While real estate has slowed down compared to the peak demand in 2021, the market still remains a seller’s market, with a low supply of homes for sale and high competition for those that do become available.

James and Denny share what they are currently seeing in the market and emphasize that conditions can vary depending on the type of property, location, and other factors.

This episode will cover the current state of the Vancouver market, low inventory still a problem, strong seller’s market, 0.25 rate increase, BC Assessments, townhouses still selling strong, current real estate opportunities, and future predictions.

Watch and listen to the Garbutt+Dumas Real Estate Podcast below and follow us on Spotify, iTunes & YouTube.

Read the Transcript Here

Hi everyone, I’m James Garbutt. And I’m Denny Dumas. And this is the Garbutt Dumas Real Estate Podcast.

Denny: Jamie it’s February 15, 2023 already crazy.

James: Time flies when you’re having fun Denny.

Denny: We are having fun! 2023 is off to a strange start. It’s, with rates going up significantly in the last 12 months. It was kind of difficult to predict what this year is going to look like, especially early in the year. But let me share a couple stats with you. And I know you know this already, but our listeners don’t, of just how low inventory is been to start the year. 

So January 2023. Lowest inventory in a month since 2004. Lowest new listings in a month since 2004. What the media is telling you is it’s the lowest number of sales in a month since 2009. Which also is a staggering number but obviously the reason for that is due to nothing being available for sale. 

James: It’s a product of low inventory.  

Denny: And we have a number of examples in the last couple of weeks of homes, condos, townhomes, all three that have gotten a much better result than they would have two months ago. And one of the things you say consistently to our team, to clients, on this podcast. 

James: Are you going to go into the moving target? 

Denny: That too but one of the things you always say is you rarely see a fall that is better than the following spring. Yeah, rarely, I think maybe one time and in my career have I seen that.

James: You know, even it’s debatable like, like you’re right I think maybe one time I’ve seen it, but it was not significant. And I mean, there’s always weird things like I mean arguably the, the COVID moment. When COVID first hit, there was that little blip before the storm that the market just slowed and halted. You might have had a better outcome selling that fall then in that March. But and yeah, you’re right. I’ve been a Realtor since 2008 and just thinking of selling in November, often you’re gonna get a better price in January or February.

Denny: Can you share some thoughts on why inventory is so low? The other thing the media is talking about which is true enough stat it’s just maybe shared in the wrong light a little bit, but sales in January 2023 were down 40-ish percent comparatively to last year, and then lowest sales volume since 2009.

James: Well, I think you kind of nailed it saying significant rate hikes is one of them. But why is that insignificant just to be specific, it was four percent in nine months right. Interest rates went up 4% nine months. So from an affordability standpoint that really affected a lot of buyers’ ability to buy what they want to buy or to be able to afford what they want to afford, and homeowners are, are, in some cases have these much higher payments. So we may see an uptick in default, but it’s not really showing its colors just yet. 

Why is inventory so low? I mean when, when uncertainty exists, and sales are low, the listing inventory correlates to sales. You know, I think maybe, maybe in 2008 before that market crash there might have been a dynamic where there was a lot of listings, build it and build up on inventory like a lot of listings were building up and it felt like there was a lot of inventory for very little sales. This market’s a little bit different because it never really felt too oversaturated last year, there was moments where the listings outweighed the sales, but not significantly and not to the same extent. So I mean, hopefully, more people need to buy in order for more listings to show up because a lot of those listings are showing up because they bought something. And I think it’s just a high correlation. 

I think we’re gonna see group-think. You know, when, if spring ends up having more optimism, if the rate hikes stop and people expect it to come down and we see the fixed rates come down. Just naturally more listings, more people will be willing to buy and more listings will show up once they buy.

Denny:  I hope so. 

James: I hope so too. But you know, you nailed it like 2004 for lowest, lowest inventory since 2004. And I imagine in 2004, there was a lot less houses in the city. So we’re actually comparing two different sized cities too. You know what, one thing that the last Real Estate Board stat package for January from the Real Estate Board mentioned is obviously low sales, low inventory 42.9% down from the 10 year average. So the number of sales in Greater Vancouver were down 42.9% from the 10 year average. 

