With the construction holidays coming up, and a successful selling season, we’ll be taking a breather from blogging for the next month.
See you in September! 
Vacation time at Mar-vo
July 28th, 2009 · No Comments
→ No CommentsTags: mar-vo news
Moving Day in Montreal: a tradition
July 2nd, 2009 · No Comments
Wikipedia always surprises us with the kind of information you can find. Would you believe we found one on the “tradition” of moving in Montreal falls on Canada Day?
Check it out by clicking here.
→ No CommentsTags: mar-vo news
Happy Birthday, Canada!
July 1st, 2009 · No Comments
→ No CommentsTags: mar-vo news
Teranet – National Bank National Composite House Price Index™
June 25th, 2009 · No Comments
Accuracy in pricing homes is one of the bigger challenges in a real estate market in flux- it’s best to compare apples to apples than skew the results by comparing them to grapes.
This is the latest report on the price of homes that we get via newsletter, courtesy of the Teranet-National Bank. If you would like to subscribe to this news service as well, drop them a line by visiting www.housepriceindex.ca. Enjoy!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Of the six constituent city indices, three were down from a year earlier: Vancouver (−10.9%), Calgary (−9.8%) and Toronto (−7.6%). Three cities held out against 12-month deflation, though with marked deceleration of their 12-month rises: Montreal (2.4%), Ottawa (0.6%) and Halifax (0.2%). The 12-month price increase in Halifax was the first since January. Calgary prices have been correcting for well over a year now, since August 2007, and are now down 13.3% from the peak of that month. Calgary has shown monthly declines in 17 of the 20 months posted since then, including the 10 consecutive months from last July through April.Vancouver prices have also shown 10 straight monthly declines and are down 11.9% from peak. Toronto prices have declined eight months in a row and are 11.3% below peak. In Ottawa the downtrend is less pronounced: prices have declined in each of the six months since the October peak and are now down a cumulative 4.8%. Halifax and Montreal prices were up from the previous month in both March and April and are now only 1.7% and 1.4% below their respective peaks.
Teranet – National Bank House Price Index™
The historical data of the Teranet – National Bank House Price Index™ is available at www.housepriceindex.ca.
The Teranet–National Bank House Price Index™ is estimated by tracking observed or registered home prices over time using data collected from public land registries. All dwellings that have been sold at least twice are considered in the calculation of the index. This is known as the repeat sales method; a complete description of the method is given at www.housepriceindex.ca The Teranet–National Bank House Price Index™ is an independently developed representation of average home price changes in six metropolitan areas: Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax. The national composite index is the weighted average of the six metropolitan areas. The weights are based on aggregate value of dwellings as retrieved from the 2006 Statistics Canada Census. According to that census1, the aggregate value of occupied dwellings in the metropolitan areas covered by the indices was $1.168 trillion, or 53% of the Canadian aggregate value of $2.207 trillion. All indices have a base value of 100 in June 2005. For example, an index value of 130 means that home prices have increased 30% since June 2005.
|
→ No CommentsTags: Acheteurs · Crunching Numbers · Home Sellers · Home buyers · Vendeurs · mar-vo news
Bonne St-Jean-Baptiste!
June 22nd, 2009 · No Comments
→ No CommentsTags: Not real estate related · mar-vo news
GMREB: Sales Increase for the First Time in Seven Months
June 17th, 2009 · No Comments
Île-des-Sœurs, June 16, 2009 MLS® sales in the Montréal Metropolitan Area increased by 8 per cent in May 2009 compared to May 2008, with single-family homes leading the way at 13 per cent, reported the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board. Property prices also continued their upward trend, as the median price of a single-family home grew by 3 per cent.
“Consumer confidence, which is at its highest level since July 2008, largely explains this increase in sales,” said Michel Beauséjour, FCA, Chief Executive Officer of the GMREB. “In May, 55 per cent of Québecers said that now is a good time to make a major purchase, such as a property, compared to 38 per cent in April. There are three factors that affect the real estate market – consumer confidence, interest rates, which are at historically low levels, and job creation,” he added.
