David's thoughts on anything real estate related

See what’s selling in Kitsilano here 

What’s selling in the Vancouver Kitsilano Single Family Market? The Vancouver West Side Single Family Market continues to favour buyers. Unlike the rest of the West Side single family market, the Kitsilano market is now favouring sellers.

Six homes sold in Kitsilano last month. The most expensive home sold for $6.3M. This would have bought you a 105 year old home on a 49 foot wide lot Kits Point. This is one of my favourite areas in Vancouver. This property has been available for sale for a year and sold for over the asking price.

The least expensive home sold for $2.2M. This would have bought you a 92 year old triplex on 10th Avenue.

17 homes were available and on the market in Kitsilano last month. To have 6 home sell puts us in a seller’s market with 35% of the homes selling. Sold values in Kitsilano are at median price of $2,500,000 about $700,000 lower than the median price for a home in the West Side which is now at around $3,200,000. If you like to take a look at these sales, I have a new package you can download at this link: https://davidsetton.com/market-updates.html

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What’s hot What’s Not – Vancouver West Side Single Family Market Update for February 2020 The West Side single family market continues to favour buyers. Median prices are stable at $3.2M. Inventory came up a little bit to 500 homes listed and on the market. 35 homes sold in January. This is about 7% of the homes that were available. The market is favouring buyers.

What’s Hot (21% or more of the homes sold)

Which neighbourhoods are favouring sellers now? Kitsilano are strong and favouring sellers. 6 homes sold in Kitsilano last month. 17 homes were available and on the market in Kitsilano. This means that 35% of the homes that were available sold in Kitsilano. Remember that the real estate board defines a seller’s market when more that 21% of the homes sell in a given month.

Which price point strongest & favouring sellers? Any home priced under $2,500,000 is selling very quickly. This price point is strong with about 43% of homes selling. We actually saw 10 homes sell for under $2,000,000 last month. It has been years since this has happened.

What’s not hot (14% or less for homes sold in a given month)

Which neighbourhoods are weak and favouring buyers? South Granville only saw one home sell last month. With 61 home available and on the market this represents only 2% of the homes sold. Shaughnessy is also very weak with one home sold last month out of 73 homes that were available and on the market. This represents only 1%. Remember that the Vancouver Real Estate Board defines a market favouring buyers when less than 14% of the home sells in a given month.

Which price category is weak right now and favouring buyers? Anything over $4,500,000 is really weak. There are currently 275 properties that are priced over $4,500,000 and only 1% of these homes sold last month.

More about David

3 Ways to make Vancouver More Affordable

It's February again. You know what that means? You know what that means? It means that you may have missed declaring your Property Status regarding the Empty Home Tax. It doesn’t even matter if you are living in your home. You need to declare that you are indeed living in your own home. If you don’t make this declaration by February you are sent a nice little ‘discounted’ fine in the amount of $125 (assuming you pay it within 20 days). If you don’t it can jump up to $375. This is the part of the process that really bothers me.

Let’s assume that we are all ok with being told by the city that we must have someone living in our home if we travel for more than 6 months at a time. By fining homeowners for not declaring you are actually living in your home, it is almost like the city is saying you are guilty unless you prove otherwise. Didn’t Rogers Cable fail to launch negative option billing before being slammed by the public and regulators in the early 2000s?

I believe it should be assumed that you are living in your home unless you declare otherwise. It is the process that really bothers me.

What is even worse is if you want to dispute the late declaration fee fine. If you want to dispute the fine, you must first pay the full non-discounted penalty of $250. And guess what? If the CIty adjudicates themselves as being correct, YOU are charged a $25 “adjudication fee”. This is obviously to discourage people from disputing the charge. Does this seem democratic to you?. And guess how the city will rule regarding your dispute anyway? Guilty of course.

Two more questions I want to ask before closing out this video.

Has the Empty Home Tax made a difference to vacancy rates or the cost to rent a home in Vancouver. According to an article at Dailyhive.com vacancy rates actually stayed the same at around 1%. This means that this tax has not made more rental housing available. What about the cost to rent in Vancouver? Well this went up around 5% from the previous year. Last question. How do home buyers protect themselves from having to pay this tax when purchasing a home that is vacant? It is very important that your real estate agent write into the contract that the Seller is responsible to pay the Empty Home Tax.

Close out by saying I love Vancouver. I love the mountains, clean water and stable government. I just think we need to look more closely before introducing more taxes and red tape.

What do you think of the empty home tax process and the city asking us to rent out our homes if we travel for 6 months or more at a time?

If you have any questions about the Empty Home Tax or you are looking to purchase or sell a home in Vancouver, please feel free to contact me at 604-808-9796.