COVID and the housing market

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Glenn/RZ500 said:
In 2005 I bought a end unit townhouse,2+2, garage and huge back yard onto a greenspace. Paid 179K in the south end of Barrie, off Mapleview W. I sold it three years later, a bit of a quick close based on a work transfer I wanted, got 15 grand over my purchase price. I`ve noticed here in Kawartha Lakes that construction has seriously slowed, towns, semi`s and single homes were asking from about 650 to well over 1M. Still insanity. I look at listings most days, very little activity, any listing that disappears has likely been pulled, once in a while one reappears, the pics have feet of snow on the lawns. 🙃
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Zolo is a decent site for tracking listings and sales. It tells you if it was taken down or sold and tracks price history.
 
raginduck said:
I'm pretty sure the agent on 1 of the homes intentionally priced it a little low.. but not the other 2.
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Still battles for the few special houses (desirable, priced right, etc).

Congrats. I assume this means you are leaving Brampton in your rearview mirror shortly? Did you manage to find a house with some land?
 
GreyGhost said:
That has been happening for years. Townhouses outside Barrie were selling for 1.3M at the peak (absolute insanity). A few years later, builders were selling the new ones for 850 or so (still insane imo). Watching listings come up in that subdivision it is very clear that many of the buyers were "investors" (cough, speculators) as multiple properties get listed at insane prices, don't sell and then get delisted all on the same days with the same realtor. Multiply that drop by two, three or four properties and you could get wiped out. No more bragging to your friends about what a genius real estate investor you are. People that bought multiples probably have some assets for builders to go after if they fail to close. I have no problem with speculators taking an ass-kicking (even if it goes all the way to bankruptcy). I do feel a little bad for people that wanted a place to live and got swept away by fomo.
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Hmmm. Is there any reason, considering how the pre-build contracts get written that the developer can't create a back door scam if the market tanks.

1) The developer gets a 20% deposit

2) If sales tank near completion he drops the price making the bank deny the mortgage on the 80% balance. A bunch of buyers can't close and either get sued for the whole loss or negotiate a settlement, giving the developer a bit more money. Selling at 40% off the list could only cost the developer 15% when the deposit and settlement money is factored in.

I'm not a prebuild buyer. Contracts basically say, "If you don't like the terms and conditions please leave."
 
nobbie48 said:
Hmmm. Is there any reason, considering how the pre-build contracts get written that the developer can't create a back door scam if the market tanks.

1) The developer gets a 20% deposit

2) If sales tank near completion he drops the price making the bank deny the mortgage on the 80% balance. A bunch of buyers can't close and either get sued for the whole loss or negotiate a settlement, giving the developer a bit more money. Selling at 40% off the list could only cost the developer 15% when the deposit and settlement money is factored in.

I'm not a prebuild buyer. Contracts basically say, "If you don't like the terms and conditions please leave."
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I don't think they need to play games like that. For houses that sold at high price, builder will do everything in their power not to give buyers a way out. For remaining inventory, sell it at a price that moves quickly to get your money out and then on to the next project.

I'm slightly surprised they haven't run a reverse auction tbh. Start at a price and it drops by $2000 a day until someone jumps on it. Try to get greedy and wait to save more money and you may miss it. Maximizes the money coming in and isn't too hard to do. I'm not sure if that violates any RE laws though.
 
GreyGhost said:
Still battles for the few special houses (desirable, priced right, etc).

Congrats. I assume this means you are leaving Brampton in your rearview mirror shortly? Did you manage to find a house with some land?
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That was it.. all 3 were stand outs amongst the rest...
Yep.. to the outskirts of Georgetown.. but still have to drive through Brampton a couple of times a week.
 
GreyGhost said:
I don't think they need to play games like that. For houses that sold at high price, builder will do everything in their power not to give buyers a way out. For remaining inventory, sell it at a price that moves quickly to get your money out and then on to the next project.

I'm slightly surprised they haven't run a reverse auction tbh. Start at a price and it drops by $2000 a day until someone jumps on it. Try to get greedy and wait to save more money and you may miss it. Maximizes the money coming in and isn't too hard to do. I'm not sure if that violates any RE laws though.
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Dutch Auction. Drop the price weekly, daily, whatever works. You snooze you lose.
 
Friends of ours listed their house 4 months ago...still zero bites outside of a conditional offer 'I sell my condo for what I want, and then I'll buy yours' type of clause in the only offer (and 350k less than asking).

Other friends listed their townhouse in Oakville...sold in a few hours. Not sure of selling price, but their buy price was higher than their listing by 200k.

That hurts regardless of how much you make.
 
House and a bit of property recently sold in my rural area.
House was on the market for months. Finally sold 300k below asking price.
 
Our area still has “I hope it happens” pricing . Trying to get what they paid out of the house , reality will be a couple hundred less in most cases . Unless it’s a lake house , then ask whatever you want .


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A microcosm of many municipalities. Spending like drunken sailors until they are bankrupt.

Then residents complain about how unfair it is that their property taxes are so high to cover the money being spent. Less than 500 residents (387 households), at least 5 admin staff, quite a few more staff that do more than paper (fire, garbage, dump, water, sewer, etc), $2.5M deficit ($7000/household), largest employer in the area, trying to build new $2.3M municipal office. Complete bs crazy. The budget has to balance.

Taxpayers can't afford to be the largest employer in the region. The fallout is property taxes really need to double. An interim 20% tax bump has many crying. They can't sell their properties for what they want as buyers know the stink and are only interested in fire sale prices.

toronto.citynews.ca

'Very unfair': Property taxes up 20 per cent in cash-strapped Ontario township

Tammy Daigle has spent more than half of her life in the rural, northern Ontario community of Fauquier-Strickland, focusing on her family and rarely thinking about the small town’s finances. But that changed in July when the township announced it was in a financial crisis with a $2.5-million...
toronto.citynews.ca toronto.citynews.ca
 
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That Toronto Star article is hilarious, in an interview one resident says , the province just lets us run the place under , they don’t watch what we do . Really bud? Like it’s some sort of babysitting service ? And it’s been going downhill for a decade , so now we form a concerned citizens group . It’s not like a municipal budget is top secret , show some interest.


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crankcall said:
That Toronto Star article is hilarious, in an interview one resident says , the province just lets us run the place under , they don’t watch what we do . Really bud? Like it’s some sort of babysitting service ? And it’s been going downhill for a decade , so now we form a concerned citizens group . It’s not like a municipal budget is top secret , show some interest.


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If everybody you know is employed by the municipality, red lights should be flashing. While I can't find an actual number of staff, there have to be at least 10. Total cost per employee must be over 100k. That's about $3k (or more) per household in tax just for staff. Most houses were paying close to that total.

Like most reserves, having a water and sewer system for that few people is an economic disaster and not viable.
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