Selling the Rock

Hey Sudbury, it is getting COLD outside! 🥶

I was driving home from a date night with my wife last night and we had snow pelting the car as we were headed down the highway. With halloween just over a week away, I hope all your little trick-or-treeters are excited and getting their costumes in order. I know I am looking forward to our Halloween fun day with Kivi park happening tomorrow from 11am - 3pm! Again this year we donated 500 pumpkins that will be hid all over the park for families to hunt down and bring home. In addition to that there will be the spooky walk, s’mores station, family photos and so many more activities going on... and if you pop by our tent we’ll have a live carving demonstration, some fun halloween games for the kids and free treats and cotton candy. Its' a great local event to get the kids in the halloween mood! If you do make it out I hope you pop by our tent and say hello! 🎃

On the real estate front we saw sales stay flat with a small drop in the listings! Tune in for this week's crazy transactions and trends!🎧

Housing Market Stats
https://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/

Garth Turners the Greatest Fool
https://www.greaterfool.ca/

Hey Sudbury, hope you guys are feeling as stuffed as I am after a full weekend of Turkey and family last week.  We are back in the routine with the family this week, all 3 boys are in hockey and keeping us super busy at the rink. After a long hiatus from the rink I put the old goalie skates on to help with my youngest Benjamin this last week.  We spent the entire hour working on trying to have 3 year old kids get up on their skates by them selves, and we were somewhat successful.  By the end of the hour there were fewer tears and I think I may have even seen a smile.  This is one of the best feelings about being in a smaller community when the friends and neighbours all come out with their kids at the local rink, it brings back a familiar feeling, one that we missed out on last year.

On the real estate front we saw an uptick in listings and a slow down in sales for the first time in a long while. I was predicting for the last few weeks that sales would spike as the winter market is around the corner but we weren’t seeing it play out in the stats as we had initially predicted...

Tune in for this week's crazy transactions and trends!🎧

Have questions about the Sudbury real estate market? Let's chat! OH, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Youtube at:

https://www.instagram.com/lakecityrealtyltd/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZuw8g9HAaNEdL2XvheGPw
https://www.facebook.com/LakeCityRealtyLTD

Hey Sudbury,

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! We are wishing everyone a wonderful weekend filled with friends, family and food!

As far as the Sudbury housing market...Tune in to find out this week's most shocking trends and transactions! 🎧

Have questions about the Sudbury real estate market? Let's chat! OH, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Youtube at:

https://www.instagram.com/lakecityrealtyltd/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZuw8g9HAaNEdL2XvheGPw
https://www.facebook.com/LakeCityRealtyLTD

Hey Sudbury,

🎃Can you believe its October 1st today! Fall in Sudbury is one of the most amazing times of the year! Especially when we have crisp sunny fall like we have had in the last few days, not the dreary wet cold fall days that started the changing of the season.  It’s shocking that thanksgiving weekend is just a week away. It’s the unofficial closing weekend of all camps in Sudbury, time to take in the dock, the boat and close up camps until next year! It was also a week that saw the first ever ‘National day of Truth and Reconciliation’.  It is crazy to think of the devastation that was caused by residential schools, as a parent with young kids myself, I can’t wrap my head around having my kids taken away from me, let alone having decades of it happening over and over again.  It was pretty cool to have my middle child (grade one) come home and tell me why they are wearing Orange Shirts and the meaning behind it.

🍁On a national level the liberals are settling into parliament again, and with a lot of the same on the horizon in terms of the makeup of the government, there is some very interesting new housing initiatives that they will be implementing. The highlight being the new savings account for first time home buyers.  An account that combines the tax benefits of an RRSP as well as the tax growth of a TFSA. This new account will be especially interesting for parents of young future buyers who I can see leveraging this account in a big way.  The governments continued creative fuelling of the housing market is going to continue to push prices up in the short term.

As far as the Sudbury housing market...Tune in to find out this week's most shocking trends and transactions! 🎧

Have questions about the Sudbury real estate market? Let's chat! OH, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Youtube at:

https://www.instagram.com/lakecityrealtyltd/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZuw8g9HAaNEdL2XvheGPw
https://www.facebook.com/LakeCityRealtyLTD

🤔This was an interesting week for sales versus new listings. Weekly, we have been seeing more sales than listings, but with this latest drop again in sales and new listings staying flat we are almost on par with sales being equal to new listings, which would bring us more into a balanced market.