And that’s a big number but I always tend to think that people in this city want to move and the interest rates are largely causing this and when you have a 42.9% below the 10 year average. That means a future month might be 42.9% above the 10 year average. So we will see.

Denny: Talking about the 10 year average too, I don’t know the exact number but it seems like we’ve been under that 10 year average for how many months in a row? Eight months in a row? Nine months?

James: Oh I was hoping to look that up before this. But I want to, I want to say it was around May of last year and don’t quote me on that but give or take about a month or two. Might have been earlier. I will say that the last February stat package from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said “Steady demand prices, price gains continue”. And here’s one like a bit of a shocker the, for across all property types the sales to listing ratio, so the number of sales that take place in a given month compared to the inventory available. Last February, the sales to list ratio was 50.8%. So that means that if there’s 100 listings 50.8 of them sold in a given month. And typically upward pressure on prices starts when it’s above 20%. 

So this is, what this says is it’s a strong seller’s market. And in January last month, the sales to list ratio was 13.7%. So it went from 50.8% last February to 13.7. Now I think it’s a bit of a misleading stat. I think there’s a lot of overpriced inventory out there. And there are some markets that are much slower than others but it is a significant shift over the last 11 months from steady demand prices. Price gains continue.

Denny: Yeah, yeah, that’s stat blankets Greater Vancouver?

James: All product types of Greater Vancouver. And you and I both know they’re, you know further out there, there are products that are slower. And there are also some ambitious sellers that are on yesterday’s prices. That often happens.

Denny: It, it’d be interesting to break that down into some neighborhoods that we work in Tri Cities specifically, North Vancouver, East Vancouver to see what that sales stat looks like.

James: Well, we came prepared, didn’t we Denny? 

Denny: Ooh, did we?

James: So you know, a blanketed stat that, you know, covers all property types across the Lower Mainland isn’t going to tell you that great of a picture. You know that saying if the sales ratio is 13.7% I mean an opposite story on that would be six of the last 10 detached houses in Burnaby sold above list price. So, you know, recognize that when you kind of isolate sales, like listings and sales and a certain price range and a certain product type in a certain area. It can still show a strong seller’s market, and I was quite shocked to see six out of the last home sales in Burnaby go above list. 

Now to compare. Okay, this is comparing where we’re at this year versus last year. Year to date as of today, February 15 2023. Year to date. Burnaby has 35 house sales and last year it had, in the same time frame about 90. So we’re still down in terms of sales volume. So yes, the sales went down but six of the last 10 went above list. Is that a future trend? Time will tell.

Denny: I mean, I think 100% it is. And you can look down the map at basically any product type in, on this side of the river, Surrey, Langley, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge are a little bit different story right now. But in the Tri Cities, in New West, in Burnaby, in East Vancouver, you can look at any product type and you can probably find pretty similar numbers. You can look at our listings, specifically our team. I think we’re at 13 sales right now. Let’s say seven listings roughly and four or five of those have had multiple offers this year. So that’s what’s that,60 70% of our listings have been multiple offers.

James: I know we’re exceptional realtors that obviously deliver results but…

Denny: I mean that’s not in arguable!

James: I will say I think, I think where this settles out is probably around my guesses for single family detached homes, the ones that have been selling are in the one, in this particular example in Burnaby, they’re probably on average in the mid ones. Obviously there’s a range but it’s more affordable detached home that the sample of sales is coming from. So if you’re really kind of, my thought is if we’re looking, if we’re looking at the next 20 sales in Burnaby, new West, Tri Cities, my guess is about 35 to 40% of them will probably experience full price or above-list sales and the rest won’t. 

I can remember looking at this, like I always kind of take a snapshot of looking at the last 10 or 20 home sales. And I remember looking at New Westminster last spring and 18 out of the last 20 home sales went above list. And then I re-looked at that number this fall and two of the last 20 home sales were above lists. It was kind of like an inverse relationship. But I think that kind of settles out where I would expect to see over the next 20 detached home sales 7 to 8 of them might be above list 35, 40% And it is still a genuine strategy when you have very little inventory out there. 

