Paul of Green Gables
Regular readers will recognize the name Paul Boenisch as the North Vancouver realtor who provided daily market stats on his blog. As many of you know, Paul and his family moved to to the other coast recently, and he now has a new blog focusing on the Prince Edward Island real estate market.
It’s an interesting contrast to our market- check out the average sales price chart he’s posted that covers the last four years. They started 2006 with an average residential sales price of $120k, and peaked just above $160k.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/05/magaz…
July 4th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
The I.R.A.C program only applies to properties over 5 acres so if you wanted to buy a house on a lot in Charlottetown the program would not apply.
I was told the program was designed to stop people from away coming in and buying up cheap land for the sole purpose of subdividing for profit
July 4th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Those rules about buying might infringe on the Charter:
(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right
(a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and
(b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.
Limitation
(3) The rights specified in subsection (2) are subject to
(a) any laws or practices of general application in force in a province other than those that discriminate among persons primarily on the basis of province of present or previous residence; and
(b) any laws providing for reasonable residency requirements as a qualification for the receipt of publicly provided social services.
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#ancho…
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:42 am
Unemployment numbers continue to increase dashing the BS of 'green shoots' from the deniers. As usual CDN info not public.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/loses+jobs+J…
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:11 am
MOI 3.3? Wow how quickly things can change. That very bullish.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:08 am
Thanks for the post Pope!
We just bought a great house in arguably the most desirable (most expensive anyways) area of Charlottetown (Brighton) for 330k. It very nice and in N Van in, say Edgemont Village would run about 1.2M.
We're gonna reno the basement and put in a pool table wire in a surround sound ent. center. It's nice to be able to afford a HOUSE and some luxuries that we're out of reach for us in Vancouver.
My mom got a a great home with a huge barn, 55 acres and even a horse stable for 180k. They are in the process of getting horses.
The only bad things I have noticed is the lack of decent paying jobs and the colder winters. I personally am looking forward to a wicked winter storm but I wouldn't move here without a job or a swollen bank account.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:27 am
My tally of REBGV numbers for June is in. REBGV stats usually have a small deviation from my data due to sales that did not complete as initially recorded. All credit for these numbers goes to Gavin Hughes for publishing daily MLS sales, listings and price information at http: http://www.nvcondos.ca .
Clearly sales this month were very strong, and the flood of listings has not appeared. Inventory has been slowly declining for the past two months and MOI is heading back toward 2007 levels. Nevertheless, SFH average prices dropped even in the face of strong sales and decreasing inventory which is contrary to past trends. As usual, the wait now begins for the REBGV to publish their benchmarks. I'd expect to see these by July 3.
Listings: 5227 (-21% yoy) (+10% mom)
Sales: 4298 (72% yoy) (+22% mom)
Sell/List: 82% (44 pp yoy) (+8 pp mom)
MOI: 3.3 (-57% yoy) (-21% mom)
Actives: 14,357 (-26% yoy) (-4% mom)
Avg Price SFH: $817,230 (-9.6% yoy) (-1.7% mom) (-11.2% from peak)
Avg Price Condo: $417,849 (-3.7% yoy) (0.0% mom) (-7.2% from peak)
Median Price SFH: $672,864
Median price Condo: $364,824
This post, along with sales and listings graphs on real estate talks at: http://www.realestatetalks.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&…
July 1st, 2009 at 12:44 am
We sold our house in Abbotsford on a small lot for $520K in May 2008 and have been renting since, the farm we bought in PEI has a nice 4 bedroom house and a shop barns and chicken coup the farm has 130 acres of land and we paid $120,000 cash no mortgage. Bubble money in PEI can go along way!
June 30th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
"There are downsides to living in PEI which you should consider:
http://www.restaurantica.com/p…..n/c-sushi/&quo…
Opportunity knocks!
June 30th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
My wife and I drove to the East coast in the Fall of 2007 loved it. PEI in particular is beautiful and we decided we wanted to move.
Took my full 3 week vacation from work this year and went back to PEI in May this time looking for a house we ended up buying a farm 10 mins from Summerside, my wife and I are both from the lower mainland and we do not have any relatives out East,but we do have some new friends that we met there last time and look forward to seeing again.
Their are some differences in buying real estate in PEI that apply to buyers from BC we found out:
If you are from away and want to purchase acreage on PEI you must apply to a gov. program called I.R.A.C. which costs 1% of the purchase price and takes up to two month they do a back ground check and ask questions about you, and your intentions with the property also if you intend to live in the house or rent it then give the yes or no. This applys to anything over 5 acres or a certain amount of feet of waterfront the property has
The property transfer tax in PEI is 1% of the purchase price or 1% of the assesed value which ever is higher, also
Every new listing must be for sale 60 days before a person from away can buy it, so locals have first chance to buy it
A person that moves to PEI becomes a Islander after living on PEI for six month and then IRAC does not apply to future purchases of real estate
My wife and I have two small children and PEI seems like a much better place to raise our family, we talked to alot of other former BC residents on the Island that love it. The move is a bit scary and we will have to see how the winter goes but it should be fun anyways
A
June 30th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
People in PEI would probably regard you as eccentric if you moved there with no job lined up and no personal connections. Unless you're rich and retiring.
In a place like this, its who you know, always. Maybe you could start your own business if you want to risk your own money. Start the first sushi restaurant?
June 30th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
The funny thing is that typically one would immediately thing (considering living in PEI) "yeah, but what would you do there to earn any money?" However, isn't that people ask of Vancouver given the dearth of multi-nationals?
Having said all that, i'm just shooting from the hip cos i've never been on Canada's east coast.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
The first ime I was in PEI was in 1973. Loved the quiet, picturesque and charming atmosphere.
Last trip was in 2005. It has become much more developed/crowded, especially in and around Cavendish.
Very sad to see the "character" of the island changing with the times. Oh well…
Paul, Say "Hi" to the owner/manager of the Cavendish KOA. He is from PoCo!
June 30th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
"What a dream….a house for $160k…"
That's what I sold my Halifax house for in 2006.
There are downsides to living in PEI which you should consider:
http://www.restaurantica.com/pe/charlottetown/c-s…
June 30th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
And to think, these are houses too, not condos. The difference in prices is phenomenal. For the money some people are plunking down on shoeboxes in the sky in Yaletown, they could get two or three places over in PEI. The sooner this bubble bursts here, the happier I'll be. I can't imagine putting such a huge portion of one's earnings towards a mortgage, and having to forgo all the fun stuff like traveling, gadgets, concerts, etc. That just isn't living. =/
Anyway, it's great to see Paul's still doing his thing. I used to love reading his stats when he was still over this way.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I've just taken a quick look around the PEI MLS and am shaking
my head.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Just took a look at MLS listings in Charlottetown…makes me want to cry, the most expensive house is $630k :s
Packing my bags….
June 30th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
What a dream….a house for $160k…
Dream on, eh?
June 30th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Tell me more, I am almost ready to move there!