📉Despite how slow the week was with only 40 sales, 65% of them were in multiple offers. We have seen bidding wars spread between 50% at a low to a high of 80% (for number of bidding wars in any given week). With these numbers we are in the middle of the range, but it is higher than we have seen in the most recent few weeks, which shows buyers are feeling a bit rushed with the thought of moving in with the snow looming.

🤨The other big surprise this week was the number of total listings, dropping down again, this time into the mid 150’s.  The last time we saw listings this low was around April Fools which shows me that we have seen the peak in listing volume that we expect in a spring/summer marketplace. Moving forward we will most likely follow the path we saw over the winter last year of bottoming out just over 100 total listings, as we expect the seasonality to return to the market. What does this mean for buyers? If you are expecting to see a whole bunch of options as you're searching, you will most likely be disappointed. A lack of listings is one of the biggest factors that have led to the increases in housing prices. If the volume continues similar to last year, we could be primed for another bump in average sale price.

💰One of the most frustrating thing in this marketplace for me as an agent is "the underpriced listing".  I’m so used to seeing it, we know the listing agents who are consistently guilty of it; and sure it may work as a strategy for their sellers, so all the power to them, but when we are shopping with buyers there is nothing more frustrating. Just this morning I am touring a first time buyer around a few homes in a first time buyer price range. There’s a new place that just hit the market, photos look amazing, cute as a button and the price is super reasonable! After walking thru the home, I was honest with her that I believe the place will sell at least 100k above where it's listed at, and in all reality probably closer to 120k above the asking price! The frustration lies in the fact that there are already limited homes to see in her budget, and the one that she gets her hopes up for most is the most unrealistic that will be an option in her price range. This is what gets people upset with Realtors and the housing market in general. Again, I understand this is a strategy that can work out best for sellers, as it sparks chaos and may result in people paying more than they would have rationally paid for the place. But this is the reason people hate Realtors.

❄️Where does the market go from here? We see the slow down is happening with market activity. It's playing out week to week with the fewer sales and even reduced listings. I’ve talked about it a few times in the past, about how the listings will see an uptick as we have a last push before the winter market; but even with that we won’t see a return to the chaos of the spring market. The big unknown in the market may be attached to the upcoming election just 10 days away. Each parties platform is unique and has a way of shaping some changes in the housing market; mostly in a positive way for investors and buyers. Politicians are meandering to the public, that is looking to make it easier to jump in the housing market. This at the expense of longer amortizations, artificial interest rates and government incentives.  This is a great thing in the short term, but can have some negative effects in the long term if people are taking on more debt than what is reasonable.

🏡Sales are flat and listings are up, all good news for buyers who are refreshing their realtor.ca app daily looking to see if any of those new listings check the boxes for their dream home.  

👀Not only did we see more listings than sales (quite significantly this week) but the total listings jumped again this week to 205. This is the first week since I’ve tracked the statistics that we have ever hit over 200 listings. Way back at the beginning of the year I predicted a healthy spring market would see listings in the 175 range; this was even more than I could ever have predicted. With the increase in supply, it is a double-edged sword, as the sellers who have finally decided to list to experience ‘the crazy bidding wars’ may find that not every house is experiencing the same attention from buyers. 

❤️We talk often about ‘like versus love’ properties and how the ones that feel like they are out of a magazine are getting the most attention from buyers and the highest offers on bidding day. This is a perfect example this week where we saw 3 homes sell for over a Million. 2 of them being waterfront homes, and the third just a really nice house with a pool in Moonglow. It is crazy to think that a couple of years ago we were lucky to see 3 houses in an entire year sell for 1M+ and this week we saw 3 sell, and 5 more listings hit the market with that price point. 

🌊Chad on our team does a weekly newsletter called Waterfront Wednesdays; where we recap the waterfront market, review new listings and sales and try to cover something unique to waterfront homes (shore road allowance, lake water systems, SLS zoning, etc…). I remember chatting with Chad a few weeks ago when he was scrambling as there were a total of 3 waterfront homes available in all of Sudbury and the surrounding areas. As I sit here writing this we currently have 28 waterfront homes available; 12 of which have popped up in the last 7 days. I am showing a bunch of them later on this afternoon and the conversation I had with my buyer looking is ‘wow what’s going on with all the waterfront listings’. With May 24 weekend upon us, this weekend we are at the unofficial start of summer and we typically see an increase in waterfront homes as of this weekend. Usually, it's encouraged by couples enjoying friends' homes and camps on the lake, and they get excited about the prospect of enjoying that life for themselves. I remember it happening to my wife and I, 6 years ago, and shortly after we had our dream spot on the lake!