If you look, anyone looking for a home knows this. When there’s not much available and more buyers keep showing up, it’s more likely to see bidding wars and increased offers. I had a ages in North Van that checked out the home a week ago on and they received five offers the other day. Another agent, and this is a higher end home detached home in North Van, nice one. High three list price, 5000 square foot custom built home and they had 32 showings over the last weekend. So activity is picking up, sales I don’t think quite reflect what’s going on right, this right this moment. 

Denny: Yeah, we’re a little early I think in terms of it telling its true story in stats, I think.

James: What, what are you finding that maybe hotter and what’s not?

Denny: Yesterday I made the comment on social media that it seems like the magic number right now is a million dollars and in the suburbs, let’s say and I kind of put North Vancouver that kind of, wrap it into Vancouver now just because of the price points there. It’s not really the same price point as Tri Cities, New West anymore. It’s elevated, it’s higher end. 

James: It’s arguably in a lot of cases Apples to Apples more expensive than a lot of neighborhoods in West Van some areas, like there was a historic historically West Van was more luxurious, but you know, there’s more people nowadays that want to live in Lynn Valley than say Horseshoe Bay or, or maybe even Coffield and a lot of areas. =

Denny: I think just because of affordability and size of mortgage that that million dollar number seems to be where things are for us in suburbs of Greater Vancouver really busy versus slightly slower. And I’ll give a few examples. 

We had two new as condos, two weeks ago, list in the same week. Both had multiple offers within four or five days of being on market. We had a Port Moody townhouse list on Monday. So that was two days ago. Had 10 showings in the first six hours of being a market, received three offers and has an accepted offer, subject free, well above list price, which is a number that would not have existed in the fall. Two months ago. Right?

James: Three bedroom or two bedroom townhouse. 

Denny: It’s a two bedroom townhouse. So when we look at sales in the fall, and there was a couple in November / December of three bedrooms in that complex, we’re basically at the three bedroom price now for the two bedroom a month and a half later. And then we talk about the New West Quay, so we have a two bedroom condo list in the New West Quay and we saw quite a bit in that neighborhood where they’re monthly. And I say to Jamie, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a listing in the Quay this busy, this quickly. Listed on Monday. It’s now Wednesday. We’ve had 14 groups go through already. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that in the New West Quay.

James: Price point and size approximately?

Denny:  Price point $650,000 size just shy of 1100 square feet.

James: Nice location on the Quay. 30 year old-ish building and that’s getting a lot of interest.

Denny: A lot.

James: And no more rental restrictions.

Denny: Isn’t that huge? That’s one of the downsides, there’s a few buildings in the New West Quay that have pet restrictions too, which unfortunately still stay but…

James:  I mean, if you go before this, they had pet restrictions. They had restrictions across the board. You can only have poodle Terriers and…

Denny: If there was a restriction out there, the New West Quay would have it. For sure, for sure. 

James: One thing that I kind of took a glance at is where potential opportunities. Well, on that note of what’s hot and what’s not. I mean, just let’s acknowledge townhouses are hot, you know. If you like there’s enough there’s a demand for layouts that suit young families or families of any kind. Fortunately, we’ve been behind a lot of townhouse sales over the last year and we have more coming. 

And one thing we sold two townhouses in New West in the same complex. One was in earlier part of the year which was arguably supposed to be the hotter part of the year, one was at the tail end. And the tail end one outperformed the earlier sale or at least to me, yeah, it sold for a higher price. And so that was like a January sale versus I think it was a November sale. 

So there are examples of townhouses virtually being unaffected by the market and we have a really hot 3 bedroom coming up in Port Moody soon, so I’m really curious to see how that one goes down.

Denny: Well, we, in speaking of Port Moody, we had one on Noones creek that sold early 2023 second week of January, I believe, and that sold $130,000 higher than the most recent, which was like October.

