survey for January 2010 (the most current available), the average price year-to-date for:

• London and St. Thomas $225,983
• Calgary $397,518
• Durham Region $289,195
• Edmonton $317,920
• Hamilton-Burlington & District $287,414
• Kitchener-Waterloo $296,735
• Ottawa $318,425
• St. Catharine’s & District $239,152
• Toronto $409,058
• Greater Vancouver $639,074

Get out and enjoy London!

Hume Cronyn Observatory

Open House every Saturday evening during the months of May, June, July, and August.

No reservations needed. Start time is 20:30 (8:30 p.m.). Closing time is 23:00 (11:00 p.m.).

View the skies through the telescope and ask questions to the astronomer hosting the evening.

There is NO CHARGE to attend.

London Regional Children’s Museum

21 Wharncliffe Rd S, London Ontario – 519-434-5726

Members & children under 2 are FREE. FREE admission Friday from 5-8 p.m.

Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Roller Skating

1345 Cheapside St, London ON N5V 3N9 – 519-661-2500 x 5198

Wednesday 8-11, Adult Skate (18+) Saturday & Sunday , 1-4, Family & Adult

Fees: Adults 18 yrs and older $6.50, Child & Youth ( under 18) $4.50

Note: You are welcome to bring your own roller or in-line skates, however they are subject to inspection to ensure they will not damage the floor.

Museum of Ontario Archeology

1600 Attawanadron Rod, London N6G 3M6 – 519-473-1360

10:00 – 4:30 May August, Open Daily Outdoor

Site Open All Year (weather permitting)

Admission: Family (2 adults & up to 4 children) 10.00, Adults $4.00. Seniors / Students: $3.25, Children 5-12, $2.00, Children under 5 are FREE

Imagination Station

Sundays, 1:00 to 3:45 pm Museum London, 421 Ridout St N. 519-661-0333

This drop-in program for adults and children will stimulate communication, collaboration and creativity. Staff provide guidance & will introduce you to a wide range of art making through painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and more.

We’ll supply the ingredients. Just roll up your sleeves and add your imagination. Enjoy quality time with a child in your life as you cook up something new together in the Imagination Station.

Admission: FREE

The Home Zone – Quick tips to improve curb appeal

Landscaping

Remember that sometimes less can be more. Weed your gardens and don’t be afraid to remove any shrubbery that appears to be overgrown or has a lot of deadwood. I may be difficult to part with your greenery, but the trim will make your home look fresher. Don’t forget to edge your walkways for a clean manicured look

Lighting

Whether you chose ambient lighting in your garden beds, a dramatic lantern on your front lawn, a door sconce or just a lighted number for the front of your door, you must remember to make sure that the bulbs are in good working order. Consider changing to newer energy efficient bulbs and do your part for the environment at the same time.

Fresh Front Door

A good wash, erasing all of winter’s gloom is the best start. Clean the glass on your doors and windows. Simple, effective and virtually free! After you wash the grime away, you may want to touch up the existing paint, or if you are feeling adventurous, try a new colour for the doors and the trim………….voila!!

New Home Essential features

Paul Cardis, CEO of AVID Ratings Co., which conducts an annual survey of home-buyer preferences, recently said that there are 10 “must have” features in new homes:

1. Large kitchens, with an island. “If you’re going to spend design dollars, spend them where people want them — spend them in the kitchen,” McCune said. Granite countertops are a must for move-up buyers and buyers of custom homes, but for others “they are on the bubble,” Cardis said.
2. Energy-efficient appliances, high-efficiency insulation and high window efficiency. Among the “green” features touted in homes, these are the ones buyers value most, he said. While large windows had been a major draw, energy concerns are giving customers pause on those, he said. The use of recycled or synthetic materials is only borderline desirable.
3. Home office/study. People would much rather have this space rather than, say, a formal dining room. “People are feeling like they can dine out again and so the dining room has become tradable,” Cardis said. And the home theater may also be headed for the scrap heap, a casualty of the “shift from boom to correction,” Cardis said.
4. Main-floor master suite. This is a must feature for empty-nesters and certain other buyers, and appears to be getting more popular in general, he said. That could help explain why demand for upstairs laundries is declining after several years of popularity gains.
5. Outdoor living room. The popularity of outdoor spaces continues to grow, even in Canada, Cardis said. And the idea of an outdoor room is even more popular than an outdoor cooking area, meaning people are willing to spend more time outside.
6. Ceiling fans.
7. Master suite soaker tubs. Whirlpools are still desirable for many home buyers, Cardis said, but “they clearly went down a notch,” in the latest survey. Oversize showers with seating areas are also moving up in popularity.
8. Stone and brick exteriors. Stucco and vinyl don’t make the cut.
9. Community landscaping, with walking paths and playgrounds. Forget about golf courses, swimming pools and clubhouses. Buyers in large planned developments prefer hiking among lush greenery.
10. Two-car garages. A given at all levels; three-car garages, in which the third bay is more often than not used for additional storage and not automobiles, is desirable in the move-up and custom categories.

Housing prices will moderate – Canadian real estate Association

Housing market will cool down, real estate industry says

OTTAWA — House price increases will moderate as the resale market becomes more balanced, says the president of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

“The resale housing market is becoming more balanced in a number of provinces,” Dale Ripplinger said Wednesday after the association released January sales statistics that revealed another big year-over-year price increase.
“A more balanced market is likely to result in smaller price increases going forward, with buyers in less of a rush due to an increase in supply.”

While Canadian home resale volumes slipped in January compared with December, they came in far higher than in January 2009, when sales fell to the lowest levels in a decade as the country suffered through the global credit crunch and recession.
The association said 25,671 homes were sold across the country in January, up 58 per cent from the same month a year

earlier when consumer confidence hit an ebb, drying up buying and lending activity.

The national average price for homes listed on the association’s Multiple Listing Service was $328,537, up 19.6 per cent from a year ago.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board recorded 416 sales in January, 64 per cent more than a year ago. The Real Estate Board of Cambridge registered 140 sales, an increase of 32 per cent.

The average price in Kitchener rose 12.3 per cent to $278,825 on a year-over-year basis. In Cambridge, the average price jumped 16.3 per cent to $278,527.

The association’s report was issued a day after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that tighter rules for mortgage borrowers will be introduced in April. He described it as a measure to prevent a bubble in the housing market.
Under the new rules, effective April 19, borrowers will have to meet the standards for a five-year fixed-rate mortgage even if the interest they will pay initially is lower.

Compared month-over-month, seasonally adjusted home sales were down 2.8 per cent from the strong levels reported in December, giving a sign that the housing market could be already starting to cool in some regions.

Nearly half of the drop was linked to a slowdown in housing sales in Ontario.

“One car doesn’t make a parade, so a few more months of results showing a cooling trend will be required before talk of a Canadian housing bubble begins to fade,” said association chief economist Gregory Klump.

Klump suggested that Flaherty’s new plan and the harmonized sales tax, which replaces provincial sales taxes in Ontario and British Columbia on July 1, could encourage more Canadians to enter the market in the first half of the year.

“It could take until the second half of the year before a cooling trend becomes evident,” he said.

Resale homes were still drawing a stronger demand for January, with 170,199 listed homes on the Multiple Listing Service in Canada, a decline of 18 per cent over the same time last year, the report said.

The full story can be found online here.

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