🤔My overall feeling for the marketplace is that there is a disconnect between the numbers and the activity that is happening. We see more listings coming out, which should pump the breaks on the activity and put power back into the hands of the buyers. That doesn’t seem to be happening, I think some of it is the mindset that buyers are in. They wanted to be moving into their home for the Summer, and they were prepared to buy in the spring market. Finding themselves in the heart of the spring market, they are ok to pay the premiums if it means they get the house in the timeline they want. In a typical year, we would find the spring market slow down at the end of June when kids are out of school and parents take their holidays to go camping and travelling. In our second COVID summer, we won’t be doing much travelling, so I don’t see lifestyle causing a slowdown in the market but the continued increase in supply has to work its way into slowing down the market eventually. That being said...don’t expect a drop off a cliff! Expect an easing into a slowdown in the marketplace. 

I am so excited to enjoy some family time this weekend. We have golf courses opening back up, sports facilities, and tennis courts too for anyone looking to get their sweat on! I love the May long weekend, and I hope you are enjoying it with your family bubble in a safe and fun way!

📉It was interesting to see the drop in sales from 72 last week to 64 this week. It also translated to a drop in new listings from 85 to 78. We aren’t quite in the ‘unofficial’ spring marketplace (May 24 weekend is typically seen as the start of the spring market). I wonder if we have peaked or will continue to rise as we head towards next week.

📍Having New Listings outpace Sales again this week continues to put power back in the hands of buyers. With these increase in listings continuing we inch our way closer to 200 total listings available in the Sudbury market (up to 190 little red dots on realtor.ca this week versus 188 last week). 

🏡Looking through the multiple offers this week, it was interesting to find that there weren’t many that were jaw-dropping 100k+ over the listing price but it seemed like the average $ over listing price was quite a bit higher than what we had seen the last few weeks. Typically we were seeing 25-35k over list price with a few outliers that were 6 figures above. This week we saw a lot of 50k above the asking price. I wonder if the market is just more active or if buyers are paying spring prices to get the properties they really want. 

📅I was reflecting on this week's numbers and it seems like we are mirroring the real estate market exactly a year ago where we started to see a comeback in the marketplace after the initial wave and uncertainty of what COVID was going to do to the real estate marketplace. After the initial lockdowns (1 year+ ago) we were in the teen’s or lower # of sales on a weekly basis up until this week in 2020 when sales ticked up into the mid-30s. Today we sit double that this week with almost 2,600 homes sold in the last year. As we prepare to extend the lockdown until early June, it is amazing to reflect on how some things are so different but yet so much is still the same. 

🤔In my summary bullet point, I like to predict...where do we go from here? Well, we are one week away from May 24 weekend, and I’ve been wearing shorts the last few days as the weather has hit 20+ and sunny constantly. The number of listings has slowed as we inch our way closer to 200 available homes in Sudbury, which gives buyers selection while at the same time the marketplace remains extremely strong. Prices seem to continue to be strong, although the growth rate seems to have slowed compared to what it was a few months ago. I think we are seeing the levelling off of that growth, which is spurred by increased supply and rates which should be on the rise in the near future. If this happens it would be a very big positive for Sudbury! Prices rise but not as crazy as some of the cities to our South (despite what the trolls on our Facebook Ads may say) we are still affordable as a city here. 

One week away from May 24; I hope you guys are able to enjoy yourselves as camps start to open up and we start to enjoy the beautiful Northern Ontario Summer! That's dips in the lake, boat rides, and bonfires! I couldn’t picture a better way to socially distance than that!

Until Next Week Sudbury!

From a local real estate perspective...wow, it was an active week for sales. Sales in the last 7 days have only been matched 5 times in the last year! Pending deals continue to rise and new listings dropped from last week.

My 5 takeaways this week are:

💰Sales climbed again this week, pretty significantly over last week too. It was the 5th strongest week of sales we had over the last 12 months! 