James: Really.

Denny: Sold high one twos and I got multiple offers. So it really is just, there is not much for sale. And when one comes up, there’s more than one person looking for it right now. There was one more example, oh, we had a buyer. It’s so price point dependent. It’s actually quite funny to watch a listing list slightly high and have, be crickets. Come off the market, three days later, list at the proper number and have 25 showing. This specific example of Port Moody townhouse just off St. John’s listed at $1.2. Nothing for two weeks, came off market listed at $1.1 sold in two days. Which is the right number today $1.2 maybe existed like March last year, but not anymore. And as soon as it’s priced correctly, it’s selling.

James: Very sensitive market that way I could see that I, I also I mean one of the things that I’ve been noticing lately and normally as Realtors we don’t pay a lot of attention to BC assessed values and BC assessments but in this particular market, we kind of love them sometimes. Because the only time a Realtor loves a BC assessment is when they’re listing something for below assessment and they get to advertise it. 

Assessments went up.  Assessments were released last July. I’m guessing they did the appraisals last June, maybe even last May because they have to do so many of them. So they were assessed in a lot of cases in a better market than they were today. And what I’ve noticed is some of the latest home sales are coming in below assessed values. Granted, I don’t, I’ve seen these windows in the past and it doesn’t take long for that to you know, for values, you know sale prices to trickle up. We’re talking about, you know, maybe the, there was a house one of the last sales in New West was about 10% below assessment so what that means is to me, if you have a high assessed value, doesn’t mean that your home is worth that much but you if you’re selling your home, you definitely want the world to know about it. If you have a low assessed value, I mean, historically, most homes sell over the assessed value and assessments don’t take into account renovations. They’re not always that accurate because they’re just blanking them across the Lower Mainland. But right now, assessed values on average are higher, and in a lot of cases higher than what properties are worth. That trend will probably not last, I don’t think next year that trend will exist.

Denny: Next year definitely won’t. Because assessments will go down this year. I think when you get, well, it’ll be next January you get your one from this July. And I could probably see them going down 10-15% across the board. 

James: We’ll see. It depends on how hot that May-June market is when they start getting out the appraisals. I looked at some numbers and just trying to oh yeah, I guess on the not so hot side before I get to those numbers of what’s selling. Land value, you know, land value, a good structure has arguably gone up in value like a 20 like it doesn’t have to be 20 year old that like a 4000 square foot home that’s 20-30 years old. The materials behind that home in this inflationary world over the last 12 months has probably gone up in value. But the land that it’s sitting on, arguably has gone down because it’s more expensive to rebuild these homes. So anything that’s the, the tear down homes, the land value properties, they’re struggling a little bit more because builders just bought one, they’re usually sitting on product, they may not have as much resources and funds available today. But the cost of construction is higher too. So to make the numbers work, the land has to be a little cheaper to make up for that. Homes with a bit of a negative you know whether that’s a weird floor plan, a busy street, a home that needs a lot of work. Those ones are struggling because buyers don’t feel the sense of urgency as they did before. They’re not putting out those subject free offers on anything that they did before. And they feel like they have a little more time to shop. That could change but right now it’s a bit of a struggle. If you have a home with a negative feature. But if you have a home on a quiet street with a good floor plan I think they’re gonna hit it out of the park.

Denny: Probably if we talk about like, the toughest residential sales right now is probably the undersized older homes in original condition. 

James: Yeah.

Denny: If they’re, I’m talking about like a 1940s-50s bungalow type home that is 1800 square feet when you’re on a piece of land that could have a 3500 square foot home. If those homes are updated and livable or move in ready, they seem to be selling if they’re priced correctly but the ones that are in original condition, then need work immediately seem like those are the toughest to move at the moment. 