All property categories registered an increase in sales in May 2009 compared to May 2008. Single-family homes delivered the strongest performance with 2,959 transactions, an increase of 13 per ent. Plex sales grew by 3 per cent and condominium sales by 2 per cent.
In terms of prices, the median price of single-family homes and condominiums increased by 3 per cent in May 2009 compared to the same month last year, while that of plexes grew by 2 per cent.
“This is good news; not only is the market more active, but prices are also continuing to increase,” said Mr. Beauséjour. “This confirms that Montréal real estate remains a solid investment and has certainly contributed to the increase in consumer confidence.”
All geographic areas experienced an increase in sales in May 2009 compared to the same month last year. The South Shore had the largest increase, at 13 per cent. Sales on the North Shore increased by 8 per cent, while the Island of Montréal, Vaudreuil-Soulanges and Laval registered increases of 7, 5 and 4 per cent, respectively.
As at May 31, 2009, the number of active listings on the MLS® system increased by 6 per cent in comparison with the same date last year.
About the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board
The Greater Montréal Real Estate Board is a non-profit organization that brings together most of the real estate brokers and agents who work in the Greater Montréal area. With close to 10,000 members, it is the second largest board in Canada. Its mission is to actively promote and protect its members’ professional and business interests in order for them to successfully meet their business objectives and maintain their predominance in the real estate industry.
For June 2009 statistics charts, click here .
For year-to-date statistics charts, click here .
→ No CommentsTags: Acheteurs · Crunching Numbers · Home Sellers · Home buyers · Vendeurs · mar-vo news
Open House- Visite Libre! Fabreville maison à étages
June 5th, 2009 · No Comments
→ No CommentsTags: Acheteurs · Fabreville & Ste-Rose · Home buyers · mar-vo news
Demystifying the MLS
June 5th, 2009 · No Comments
It’s something every home buyer and seller comes across: MLS- short for Multiple Listing Service. 
En français, c’est la SIA, ou Service Inter-Agences. You’re bound to see it less because it’s now morphed into a consumer service online, since renamed Realtor.ca. But did you know it first started out as a tool for real estate agents to keep track of and price homes according to market statistics?
What is it, and what makes it so special? Click here to read a great summary of the MLS and its usefulness when buying and selling real estate. Enjoy!
Looking to buy or sell a home? Contact one of our agents today at info@mar-vo.com for a chat!
Source: The Financial Post
→ No CommentsTags: Acheteurs · Home Sellers · Home buyers · Vendeurs · mar-vo news
Non-news: Real estate agents think now is a great time to buy for first timers.
April 14th, 2009 · No Comments
Oh, the non-irony of this headline. It made us LOL.
Time is right for first-time homebuyers, experts say
You can access the article here.
Who are the experts? The heads of major real estate agencies, and bank economists. Not to say they aren’t right. It is definitely a great time to get your feet wet. Now that consumer confidence is going up (read: once the dust settled, people are less afraid of being laid off) we’ve been noticing a marked difference in buyers’ attitudes towards home ownership. They aren’t as hesitant to put an offer in! Of course, the world is their oyster, what with more homes competing against one another on the market.
If you’d like to try to get in, email us at info@mar-vo.com, and we’ll refer you to a competent buyer’s agent ready to take you by the hand throughout the process.
→ No CommentsTags: Acheteurs · Home buyers
Before & After: L’Aquila, Italy
April 7th, 2009 · No Comments
before:
and after:
All this during Catholic Easter week. 
There is something you can do to help out, whether you’re Italian or not. A group of Italian Montrealers are meeting to come up with plans to send aid to the earthquake victims. You may want to join them!
7:30 p.m. tonight at the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre, 8350 Lacordaire Blvd. in St.Léonard. For more information, call 514-279-6357.
Donations can also be made to The Red Cross.
Source: Gazette