Real Estate Still Strong Says PG Broker

Friday, May 16, 2008 03:58 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The Broker, Owner of Royal Lepage in Prince George, Dirk Loedel, says houses are taking longer to sell than during this time last year. Loedel says if it is priced right your home in Prince George is selling in about 48 days, if not it is taking about 75.

Last year at the end of May 445 homes were listed for sale, this year that figure is 545, and while that it a 20% increase Loedel isn’t concerned.

"The last time the market crashed was because of inflation, and the price of a mortgage. You were paying anywhere up to 22% for your mortgage" he said "and that simply isn’t the case today where that figure is more like 5%."

Are the prices for Prince George inflated? "No sir", he says, "construction costs are a way up, and the lot prices are much higher, so you are looking at the real market."

"Not so in Kelowna" says Loedel, "where you can buy a lot for $399,000 dollars and they throw in a BMW WITH IT. What does that say?"

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Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: owl on May 16 2008 4:28 AM

That says that the BMW can apparently be paid for through a 25 year mortgage. Luckily a BMW lasts that long.

:-)

Posted by: northern taxpayer on May 16 2008 6:31 AM

realator eh?fine profession down along with the scalping politicians, good honest toil , ethics is it isn't part of your daily routine is it? i know you don't fit in the hunter-gatherer profile or the farmer-herder type either, must be one of gordy's new breeds.

Posted by: robichal on May 16 2008 7:24 AM

Wow northern taxpayer you seem a tad on the grumpy side. Were you stiffed by a realtor?

Posted by: lmorg on May 16 2008 7:48 AM

He's just saying that because he wants to sell all his stuff down in malaspina ridge

Posted by: Outwest on May 16 2008 8:33 AM

Housingmarket, stockmarket ? what goes up must come down, big difference with the Stockmarket, you gamble with your own money.
Take away the Banks Money, you have no more Housingmarket and it will drop like a rock and to the so called Homeownes, the Bank only lets you take care of the Proberty until you pay back the last Cent then you own it!
Realtors are only Salesman and nothing else, even if they think otherwise, it's like selling used Cars, it's all the same.

Posted by: bohemian on May 16 2008 9:11 AM

Of course prices are inflated. Innovations in financing (and resulting "irrational exuberance" have had much more to do with increase house prices than actual demand.

When a family can afford a $225,000 house now when they could only afford $150,000 before (5% down, 40 year amortization), they don't end up with a better house. All that we've seen happen in the market is now the $150,000 house costs $225.000.

And now that people are realizing (again) that the prices of houses don't automatically appreciate by 20% per year indefinitely, people are more careful again with their purchase.

While we don't have the same sub-prime mess as the US, we still have a big problem.

For more on this subject I encourage you to check out Garth Turner's new book "Greater Fool." The book's blog site has some great stories on the subject:

http://www.greaterfool.ca/

Posted by: NMG on May 16 2008 12:48 PM

"He's just saying that because he wants to sell all his stuff down in malaspina ridge"

Last time I drove through there, it was evident that the design, appearance and feel of the neighbourhood was doing that job on it's own. It's pretty much fully developed, while the other barren wasteland subdivisions are empty. What an odd coincidence . . . LOL :)

Posted by: Free Enterprise on May 16 2008 5:38 PM

Take the cost per ft2 at $180.00 to $200.00 plus land at say $100,000 per lot. Do the math on your own home.
The cost to buy existing is far below replacement = lots of upside for existing home prices in the future.
Have a great long weekend.

Posted by: Harbinger on May 16 2008 6:04 PM

A certain lone house in an unnamed subdivision reminds me of the house in the movie Psycho. High on a hill.

Posted by: lmorg on May 16 2008 9:01 PM

NMG: still overpriced down there for what your getting and I highly doubt there are any first time home buyers down there. However if they wish to spend the money and get fleeced, its their perogative.

Posted by: NMG on May 16 2008 9:59 PM

Overpriced compared to what? Lower College Heights? St. Lawrence Heights? Westgate? The Hart? Heritage North? A similar home in Kamloops? Kelowna? Nanaimo?

Posted by: Junco on May 16 2008 11:54 PM

"For more on this subject I encourage you to check out Garth Turner's new book "Greater Fool." The book's blog site has some great stories on the subject:
http://www.greaterfool.ca/"

Garth Turner? Isn't he the guy who wrote a book in the late 90's advising people to mortgage their houses so that they could put the money into the stockmarket? He was really big on "leveraging". I believe the book was called "After the Boom". Lots of idiots took his advice and lost their shirts during the dot.com bust. He caused a lot of people to be "leveraged" into bankruptcy.
I see he's still writing "advice" books.
He should have been run outta town on a rail. Now he's continuing to play financial genius/guru and churning out financial "beware" books,like he's a canary in a coal mine.
What a joke!

Posted by: lmorg on May 17 2008 9:30 AM

Yes, they are overpriced NMG compared to new houses in St lawrence heights, and westgate..apart from that there are no comparables. Small houses small lots in Malaspina but big sticker price..

Posted by: Harbinger on May 17 2008 12:28 PM

"Real estate still strong, says broker". Well of course he is gonna say that. If he was negative that sure wouldn't be his or in his pals best interests. Real estate has it's ups and downs. Mostly ups. Any downturn even remotely can be spun around by saying "This years sales are up substantially over sales in 1948". Easy spin, eh? I love the English language.

Posted by: NMG on May 17 2008 2:38 PM

"Yes, they are overpriced NMG compared to new houses in St lawrence heights, and westgate..apart from that there are no comparables. Small houses small lots in Malaspina but big sticker price"

And yet they are still selling. Obviously that would suggest that someone thinks the price premium to those other areas is worthwhile.

My hunch is it has to do with the fact that there are trees still standing and that the design of the homes are quite different from the good old standard spec home alley that we seem to get in PG. Boring is cheaper :)

Posted by: lmorg on May 18 2008 5:47 PM

Ok Dirk, er I mean NMG.