Happy Thanksgiving

It seems there is a passionate debate on the market and will happen to real estate here in Edmonton.  Our last post seemed invaded by bubble bloggers, which I don’t have a problem with as long as the tone is kept civil.  I don’t care what tone you post on over there that crap won’t fly here.  To be fair I had to admonish a few people with their comments on the other side of the arguement too.  Some comments seem planted just to ratchet things up a notch. If things get out of hand we’ll have to start to weed out the phony posts but I’d prefer to not to do that. I would prefer that this is a place where all perspectives can be reasonably discussed.  As far as we’re concerned all opinions are welcome as long as they are respectfully addressed.

Over the years I’ve learned that even people in my own industry have different perspectives on the issues that affect it.

This post is about addressing some of the comments which I didn’t have time to address when the stats were put out.  At the time Sara put the stats out I was dealing with our day job stuff – three of our listings went pending (accepted with conditions) and one of our buyers made an offer that was negotiated and accepted as well.  So this post is really just my comments in general to some of the comments and thoughts from the previous post in no particular order.

The following views are my own: 

• Inventory is at an all time high, sales are at least at 5 year lows.  Prices are correcting down.  Just as prices rose due to low inventory it will correct due to excess supply.
• Regarding "The market crashed" comment – it is intended to be incendiary and adds nothing to the debate. So getting into terminology, stats and definitions with people that drop this type of b.s for the purpose of getting a response isn’t worth it.
• "prices going to bounce back in the spring" Hmmm lets see…There are 90 days left till the end of the year.  December isn’t the greatest month for sales based past experience.   If you look at the sales chart for the last five years you can see that sales increase in the spring but inventory generally does as well.  As I see it its a catch 22 so I don’t see a major rebound come spring.  A bounce maybe but I’ve been wrong on other things before.  The bounce may come from increased sales relieving a log jam of properties that are subject to the sale of the buyers property.
• "There will be no buyers".  If there is one thing I’ve learned in 20 years is that there are always buyers. People will continue to buy based on their own needs. The rent vs own arguement is benign.  As far as I can tell this group is not making their decisions entirely on straight economics; renters who are buying (that I’m working with) seem to be doing so more based on their own situational economics.
• "Renters are stupid". This type of incendiary comment is also intended to solicit a ratchited respeonse. The market needs renters. Some renters are at different stages for different reasons so brushing everyone with the same brush is pointless.  If everybody assumes that someone else is in a situation like their own they may perceive that somebody should be doing what they are doing.  They may be giving wise advice on their situation but not for someone else.

Regarind the debate about out renting vs owning…  Personally I believe in ownership for a number of reasons, however it is not for everyone.  Nor is renting.  Everyone has to make decisions based on their short and long term plans.  However, I’d be happy to do a post and let people have it out on the merits based on the current market but at the end of the day these our just our perspectives.  I know I certainly would never buy a new vehicle if I really looked at it depreciating 30% when I drove it off the lot.  Heck our pets are not great financial investments either but we’ll keep them, thanks.   The real issue as I see is affordability. 

That’s all I have time for now.  We hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving.