Alberta real estate - Page 2

JustMe · #31 03-03-2016, 11:37 AM

This is the reality. Folks can ask whatever they want, but a realtor, supposedly in the know, has told me that anything that is selling has been deeply discounted from it's asking price. Also, he doesn't expect the real drops to occur until after July when the severence packages and UI end. Listings might be the same as a year ago, but nothing is moving. The fact of the matter appears to be we ain't seen nothing yet... Wait 6 months or a years!

Quote:

Originally Posted by spirt4u

I watch house prices on mls for fun and just to see movement. One older house in High river that I know was renovated went from $350 to 319 and now is sitting at 310. was looking at a foreclosure house has gone from 240 down to 229 in another town. Some listings the price doesn't even move. Prices are coming down, you just don't see it on a weekly basis. One site I found actually shows the DOM, when the house gets relisted lower it drops to zero DOM. A good realtor working for you will be able to tell you the whole history of the listed property.

ak77 · #32 03-03-2016, 03:04 PM

out of all the people answering here, only one looked at it from different angle. How long have you been seeing each other. How are you buying the house? As a family? Or one gets the mtg and other pitching in?
Get legal advise about situation. It will suck royally when (or, if you are optimist, IF) it ends and you have to sell the house because partner wants to bounce. Or if partner stops paying and banks comes. Or if you overextend yourself counting on extra $$ for it from the girlfriend, and it's not there...

Go buy a bottle of scotch, call you father, or uncle, or anyone 15-20 years older, finish the bottle while talking about them losing their houses in divorce. Make sure you don't get so shtfaced that you don't remember the conversation.

After that talk to a lawyer.

After that - don't buy the house halfsies with someone unless you are married.

But then again... people say - don't get married.

JETDUDE · #33 03-03-2016, 03:55 PM

if its your primary residence better to buy than wait IMO . Especially if you are currently renting ( no current house to sell )
calcualate the equity you could be getting every month instead of rent payments .
I dont see any major home prices like in the 80's . maybe max a 10% drop comapred to 2015 . unless interest rates start climbing which is very unlikely

heres an interesting article : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle24398735/

its currently a buyers market . dont be in a rush but I would definetly be looking if i was in the market for a primary residence . you can always offer low , many people are scared to but get a realtor with some balls and get a deal !

deerguy · #34 03-03-2016, 05:35 PM

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Originally Posted by Wild&Free

imo, that amount of lack of trust will only hasten the end.

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Originally Posted by Scott h

If this is a consideration , don't get married.

Quote:

Originally Posted by winged1

I'd recommend better legal advise than this.

It's attitudes like this that keep the courts full of Men loosing everything. How many members on here have been taken to the ringers and wished they would have got a prenup to cover their tails? Way better chance of getting separated then having your house burn down yet fire insurance is jus "common sense"

Scott h · #35 03-03-2016, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deerguy

It's attitudes like this that keep the courts full of Men loosing everything. How many members on here have been taken to the ringers and wished they would have got a prenup to cover their tails? Way better chance of getting separated then having your house burn down yet fire insurance is jus "common sense"

I didn't say anything against a pre nup, but asking your soon to be wife to pay her share of a mortgage with a "rent check" may be going a bit far.

winged1 · #36 03-03-2016, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deerguy

It's attitudes like this that keep the courts full of Men loosing everything. How many members on here have been taken to the ringers and wished they would have got a prenup to cover their tails? Way better chance of getting separated then having your house burn down yet fire insurance is jus "common sense"

Quote:

Originally Posted by winged1

I'd recommend better legal advise than this.

are you saying that getting legal advice puts more men in courts? Pretty sure you'd be full of **** on that one.

winged1 · #37 03-03-2016, 06:41 PM

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ESOXangler · #38 03-03-2016, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deerguy

It's attitudes like this that keep the courts full of Men loosing everything. How many members on here have been taken to the ringers and wished they would have got a prenup to cover their tails? Way better chance of getting separated then having your house burn down yet fire insurance is jus "common sense"

I wouldn't marry a woman that didn't consider half of our stuff hers! We worked for it, we earned it and therefore she gets half! anyone willing to spend 12 years waking up to me deserves a premium. Granted there's the poor guy that occasionally gets screwed over but usually it was either bad taste in women or the guy was a dick. If you have the mentality that what you make is all yours, you're better off alone. Save the hassle and enjoy your own company.

roper1 · #39 03-03-2016, 08:54 PM

To the OP. Look at the other side of the coin. There is almost zero catalyst to make real estate appreciate in value, to cost more anywhere here in the short to medium term. 2-5 years, IMO. Were you to buy today, this then means your home will be highly unlikely to rise in value, therefore a poor investment at the moment.

Home values have way more potential downside than upside, the price will soften more. Except for cheap money, it would already have been much worse. Save more downpayment, watch & wait, there will be opportunity on a home with a lot of money saved. Good luck.

sillyak · #40 03-04-2016, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roper1

To the OP. Look at the other side of the coin. There is almost zero catalyst to make real estate appreciate in value, to cost more anywhere here in the short to medium term. 2-5 years, IMO. Were you to buy today, this then means your home will be highly unlikely to rise in value, therefore a poor investment at the moment.

Home values have way more potential downside than upside, the price will soften more. Except for cheap money, it would already have been much worse. Save more downpayment, watch & wait, there will be opportunity on a home with a lot of money saved. Good luck.

X2. Be patient OP.

Sneeze · #41 03-04-2016, 10:00 AM

The house that prevents you from freezing to death is not an investment.

Once you own a home for your family, any other properties you buy are investments.

Who cares if you loose 20k in make believe numbers on paper if you own a nice safe place for your woman to raise your kids.

Putting your life on hold to try and time the real estate market will mean loosing out on a whole lot of other great things life can bring.

ESOXangler · #42 03-04-2016, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sneeze

The house that prevents you from freezing to death is not an investment.

Once you own a home for your family, any other properties you buy are investments.

Who cares if you loose 20k in make believe numbers on paper if you own a nice safe place for your woman to raise your kids.

Putting your life on hold to try and time the real estate market will mean loosing out on a whole lot of other great things life can bring.

This is some solid advice right here!

SamSteele · #43 03-04-2016, 10:12 AM

To the OP,

I'm not in Calgary (Edmonton) but I'm in the middle of selling my acreage and buying another. This isn't out of necessity but rather desire to get another acreage with more land.

My observations are:
- Listed our place at the end of January, had an offer mid-Feb and it is pending the sale of their starter home in the city.
- Price reduction from list was roughly 5%, which seems not bad. Most of those that have sold in the past few months have been discounted $25-35k.
- There are very limited options for properties for sale in our region. Some have been sitting for months with good reason (overpriced, serious building issues, terrible locations, etc) but any property that has potential is being snapped up quickly.
- The number of acreages that sold in our region since January this year is half of what it was last year.
- Many deals are pending the sale of other homes, which creates a domino effect if one falls through. If you are able to make a "clean" offer you will have much more strength to negotiate.

I can't help with the pre-nup advice. Been happily married for 15 years. That said, we didn't live together until we were married...

SS

Scott h · #44 03-04-2016, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roper1

To the OP. Look at the other side of the coin. There is almost zero catalyst to make real estate appreciate in value, to cost more anywhere here in the short to medium term. 2-5 years, IMO. Were you to buy today, this then means your home will be highly unlikely to rise in value, therefore a poor investment at the moment.

Home values have way more potential downside than upside, the price will soften more. Except for cheap money, it would already have been much worse. Save more downpayment, watch & wait, there will be opportunity on a home with a lot of money saved. Good luck.

I couldn't agree more. I had a house in Calgary appraised in 2014 at around $550K. The similar homes around it are now listed at around $500K and are NOT SELLING.If I had bought the same house in 2014 I would be $50K down already and there is no end in site to lowering prices. In the near future I'm sure their will be many people who start low balling a number of these homes at 10, 20 or even 30% under asking and sooner or later someone will sell. My brother in law bought a place in Palm Springs that was well over $1 million for just over $500 K in 2009. They had to sell and he had cash.

SubMOA · #45 03-04-2016, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sneeze

The house that prevents you from freezing to death is not an investment.

Once you own a home for your family, any other properties you buy are investments.

Who cares if you loose 20k in make believe numbers on paper if you own a nice safe place for your woman to raise your kids.

Putting your life on hold to try and time the real estate market will mean loosing out on a whole lot of other great things life can bring.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

raab · #46 03-04-2016, 04:05 PM

Depends what your looking to buy. It sounds like you want a starter home so I'm guessing you'd be looking in the 350k and under. From what I've heard these homes actually increase in value during a downturn. The cause is that a lot of people can no longer afford their 500k plus homes and downsize. Another thing to look at is how long youll be owning the home. If you plan to own the home 10+ years I wouldn't really worry to much if it lost 10%-20% in the next year or two because when you go to sell in 10-15 years the market should have recovered. Sure you might be able to time the market and have more equity, but you also might miss out on a great opportunity in the mean time.

As far as the relationship advice goes everyone has different things that work for them. So find out what works for you and your soon to be wife. The one thing I will say is that if you go into a marriage expecting it to end, it most likely will.

Astrocyte · #47 03-04-2016, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raab

Depends what your looking to buy. It sounds like you want a starter home so I'm guessing you'd be looking in the 350k and under. From what I've heard these homes actually increase in value during a downturn. The cause is that a lot of people can no longer afford their 500k plus homes and downsize. Another thing to look at is how long youll be owning the home. If you plan to own the home 10+ years I wouldn't really worry to much if it lost 10%-20% in the next year or two because when you go to sell in 10-15 years the market should have recovered. Sure you might be able to time the market and have more equity, but you also might miss out on a great opportunity in the mean time.

As far as the relationship advice goes everyone has different things that work for them. So find out what works for you and your soon to be wife. The one thing I will say is that if you go into a marriage expecting it to end, it most likely will.

It certainly does depend on the type of home one is looking to buy. Personally I think buying a first home a person should not be thinking "if I do not make $_____ on this property then it is not on the list". It should be as you said, looking for what it can provide for 10-15 years, can I afford it continuously, am I happy there and so on. The economy will not be in the tank forever, despite the fear some individuals have.

If the OP is looking to buy a home then they are looking to buy a home. Simple as that. The more expensive 500k+ homes are sitting there untouched because people cannot afford them as easily right now. This forces buyers to look at the more reasonably priced homes. I have watched a few homes in that starter price get sold relatively quickly while others in the 500k+ bracket are still listed. Maybe they were just lucky sales I have no idea but if you watch the lower prices homes on the mls they do tend to sell quicker.

My mother is actually looking to put her St. Albert home on the market very soon here. That home is of starter home value, I am interested to see if it will be sold quicker than another I have been watching in a bit more expensive part of town (Erin Ridge). Realtor said she would have no problem selling in that starter home price range but I think all Realtors will say that at the start lol.