🏡Despite the big week for sales, we still had more listings than sales this week. The new listings did drop over last week's # of new listings, but still outpacing the sales by a small amount. This continued increase will provide balance in the chaos of the marketplace, as long as we can keep the listing numbers > sales. 

🕐The pending deals are back up to levels we saw most of last year. This explains that buyers are able to get deals accepted with conditions (wow not every offer is a cash offer currently) and that the numbers for next week are already showing signs of strength from firm deals. If all the pending deals become firm we are almost at 20 deals already. 

🤔Multiple offers were close to 80% again this week. These numbers are off the chart compared to 2020 but it is a small pullback over last week.  

🏘I continue to think the market is shifting, and it feels that way. Now the next few months leading us into spring are going to be the indications of whether the market slows or if things continue to be chaotic. We had seen the # of total listings increase significantly over the last few weeks, but this week we levelled off. A healthy spring market would see 200+ listings on the market, and currently, we sit at 134. The biggest question that remains is, will the number of listings climb to 200, or shrink back down to 100? 

I hope you and your families are staying safe! For those who have shifted from a parent to an online teacher, I hope your patience is longer than mine. As for how our marketplace will transition into the spring selling season, it feels like we are at a crossroad in terms of what direction the marketplace will go; and the next few weeks will be very telling!

Until next week Sudbury,

This week saw the everyday trader rise up and ‘take the power back’ against the big corporate hedge funds. All starting in a public chat room on Reddit with the message boards describing the best way to rise up and save a dying video game company. The play to drive the stock price up was in retaliation to larger hedge funds placing massive bets on the stock going down; which would have happened if it wasn’t for the Reddit Keyboard warriors jumping in.

What a week, it seems so 2020/2021 for the internet to rise up and put the screw to the hedge fund managers. It shows the power of an online mob. What jumps out to me is now more than ever is, buying stocks (specifically individual stocks) is truly gambling. Even if you invest with strong fundamentals, it may have nothing to do with the stock price.

What does this have to do with real estate? I think it highlights the fact that even in a marketplace where house prices have skyrocketed, homes are a much safer investment. You can’t live in your stock portfolio but you do need a roof over your head.

On a local level, things aren’t great. It seems like every day brings a new school with a COVID outbreak. In the last 7 days there were 72 new cases; 10 of which are active, 5 in schools, 3 in long-term care homes, and one in a retirement home.

From a real estate perspective, we are seeing sales equal to what they were last week but the biggest shift was the decrease in conditional deals; there was a boost in sales this week by about 20%.

Tune in for this week's 5 biggest takeaways on Sudbury's marketplace! 🎧

Like, share, comment or message us! We'd love to know what your thoughts are! 💡

We are 2 weeks into the shutdown, and in a best case scenario, we are sitting with 3 weeks left. I find myself wondering what it was like to be able to go into a hardware store and pick out my own lumber or paint. With a lot of sellers delaying any thought of getting their home on the market until after the most recent shutdown, things are likely going to get worse for buyers in the market before they get better. 😓

Tune in to find out what you need to know if you are thinking about buying or selling in this crazy marketplace! 🎧

Welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock - Your local real estate podcast!

We are 2 weeks into 2021 and the wild ride that 2020 took us on seems to be continuing. The entire province is under a complete shut down (minus, Costco, Walmart, LCBO, Beer Store, Schools, etc…) but hey, I’m not complaining.

In the province, we are seeing cases in the mid-3000’s per day, and the prediction is if we continue with the current rate of the spread in the next 4 weeks we could be seeing 10k cases a day! As I sit here in my office, masked up and a big bottle of sanitizer next to me; I feel alone, with all staff and agents working from their homes. I just hopped off a team zoom call and am having deja-vu of March of 2020 when COVID first began.

From a real estate perspective, we are seeing listings and sales about equal this week but I feel that the numbers don’t do justice to what we are actually experiencing in the market...

Tune in and have a listen to my 5 biggest takeaways on Sudbury's real estate market this week! 

Don't forget to like & subscribe! If today's episode stood out to you, let's chat! Send us a message on socials!

Happy holidays...and welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock! This episode is EXTRA special...

It's our 2 year anniversary in the business! It took a lot longer than two years in thought and process to build what we've got here, but we've opened our doors for business just at the end of December in 2018!

