Most BC property owners will have received their new updated BCAA Property Valuation and most will notice another decrease from the last year. This notice reflects the value effective last July 1, 2013 and is already 6 months out of date when you receive it. Of course the assessor is generally unaware and your notice does not account for any significant improvements, additions (without permit), mechanical, structural or other problems or deferred maintenance (i.e. leaky roof). Strata issues including Special Assessments (arising with increasing frequency from now legislated depreciation reports) are also not typically accounted for.

If you have not received or are curious about the assessed value of any BC property simply go to e-valueBC. For a

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Sales in November slowed to only 412* compared to October’s 512 sales as expected with normal seasonal slowdown and remained higher than November of 2012’s 366 sales. We can expect to see the downtrend in sales volume until we pass through the holiday season when sales will of course increase. Important to note is the continuing downward trend in supply as the total number of active listings continued its decline to only 4,017 at the end of November compared to 4,488 at the end of November last year. Contrary to general belief, right now and early in the new year is a great time to buy or sell as there is less competition in selling than in the spring and also those who are trying to sell are typically more serious about selling. *Note: The Victoria Real…

The Neal Estate Team is a proud supporter and participant of Bear Wear starting the holiday season off every year at the Hotel Grand Pacific to raise money for the Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island . The Foundation provides financial assistance for programs, equipment & services that support the health and well-being of children and youth in need and their families on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Last year's Bears raised an amazing $25,297! We went all out this year to reach our goal of exceeding last year's amount raised. Bears are purchased, dressed, displayed, and voted for. All votes get entered into a raffle and the winner gets to take home their favorite dressed bear and everything displayed with it! The Neal Estate Team

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November 1, 2013 Strong October Kicks off Fourth Quarter Real Estate Sales in Greater Victoria VICTORIA, BC–Greater Victoria continued to experience strong home sales during the month of October, reports the Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB). According to the Board’s MLS® System, 512 properties sold compared to 373 in October 2012, an increase of 37.27 per cent. There were 4,322 active listings. “While we are all very pleased with the October results, we are tempering our enthusiasm,” says, Board President. “After a slow market for the last half of 2012, we are still climbing back to previous annual sales numbers.” Today, the VREB and joins the Canadian Real Estate Association and ten major real estate markets in Canada by adopting a new approach to the

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You don’t have to look very far to see media reports predicting real estate bubbles bursting and other doom and gloom, that’s how they sell their news in turn enabling the sale of advertising and generating revenue. They HAVE to make it as attention getting as they can! Extremely the other way, in my view the real estate boards, Canadian Real Estate Association, CMHC and other public bodies sugar coat the truth often, mostly out of responsible and realistic concern that if they told you what they really think it would lead to mass panic, whether prices were seen to be on the rise or on the fall. You don’t see any of them ever predict a decline in prices and they even seem reluctant to talk about drops that have already clearly occurred! Last month for

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Last week we hosted our 28th RE/MAX Canada Conference here in sunny and beautiful (and a bit foggy) Victoria. It was attended by over 400 of the finest RE/MAX agents from across Canada and even a few friends from the USA. I attended every session I was able to (some breakouts leave you wanting to be in more than one place at the same time) which included Effective Social Media Marketing, Apps For Business, Understanding Generational Differences, Terry Bradshaw, former NFL superstar quarterback, spoke and was inspiring, as was our RE/MAX Founder Dave Liniger.

I personally hosted events outside of the formal agenda including a very well attended cocktail party for about 200 visiting friends in the lower level of Milestones directly on the Inner

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Finally we have a HPI (Housing Price Index) available for Greater Victoria Region. Officially being released November 1, 2013 in our market and available since 2009 in several other major markets, the housing price index tracks value of typical examples of various types of housing in major markets across Canada. It works much like the CPI (Consumer Price Index) giving a statistically truer representation of shifts in values over time. Comparing to the historic reporting of average (and median) prices which can vary considerably from month to month and are more a representation of consumer buying power than the actual prices of real estate. To put some perspective on that, over the past few years I’ve seen prices drop far more than indicated by our real

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Surprisingly, as it hasn’t been big in our media, the incidence of defaulting mortgages here in Victoria has been somewhat extreme over the past couple years, extreme relative to the number during the time of our rising prices and seller’s market through 2007 leading up to the global financial crisis. I don’t have an exact count, but from my own observations and speaking with lawyers specializing in the sale of foreclosed properties we have had somewhere in the range of about 60-100 monthly over the past year for just Greater Victoria. That represents somewhere between 15-20% of our sale volume by my rough estimate. That volume does seem to be on the decline now, attributable to the markets turn towards more balanced conditions over the past 6 months. I…

Sales continued stronger than this time last year with a recent wave of buyers who were anxiously getting into homes before their preapproved interest rate holds expired avoiding the recent jump from 2.99% to 3.59% for best 5 year mortgage rates. By my calculations the increase results in a 7.3% increase in cost and decrease in borrowing power for those dependent on the security of a 5 year fixed rate(a requirement for all with less than 20% down). Although rates increased, the "CMHC Benchmark Qualifiying Rate" has held steady so far at 5.34%. For those comfortable with a variable rate Prime minus 0.4% or 2.6% is still the best rate available. Sales may slow some for the next couple of months as there was a rush to purchase by those preapproved buyers

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	Sept 2013	Sept 2012
Net Unconditional Sales:	487	419
New Listings:	1,106	1,210
Active Listings:	4,547	5,025