James: I think you’ve nailed it, unless they’re priced very low, you know, there’s always a right price. One thing that I looked at was just condo sales that have been happening this year and where maybe the opportunity to, some opportunities might be. I blanketed New West, Burnaby, Tri Cities and I looked at new condos because I always love, I’ve mentioned this before, that presale pricing has gotten very ambitious. There was a time in history where 10 years back call it, maybe it was more where it’s about a pre sale, the price you paid was the same as an existing resell unit that was of the same quality. In some cases, there were moments where you could get a better deal on a pre sale than an existing place not by much. But it was because at that time buyers were taking a risk by buying off of a showroom and off of a material board and you know, for a product that doesn’t complete in two years. Then the market gained a lot of people, profited off these pre sales and then it became a speculative investment. And there was a lot of wins. And I think right now we’re in an environment where some people paid some pretty high prices over the last few years for pre sales and as those buildings complete they’re not, there’s no room for a margin there either at the value they paid, some cases below the value they paid, some cases a little bit above but there’s not the big wins that happened before. 

So, when I’m thinking presale price, call it New West, Port Moody, well Port Moody is a little more expensive than New West but let’s go say Coquitlam, a wood frame. If I were to walk into a pre sale and look at a wood frame, I’d be thinking maybe you might have a better idea Denny, but my guess would be maybe $1050-$1100 a foot depending on if it’s maybe a one bedroom. Well not probably $1100 a foot if it’s a one bedroom and if it was concrete, maybe $1300 a foot. Is that accurate in your opinion?

Denny: I’d say those are probably high numbers today. 

James: Probably high numbers today.

Denny: On the high end.

James: In pre sales. 

Denny: Yeah. 

James: Okay, so let’s go $1000 a foot for wood frame and $1200 a foot for concrete. 

Denny: Yeah. 

James: If you, based on the last 30 days or I don’t know, I think last 60 days of sales for condos that are one to four years old. Wood frame was probably median sale price around $900 a foot and concrete was median sale price about $1000 a foot and a lot of that and when $1000 a foot was like 30 or 40 floors up off North Road and you know, between Coquitlam and in Burnaby there. So I don’t think presale condos can make money at those prices. I think that presale condos still need to be priced like 10,15,20% above those numbers to have a chance. But I would say a potential opportunity is picking up newer condos right now. And one little, I guess the example I’ve given you is for two bedroom. So two bedroom $900 a foot and $1000 a square foot for concrete. One bedrooms are about $100 square foot, $100 a square foot more. And one bedrooms just in general have a slightly higher price per square foot. 

So personally, I would if you have the decision of being a landlord now or placing a bet on a pre sale, that pre sale better have favorable deposit structure, be priced relatively close to resale values. Otherwise you might be better off just being a landlord tomorrow and buying something that exists.

Denny: Even though all the developers are calling me personally and thanking me for my business in the past and wanting me to come back to their presentation centers. I don’t know about you but I have, I have never had this many phone calls in the last three or four weeks than I probably have in the last four years from developers. Presentation centers calling you “Hey, have you heard about our new project in Coquitlam?” and like “Yes, it’s been for sale for three years.”

James: “Hey, do you remember when I was waiting outside for eight hours begging to buy a unit at your last one?”

Denny: “And you wouldn’t even give me an umbrella. Remember that?”

James: Times have changed.

Denny:  Very.

James: Oh, it’s, it was cutthroat to buy a presale before. You felt like you won a lottery ticket to pay $1300 a foot for something in the suburbs and the times have changed and it should it was, it was getting a little too speculative.

Denny: The environment now is, is very different. Seems like every day we get emails from projects around Greater Vancouver that maybe started selling a year and a half ago and have 20% left or something like that. And they are offering very favorable deposit structures. They are offering significant…

James: Favorable being what? Probably like 10%?

Denny: I’ve seen as low as five. Okay, last month. Pretty significant incentives. I think the highest I’ve seen is, is 10% off which could be $100,000. I forgot my train of thought there.Oh and I’ve heard a number of developers postponing projects too.

James: Yeah, I would anticipate that. Yeah.

Denny: So what does that presale game look like in two years though? When developers, a lot of people are incentivizing buyers to get rid of their last few units in a project. And a lot of developers are postponing projects. Is that presale game go back to the frenzy in a year and a half because there’s a very small amount of projects for sale?