Reflecting back on the idea of a brokerage, what was important to me at the time was creating, establishing and growing something from scratch. The idea of building something that my kids could point to one day and say, "Look what Dad did"...the idea of legacy played a huge role in the behind the scenes of what I've done.

2019 was an okay year. Our sales were basically flat year over year. We had some highs...and some lows. I remember reflecting on why our team hadn't grown in size and why our sales were the same year over year. Lake City Realty wasn't growing the way I had imagined. I thought that if I built something, people would just start approaching me saying, "Dave, I'm interested in joining your brokerage." Clearly that wasn't happening. As we rounded out 2019, we really dove into creating content. This podcast, Selling the Rock really fired away!

Shortly into 2020, we found ourselves in a big global pandemic. Everything was closing around us, leaving me with the uncertainty of how we would continue to function, grow and survive. I still remember wondering if I'd be able to sell another home in 2020. The government just announced another round of Province wide shut down...sure it's going to be a little bit less in the North, but it's another two week's where nothing can go on. Rounding into 2021...we have some interesting times ahead.

2020 was also a great year for our business - we grew in sales at about 5% and we did about 165 deals this year...which is fantastic! That's an increase of almost 10% year over year. We doubled the size of our team! The idea that if I built something, 'they' would come turned into more than an idea! Lake City Realty started with myself, Mike, Tristan and my Dad! This year we've had Kelly - my sister, Jennifer Brouillette and Chad Moore join our family!

The Content...we had done some content and started this podcast in November of last year, but the contents been on fire this year! One of my goals was to hire someone focused on content development and a media expert and we were able to find the perfect fit! 

Circling back, we wanted to build a real estate brand for the future - we know that consumers are looking for something different in 2030. We don't want to be the Kodaks of the world...I read the other day that Kodak developed the first digital camera 25 years before anybody else had developed one but they didn't put it out in the world because they didn't want to cannibalize their traditional sales. I think with me, I always want to push the boundaries and build the business that's going to succeed in 5, 10, 15, 25 years from now. 

So that's a little bit of a summary of what's gone on behind the scenes in 2020. We survived a global pandemic - so far. I can't be more blessed for the team I have around me! 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to my podcast and for the continued support from the community and from family and friends! 

Til' Next Time!

Welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock! We've got David Kurt and Chad Moore on the mic today to chat about the week! From a real estate perspective listings stayed pretty consistent week over week with last week, as we find ourselves in this pre-christmas lul; and sales actually stayed pretty strong outpacing new listings again this week by close to a third.

The listings and sales were about consistent with last week. We had chatted with getting to a point where we would hit the lul as we head into the Holidays and it appears this could be the numbers we are seeing hold as the slow market. If this does hold true, it could be a pretty strong holiday season. Compared to the the activity last year at this time we actually saw 28 sales during this same week 2019; which means we are busier than last years market as well.

The most surpising number this week is the number of active/pending sales. We saw a huge drop last week when we hit just 6 total deals that were pending and this week we launch that number back up to 20. This is a good sign for # of sales as we head into next week. One of the reasons we’ve pointed to the market continuing to be strong is the nicer weather, and despite headed to a snow storm apparently for Saturday; buyers are still seeming to be pounding the pavement looking for that perfect place before Christmas!

The number of multiple offers stayed really consistent this week again with closer to 50% of the sales being close to asking or above asking price. This has continued for the last few weeks, and it is interesting to think that even with the winter market upon us that their are homes that buyers are willing to get into a bidding frenzy over. The other interesting part of this is the value the sellers are putting on ‘cash’ offers. 

David was on a zoom meeting with some Realtors® this week and they were discussing the entry level market in Sudbury and the comment was made that soon enough there will be no listings under 300k; especially within the city. As he was preparing to show a buyer this weekend he saw this exact scenario playing out. Typically the discussion goes like this, “we want a house that doesn’t need too much work, we are ok doing cosmetics and we’d prefer to be in town, and no we won’t do a semi-detached”. There are a few listings that are priced just under the 300k but these prices are artificial with the likelihood that they will sell for a good chunk over the 300k price point.

