Oct 20 Market Update

MLS numbers update courtesy of the VREB via Marko Juras. These numbers are for the Victoria Real Estate Board's reporting area, including Sooke, Shawnigan Lake and the Gulf Islands.

	Oct 2014				Oct  2013
	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4
Unconditional Sales	83	230	356		512
New Listings	178	393	556		979
Active Listings	4100	4060	3988		4322
Sales to New Listings	47%	59%	64%		52%
Sales Projection	--	661	630
Months of Inventory					8.4

There has been some discussion about this piece of "analysis" by a mortgage broker.  His theory is that when interest rates go up, so do prices.  Apparently in the last 30 years, increasing mortgage rates lead to increasing prices 62% of the time 2 months later.  Never mind that the two month lag is never justified (as Just Jack said, a 3 month rate hold would blow that out of the water).  The obvious gaping hole in this theory is that prices have been increasing for most of that 30 year period, so it's not at all surprising that 62% of the months they went up.  If someone were to care to evaluate the entire period they would probably find more than 62% of months that showed increasing prices.

Oct 14 Market Update

MLS numbers update courtesy of the VREB via Marko Juras. These numbers are for the Victoria Real Estate Board's reporting area, including Sooke, Shawnigan Lake and the Gulf Islands.

	Oct 2014				Oct  2013
	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4
Unconditional Sales	83	230			512
New Listings	178	393			979
Active Listings	4100	4060			4322
Sales to New Listings	47%	59%			52%
Sales Projection	--	661
Months of Inventory					8.4

Per Marko's request.  We're still (almost) the weakest market in the country for the past 7 years.  Edged out Edmonton in the last couple months but I suspect when September numbers are out we will be in last place.

What it cost to run our house.

In case anyone is wondering what it costs to run a pretty typical house, here is ours for last year:

Gordon head, 1970s build, ~2100sqft.   2 adults 1 child upstairs, 1 adult in suite downstairs.

Month	Hydro	Gas	Water/Sewer /Garbage	Property Tax	Insurance
January	$172.67	$86.25	$200.91
February	$164.64	$104.95
March	$164.64	$78.70
April	$96.83	$78.29
May	$96.83	$65.17
June	$57.49	$59.59	$222.13
July	$57.49	$45.90		$2,897.88	$957.00
August	$57.69	$79.23
September	$57.69	$70.33
October	$110.68	$50.91	$263.32
November	$110.68	$75.68
December	$172.67	$86.47
Total Utilities	$2,888.00
Total	$6,743.00

Heating is a heat pump with gas backup and baseboards downstairs.  Gas for hot water and 2 fireplaces (rarely used).   

So even without factoring the mortgage in, it costs about $560/month to keep the place operating.   Adding in mortgage interest, that goes to $1450/month.    Nothing big on maintenance, but the new gutters and some random Home Depot excursions probably added up to another $100/month.