James: I hope not but it could, you know, there was lineups and pre sales… when was First and Royal? That was, was it in the Fall? That was in New West.

Denny:  I’d say middle of last year when they launched.

James: I don’t think it was very long ago.

Denny: Really?

James: But long story short, there’s been some examples of pre sales that have been launched in this down market that have performed relatively, like quite well.

Denny: The one in Port Moody, Sitka house, thinking in they’re first week they sold 75% of it or something.

James: And that was in the Fall or was that earlier? Do you remember?

Denny:  That was the fall. It is probably October.

James:  Not a prime time to launch a project, but they still perform well. My thought is pre sales have been ambitious on their pricing. Unless they get well ahead of the market , heat up well ahead of the market. My hope is that they stay around the same prices over the next one to two years. And there may be some opportunity in a year from now say, if the price is around the same for development that completes three, four years from now. There might be some good market gain there because I do think in, in a cycle over the next four years as rates are likely to lower, prices are likely to go up. 

I want to share some numbers of sales by volume just because we talked about the January stat saying sales are down but obviously inventory’s down but I want to share the difference between this year and last year. So year to date as of today February 15th. 8 home sold in New West and last year in the same period 35 homes sold. In Burnaby this year, year to date, 35 homes sold, last year about 90 homes sold. But as I mentioned six out of 10 got above list. East Van 38 homes year to date, last year about 120 sold in this period. So they were, by the volume were well down but also in East Van for the last 10 sold above list. But volume is significantly down. I do see it uptaking. I do think it’s going to uptick but I don’t know if we’re gonna see those last year numbers.

Denny: That’s interesting. The three cities that you mentioned are all roughly 30% of the sales of the previous year. 

James: Yeah. And the macro said it was 42.9% below the 10 year average but last year was above the 10 year average so it’s it’s yeah, right, a third that’s basically what it is. 

Denny: Does inventory pick up? Like what does this spring look like? Is inventory gonna catch up with how, how busy it’s getting now?

James: I don’t see us maybe going above the 10 year average. I don’t like, I don’t think it’s going to be a hotter than average market but I think that the inventories got to pick up. More people are showing up. Maybe the next one to three months might have a little uncertainty if they do a subtle rate increase or if they do something that there’s more negative media headlines like inflation is not checking but six months by the Fall, you know, things things. It’ll probably be an active Fall. I would anticipate an active Fall.

Denny: Should we quickly touch on Bank of Canada?

James: Yeah. 

Denny: So January, I forget the date 25th or 26th when their last meeting was, they increased the rate .25% I think everybody knows that now. In their postgame press conference, they made a pretty heavy note that this was going to be the last one for a little while. And yesterday’s US CPI numbers, I wonder if that’s going to change. I, based on that press conference last, there in January, I kind of thought okay, maybe this is the end and this kind of sounds like them hinting at no more rate hikes for now. Or at least they want to watch it for a few months to see what, what happens. But in the US yesterday, consumer price index up 0.5% from last month where December saw basically no increase. So I think a lot of people are thinking oh no, maybe we didn’t do enough. And time will tell but I believe, when’s the next meeting? March 7? It’s that  Tuesday/Wednesday. 

I don’t know what to expect honestly to move, moving forward. It’s very difficult to have these conversations with consumers. Because everyone wants the answer. And unfortunately, we don’t have it. We can tell you what is currently happening in the real estate world and how rates are affecting Greater Vancouver real estate. But in terms of where rates are going and like what the next move is going to be. I don’t know if anyone can tell you exactly what’s happening.

James: My hope is that the fixed rates will still remain on that. Like right now we’re on a few mortgage brokers emails listed a few as an understatement I would say but one of the ones that I see advertised as the lowest bait, fixed rate and I say bait because it’s kind of probably a non brick and mortar institution or something like that, but I’ve been seeing fixed rates as low as 4.64% in that email and that’s down it used to be above five a few months ago.