We're having the conversations with people multiple times a day it appears; questioning if this winter dip is the start of a market cool down in general or will prices continue to go up. We don’t have the crystal ball and can’t predict the future. The biggest reasons for prices to continue to be stronger and quite a bit stronger next year are; it doesn’t appear that the supply will massively increase any time soon, rates will be remaining low for the foreseeable future which makes lending cheap, our properties may seem expensive to those who bought 5 or 10 years ago but to those people in Southern Ontario who are looking at coming north to enjoy this work-from-home shift we’ve become accustomed to it looks like our homes are on sale. The reasons that the market may have peaked include; the fact the government has artificially put rates as low as they can get them, they can’t go lower (house prices are typically inversely tied to lending rates), sure there are some buyers coming up from down south, but most of the buyers who wanted to escape their COVID-condos did so at the start of the pandemic, and people who have been financially hurt by COVID have been able to coast with CERB and deferring mortgages, 2021 will be the first time the government may not be there to stop the bleed.

Tune in for the whole week speel and let us know what your thoughts are! Til Next Week!

Happy Friday and welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock, your local real estate podcast! Today we have David Kurt and Chad Moore on the mic to chat about this week's 5 biggest takeaways!

The drop off of listings and sales is so predictable for this time of the year. But wow… Just wow… In just one week we went from 43 new listings which was already near the weekly lows for all of 2020; and this week we only were able to manage 27 new homes that became available. This is 1/3rd the number of a busy week in the summer (and even during these busy weeks the buyers were complaining about the lack of available homes). 

With the drop in listings; the interesting thing is that sales stayed consistent. This week we saw 43 sales with the weekly average being 44, so right on par with what we would expect. Sales nearly doubled the new listings this week! This is a leading indicator that available selection for buyers will continue to dry up; and if this trend continues, buyers will not appreciate the availability of homes continuing to decrease.

The multiple offers this week are pretty surprising as well. With almost 60% of the deals happening in multiple offers it feels like the active market may never end. My overall feeling for the last few months is that there are not as many first time buyers that are starting to look for homes in our marketplace. In addition to that, the number of buyers who are escaping Southern Ontario seem to have slowed down; especially for those looking for a principal ‘work-from home’ place. We have seen a strong amount of out of town investor buyers who are targeting Sudbury; but we are seeing strength in the Single Family housing market in addition to the multi-family marketplace.

Speaking of the multi-family marketplace; wow, things have been on fire with investment properties lately. This is where we have seen a lot of out of town buyers coming in droves to look at Sudbury as a viable option; compared to the prices they are seeing in Ottawa and the Golden Horseshoe markets down South. Price per units and capitalization rates, two criteria investors use to evaluate properties seem expensive to local investors; compared to what you could get a year ago, but compared to other marketplaces, Sudbury looks like it's on sale. 

For the last few months we've made the prediction that the market was slowing; thinking that as we head into the winter market, the buyers would choose to put their search on hold while those sellers that felt motivated would be forced to list and keep their home on the market in the holiday season. This has been partially true; the drop in listings reflects motivated sellers who will list, while others are holding off until after the holidays or the spring market. The anomaly thats hard to wrap our heads around is the number of sales that continues to be so strong. If these numbers continue, it almost feels like we are headed to a further price increase; something I didn't think we were going to see until mid-way through next year.

As we count down the days to Christmas, it is clear that this holiday will be one unlike any in recent memory. The family around the table will be much smaller in numbers, but ideally that’s what’s going to be required to get back to some version of normal in 2021. I remember almost a year ago at the on-set of the COVID shutdown projecting out how long this would last, thinking it was days or weeks and things would be back to normal. We are approaching a year, and there is a faint hope that 2021 may bring more optimism with a 3rd vaccine being discovered; but it still will remain some interesting times as we try to roll back to some version of the ‘olden days’ pre masks and social distancing.

Stay safe!

Welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock! David Kurt, here on the mic, to share my FIVE biggest takeaways on this week's real estate market activity in Sudbury! 

As every day goes by, it seems like we are getting closer and closer to a second lockdown. I always try to be the eternal optimist, but the cases seem to be approaching staggering levels; for the second time. It couldn’t be more timely that Phizer seems to be fast-tracking their version of the antidote, although rollout is still months if not a year+ ahead. I read something from Dr. Fauci out of the US that if we listen to the scientists and follow their recommendations we could be starting to go mask free around this time next year (assuming the vaccine rollout goes as planned as well).

