Are property values truly going up?

[Glacier]

The experts at a certain association that deals with the buying and selling of homes in the Okanagan tell us that prices just keep trucking upwards. As luck would have it, we are interested in buying 5 to 10 acres, and have been looking around all over the valley. Of course, every time we see a good place, we look it up on BC Assessment just to see what they say. On that website they divide the land from the house, and without exception every single property that we've looked at has dropped $10,000 or more since last year (unless the property has farm status, in which case the value has not changed). I will give you an example (this place is WAY out of our price range, but it's one that I've randomly clicked on at the moment). Look at 2575 Harvard Road, Kelowna. Last year the land was valued at $478,000, and this year it is assessed at $430,000.

Is it just me, or is kinda hard to pull the trigger when you get the impression that property values might be dropped at $20,000/ year?

[rekabis]

Save your money. Invest it in a group of investments that track a well-performing index (remember to regularly re-balance that portfolio). Make that 10-15% per year, and then pull the trigger once prices have bottomed out for at least 2-3 years. Right now it is still financially insane to buy property anywhere in Canada west of Québec.

[atenbacon]

Save your money. Invest it in a group of investments that track a well-performing index (remember to regularly re-balance that portfolio). Make that 10-15% per year, and then pull the trigger once prices have bottomed out for at least 2-3 years. Right now it is still financially insane to buy property anywhere in Canada west of Québec.

With your track record on predicting market trends, you would be the second last person on the planet that I would listen to, with the first person I would never listen to being Static. The third would be that guy pushing the shopping cart along Harvey at least he gets some of his predictions correct.

2-3 more years? lol... yeah right...

[Static]

I wouldn't purchase anything right now. Both the real-estate and stock markets are expensive. Wait for a pullback in the stock market and for interest rates to climb before jumping into real-estate. Prices for real-estate are falling, even in Vancouver. They will continue to fall no matter if interest rates stay where they are or climb. Rising rates will simply speed up the adjustment which is what we want.

AntiBacon, in the last ten years my average stock has returned 118% over an average holding period of 5.2 years(without leverage). The TSX, NYSE, and the S&P 500 are up 46%, 33% and 32%, respectively. Past trades returned an average 37% over an average holding period of 1.9 years. Of the 38 securities I have recommended, I have realized 2 losses by selling and still have 2 in the portfolio (BB and LFE). Dividends have accounted for over 40% of my return. Overall, I have an 89% success rate at picking stocks.

Rekabis, one should buy individual stocks rather than index tracking instruments. Find a stock that has a lengthy history of increasing its dividend, hold it for as long as they continue to increase it and it will outperform the stock markets exponentially.

[Captain Awesome]

$20/share by the year end guaranteed!

[Glacier]

I'm leaning toward buy a place soon. If I wait until the market crashes, my down payment will also have crashed, so even though the house might be cheaper, it won't be worth it.

[LANDM]

I'm leaning toward buy a place soon. If I wait until the market crashes, my down payment will also have crashed, so even though the house might be cheaper, it won't be worth it.

Regardless of what the naysayers preach, look at the past market cycles and look at how this one is behaving now. It is very similar and does not point to further price erosion. We are coming up to 6 years of a down cycle.....very normal. Watch the transaction numbers......what is happening now? They are rising strongly. Everything points to stability for quite a while now and then the normal rise upwards slowly.
Ignore the media when they talk about canadian real estate....they are basically talking about Vancouver and Toronto. Unless you are buying in those markets, it is meaningless. Look at our market behaviour.

[Static]

I agree with LANDM that every market is different. I haven't followed the Okanogan market since I've moved but I did look at Penticton a month ago and I did notice prices in some segments are down considerably.

[forum]

Was at clients condo last week doing some work. She told me it took her a year and a half to sell her house in Kelowna.

Can anyone guess why it took her a year and a half to sell?

[Glacier]

Because she was asking way too much. If you can't sell you place within 2 months you're asking too much.

[Thinktank]

Can anyone guess why it took her a year and a half to sell?

because property values truly are not going up.

[Bsuds]

Or it was a dump and needed too much work.

[kgcayenne]

...for which she wanted too much. Even dumps sell at the appropriate price.

[forum]

It would be nice if the Canadian housing market crashed already.

[LANDM]

It would be nice if the Canadian housing market crashed already.

Have you been out of our market area for the last six years???
We crashed and burned in the summer of 2008 and have not recovered.
If you are talking about Vancouver and Toronto, who cares....the OP was talking about our market.....their is no cohesive "canadian housing market".