If, if they do hike the rate again and that goes up with it, it could lead to more negativity. If they do hike, hike the rate again, depends on obviously how much and how if there’s a pattern, but my hope is that that rate keeps, continues to come down.

You know, the one thing I noticed is that a three year fixed rate was at 4.99%, which is the first time I saw that below 5% in a few months, and I mean, there’s an argument for that one. I mean, there’s an argument to say in three years you’re gonna probably have some variable, like some pretty good rate options on your hand. So not that I’m, I have a crystal ball, but if I did have a crystal ball, it might lead towards that three year fixed.

Denny: I wonder if that’s almost too long, though. 

James: It is.

Denny: But like there’s a reason that it’s low. Right? 

James: Yes

Denny: It has to be that banks are anticipating something happening and they’re trying to lock people in for longer than they probably should lock in for.

James: I guess it means you have to do the math, but three years at 4.99% versus five is a 4.64% as of February 15th. Yeah, you do some math and decide do you want to, are you willing to wait five years for your next mortgage? Are you willing to wait three years for your next mortgage? And I don’t know what the better answer is there. But variable is probably less appealing nowadays in the short term. The only appealing part about variable is the lower penalty to break it. But yeah, I think there’s gonna be more of a more of a push for fixed because in uncertain times, people want a little more certainty. 

Denny: We’ll talk more about fixed and variable in the next one but right now in talking to a mortgage broker last couple days, I think that 4.64% numbers kind of like a bat number to get people to call them. Usually those super low advertised numbers are for insured mortgages and when you have less than 20% down. I think the conventional five year fixed rate now is around five for an investment property, if you’re not living there, those numbers change a little bit too and I’ve heard 5.29% bBeing a decent rate right now for an investment property. And when you’re looking at variable comparatively primary right now 6.7% The better banks are offering like .4% off of that. So 6.3%-6.4% is kind of where your variable is going to land right now. 

There are some banks offering for variable, I guess they really don’t want people to take variable mortgages right now, but their discount is, is plus. Plus point five. Yeah, one of the banks is for variable mortgages right now. Which I mean, I don’t know who’s taking that one on at the moment. 6.7 plus point five to 7.2%. It’s getting up there.

James: Hopefully not for long, 

Denny: Hopefully.

James: What would you just overall sum up the opportunities in the moment for those that might be listening and just not getting into the market because of these high rates and uncertain times?

Denny: I think the sentiment is the same that we’ve kind of been preaching for the last six months is upsizing has a ton of opportunity right now. Your condo or your townhouse that you live in has not seen the decline in prices in the last 12 months that single family has. And yes, the interest rates suck and moving up the interest rate, moving or increasing your mortgage is going to be temporary monthly pain but long term I think a lot of opportunity moving up the real estate ladder in Greater Vancouver right now.

James: I agree. I agree. And I would say if you wait for rates to go down, you’re also waiting for prices to go up. So you know there’s, there’s positives to a better mortgage but the negative I think is a higher price tag.

If you’re on the fence Denny, just don’t know what to do and he wants someone to chat about your situation. What should someone do?

Denny: This is what we do every day. These are the conversations we have every day with consumers and and on the investment side to have had probably three or four in the last week of: “We have some extra money, seems like prices are down what should we do?”

We love sharing knowledge we love sharing what’s going on in real estate and where to find the, I hate using this word but, where to find the deal. James: Yeah, in particular for people looking for more space, I think those situations need to be analyzed on an individual basis and like a lot of the conversations I have and Denny’s having every week is giving a homeowner tips to improve the saleability of their place while also help giving them clarity on what and where to buy. Because the moment you have confidence in what you’re looking for, you want to be able to sell your place quickly. You don’t want to see a home that’s perfect for you and not be on, you know have your place in poor condition and just not ready to go. So right now, it’s February, often at this time, we’re telling potential homeowners to get your place ready that means make the landscaping, clean up the landscaping, paint where needed. Get your home presentable and start seeing some open houses, get out there start looking at properties so that you get more clarity on what you want to buy and the moment the right home comes up, your place is ready to go. And we’d love to chat with you about that.