From a local level, it's hunting season, which usually means things slow to a crawl in our market as people head to Manitoulin to get their hunting fix. We just got news yesterday that tragedy has struck the police force on the island with Constable Marc Hovingh being shot and killed in a dispute with a trespasser on private property. I have so many friends who are in the policing field and it seems like such a common job, but the risks that are tied to simply going in to work every day can be shockingly scary. I understand he has kids and a family and my thoughts go out to all the family and police who put their lives at risk every day.

On a positive note, we at Lake City have begun our 12 days of Local Businesses as we approach the Christmas season. We are featuring local businesses 2x/week, showcasing popular gifts and reminding those in a position to support local businesses this holiday season. For every business we feature, we are raffling off a gift card as well... if you share our posts; stay on the lookout for that.

From a real estate perspective sales dropped considerably this week, while listings seem to have levelled off (with more listings than sales/week).

Tune in! 🎧

If you've thought about selling or buying and would like to know more about how your situation looks in this market, I'd love to chat! 

Hey Sudbury! David Kurt and Kelly Wilcock here, bringing you this week's wrap up episode of Selling the Rock - Your local real estate podcast! 

Brrrr, it’s cold out there! The fall market didn’t last long in Sudbury, and with the deep freeze in full effect it’s not just the temperature that dropped this week, the listings and sales followed suit. From an economic standpoint, it was an interesting week for the Bank Of Canada. They kept the rates unchanged (which was fully expected); but, they made it clear that rates will not be going up until at least 2023. They are currently spending billions a week on buying up bonds to artificially continue low-interest rates, and the head of the BofC actually revealed, “It means that if you’re a household considering making a major purchase you can be confident that interest rates will be low for a long time.” Needless to say, I am confident that they are trying to continue to promote and strengthen the housing market in Canada.

From a real estate perspective, we saw the listings drop like the mercury on the thermometer. We hit the lowest number of new listings since the first few weeks after COVID!

Tune in to listen to our 5 biggest takeaways from the week! 🎧

Wishing you the spookiest of Happy Halloweens and we’ll check in with you next week!

What a week it’s been. From a COVID standpoint, numbers keep rising; which is to be expected after the family gatherings over Thanksgiving weekend (as much as we tried to keep the gatherings to a minimum). I was told that today sparked the first instance of COVID showing up in the high schools with a positive test at Lo-Ellen. As I type this out I am trying to keep my fingers and toes crossed that this doesn’t escalate to what we are seeing in Southern Ontario; and that kids can stay at school which can keep our local economy moving forward.

From a real estate perspective, we saw a reverse in the trend we were becoming accustomed to in past weeks with more sales than new listings for the first time in a few weeks. The other biggest takeaway is the # of multiple offers was down significantly week over week and as a % it was off a cliff.

Tune in and listen to David's 5 biggest takeaways on last week's Sudbury real estate market activity! 

HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to Kivi Park on Saturday!  What a fun day of spooktacular activities and costumes! Don't forget to post a photo of your carved your pumpkins on social media! If you tag @kivipark and @lakecityrealtyltd - you will be entered into a draw and could win some SUPER AWESOME PRIZES! The winner will be announced on Halloween!! 

Til' Next week! 

Hey Sudbury!

Welcome back to another episode of Selling the Rock! Today we have both David and Tristan on the mic to give you your weekly market wrap up! From a real estate perspective, we continue the trend of more listings than sales that we’ve seen in the last few weeks (good news for buyers); in addition to that, the stats across the board were down week-over-week compared to the last few weeks and well below the post-covid averages.

My 5 takeaways this week are:

The slowdown continues in the marketplace this week. For the 4th week in a row, we’ve seen more listings hit the market than were sold; which continues to increase the selection for potential buyers.

As a buyer in the recent marketplace; they have come accustomed to sellers ‘holding off offers’ and dealing with a bidding war/multiple offer frenzy come the seller's selected offer date. While multiple offers are still continuing (61% of sales this week were in a bidding war); it seems listing agents are getting more desperate for offers to come to the table on their offer date. Multiple times this week, I showed places that held off offers and the listing agent was calling me on offer date letting me know they have no offers and sellers would love to have one to work with.

Numbers are down across the board this week, in all 3 major categories (New Listings, Sales and Conditional Deals). I’ve chatted about this in past weekly updates but the idea that ‘Winter-is-Coming’ is clearly having the seasonality impact that reduces activity in our local market every year. Sellers signing a 3-month listing now (and the scary thought of signing a 6-month listing for those agents that push that) bring us through Christmas and into 2021! The countdown is on now where we have 5-6 weeks left in this market until we are dealing with showings in the freezing temperatures and snowstorms.

There are currently 10 waterfront homes available in Sudbury’s waterfront Hot-Spot (Southend/Long Lake road area). I reviewed the list prices and 50% of them are priced in the Ultra-Luxury Price Point, starting at 1.5M and going all the way to just under 5M! The other 5 that are on the ‘affordable scale’ include a fixer-upper around the 400k mark, and then jumping to the 700k-ish type of value. There is clearly a grand-divide between average house prices and waterfront home prices in this market; and this seems like something that isn’t going to go away any time soon, this gap in prices will more than likely just continue to increase.

We are currently sitting at 274 active listings in the City of Greater Sudbury. And typically, as we transition from the Summer to Winter market we will see a decrease in the available listings by about 25% (leaving roughly 75% of the number of listings over the winter months). If this trend continues we could easily see our total listings in the range of 200 or so listings available on the market. This would be extreme lows for the Sudbury marketplace, which may mean that the winter market may actually be stronger than we have seen in past years. There are a lot of unknowns as we prepare for the first COVID-winter market, but it's clear that the rest of the province's real estate market continues massive growth year-over-year, and it almost feels like Sudbury numbers are coming up short versus a lot of our Southern Ontario marketplaces. We are typically a few years behind the trends we are seeing in S.Ont. and if the strong price growth continues there, we could be headed towards a strong long-term picture for our local market!

All the best and we’ll check in with you next week!

It was an interesting last 7 days we’ve had! COVID numbers continue to climb in Ontario (to a smaller extent in Sudbury as well); which has led to Ford requesting immediate family only around the Thanksgiving table this year. I have a feeling there may be an abundance of XL Turkeys at the grocery stores this year.

From a real estate perspective, we continue the trend of more listings than sales that we've seen in the last few weeks (good news for buyers)! Week-to-week activity is staying pretty consistent with conditional deals being exactly average for the week as well.

• New listings continue to surpass the weekly sales! This is adding more product to the market and should be putting less stress on buyers. The interesting thing is that a lot of buyers are feeling that they may be running out of time to purchase something before the winter is here. This is pushing them to buy now before they are forced to move in a snow storm.
• The frustration of listing agents not pricing places correctly was back this week, not with the volume that we have seen in past weeks. The most interesting example of it this week was a big New Sudbury home that felt like a rustic log home complete from Manitoulin Island. It was a large place with an in-ground pool in the backyard to complete the package. This place was listed under 400k and sold for a whopping 115k over list price!
• Market activity continues at a constant pace. When watching the trends of conditional deals every week, we see that the number of transactions has stayed very consistent with our weekly snapshot showing 22 pending deals for multiple weeks in a row. We did see these top out at the high 20’s (even reaching 33 deals one week back in July), but the pre-winter market continues to be chugging along at a standard pace.
• This week we saw an interesting example where they held off offers on a property in Lively. There was a bit of a fixer-upper property price just above 300k in a good area of Mikkola, and I actually thought it was underpriced slightly. They were holding off offers for a few days and ultimately didn’t even get their full price. The interesting part is that there was a similar house that was listed at the same time with an offer date a few days later that is on the other side of the highway (upper lively) but more updated; I believe that a lot of the same buyers would be looking at both of these properties. I think what happened is most buyers are leaning towards the more renovated home and because that offer date hasn’t happened yet, they passed up the better location place (that needed more work) with the thought of entering a bidding war on the other property. This is an interesting example of holding off offers. You have to be aware of your competition and when offers are due. I honestly believe that if the Mikkola property would have had an offer date after the more renovated house; they would have had more interest from the people who missed out on the Upper Lively home.
• Looking at the numbers this week, it really feels like the slowdown is coming. It is funny these listings are coming up now with only a few months until our winter market is here and some of the buyers icing their home search until the spring thaw. This combined with the mortgage deferrals ending for the 20% of Canadians who opted to put their mortgages on hold; there are lots of factors that could point to the shift in listings continuing.

This may feel like the most interesting thanksgiving weekend that I can remember. Going back to only being surrounded by our immediate family bubble, and any others being present over zoom. I saw someone comment on Facebook that the steps we take now at Thanksgiving will go a long way to enabling us to gather together at Christmas!