Newfoundland

Today is the first anniversary of my blogging about Real Estate in St. John's, Newfoundland. I began blogging on ActiveRain one year ago today. The last year has gone by in a flash. I have written 108 blog posts (including a couple of reblogs) with 3 of them being featured posts.

Many of them have been about St. John's, Newfoundland or some other community that I serve. I have 35 subscribers from AR and a few from outside who subscribe by RSS feed. I have gained a total of 61,248 points (I can fly anywhere ActiveRain flies). ;)

As of today, I am ranked by ActiveRain as number 1 in Newfoundland, number 1 in Avalon Region and number 1 in St. John's. I have established at least 50 new friends both on ActiveRain, Facebook and Twitter as a result of my blogging about real estate on ActiveRain.

My First Post on the blog was about Negotiating For Real Estate in St. John's Newfoundland. I still use that post as a resource to pass along to prospective buyers and sellers though I have made a few improvements along the way.

I can't tell you all I have learned about marketing on the web through blogging. I have learned about Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and sundry other great social media. I know about linkbacks, pingbacks, search engine optimization, wiggets, Wordpress and Wombits (You heard about Wombits right?).

I have networked with hundreds of real estate people all over North America through blogging. Best of all, I have grown my business as a direct result of my writing. Yet I have gained a lot more than business. It has been a real blast!

Thanks to all you ActiveRainers who have made the last year well worth spending with you. Thanks to all my clients and prospective buyers and sellers who have commented on my real estate blog both in person and sometimes in the comments at the end. I have gained knowledge, business and satisfaction from the experience that I want to take this opportunity to thank you all!

So where do we go from here? I hear the words of Dory the little blue forgetful fish in the movie "Finding Nemo". She encouraged her friend Merlin to "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." Its good advice for all of us who blog about real estate.

There are so very few real estate bloggers in St. John's Newfoundland. If anyone of them is reading this and would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch. I would be glad to help you find your own voice.

My goal is to keep on blogging and grow even more so that I will be better a year from now than I am today. The key is to never stop improving and when it comes to blogging, there is lots more to learn.

If you are buyer and/or seller of real estate in St. John's or the surrounding areas in Newfoundland, I want you to receive the best information I can give to help you along the way. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch. I am happy to assist in any way I can!

To Look At Real Estate in St. John's.

_____________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

Click Here To SUBSCRIBE. Your Mother will definitely approve!

We have a heady real estate market in St. John’s, Newfoundland right now.  Perhaps we should ask, "Is it getting a little too heady?  Are buyers beginning to be too aggressive?  Are consumers just resigned to the fact that prices are climbing more?" 

For many years our market in St. John's was balanced and prices were advancing modestly.  A two to three percent rise was the norm.  Then, Newfoundland's average prices were third lowest in the country.  But things are different today.  Annual increases in average prices have risen by >10% in the last two years.  Average prices in Newfoundland are now 5th lowest in Canada.  Current listing prices are now pushing the limits. 

I have recently seen some regular single family bungalows listed and selling for over $300,000 and some rather ordinary two story homes selling in the $400,000 range.  Larger homes that a couple of years ago were listed at $500,000 or $600,000, are now in the $800,000 to even a $1,000,000 range. 

Are Newfoundlanders losing the value of money all together?  If buyers will pay any price, sellers will keep asking for more.  Why wouldn’t they.  The “greater fool theory” is alive and well.  

I have real concerns that when home owners begin to see interest rates rise later this year there will be an increase in financial pressure on quite a few families.  In the last 21 years I have seen a sellers markets swing to buyers market on a few occasions.  This market could turn back if people have to unload their homes at aggressive discounts just to avoid financial demise.  Prices can fall as easily as they climbed, especially if there is little economic support for inflation. 

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has made borrowing for a home easy in Canada.  Perhaps it is a little too easy for Newfoundland right now.  Low down payment requirements and low interest rates are driving demand.  The Federal Government seems unconcerned that people are spending their way out of the recession.  Indeed they encourage it.  But when money supply tightens, we know what can happen to real estate prices.  The American market has demonstrated that very well in the last two years. 

Just as the price chart trend is pushing to new highs today it can quickly fall back down when this bubble pops.  While Canada's economy is in recovery mode, the real estate market in Newfoundland is riding to a new high.  Perhaps it's time it took a little breather. 

My advice to home buyers today is to be careful.  Make sure you can afford the payments if the interest rates rise by as much as 3%.  Keep your common sense about you so you don't over spend because in my view, buyer demand and market speculation are getting a little out of hand in St. John's Newfoundland. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

Click Here To SUBSCRIBE. Your Mother will definitely approve!

PETA gets pied in the face in St. John's Newfoundland today. A local radio station VOCM reported on their website today that a planned protest by PETA against the seal hunt was sabotaged. The deed was done by a pie throwing puppy dog know as The Downhomer magazine mascot 'Salty Dog'.

Apparently the PETA protester, a young woman from Vancouver, Emily Lavender was standing outside the Delta Hotel, in St. John's protesting the seal hunt holding a sign saying "Stop the Seal Slaughter". Prime Minister Harper was inside the Hotel addressing the Canadian Construction Association conference at the time.

Soon after the PETA protester was joined by someone dressed in a seal suit. That person, a Newfoundlander, took off the outfit and began saying "Down with PETA". Apparently she was visibly embarrassed but stayed in her location.

Later someone dressed in a 'Salty Dog' suit came up and put a pie in her face. It caused quite a stir on New Gower Street and the RNC arrived to talk to the protester.

It was also reported on by the Telegram that last week someone from PETA threw a pie in the face of the Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea to protest her support for the seal hunt.

This unfortunate retaliation for that assault was paralleled as yet another needless prank that does more damage to any counter arguments than it does good. However one must not rule out the possibility that PETA itself orchestrated the whole affair to engender sympathy after its assault on the Federal Minister.

While I very much support a humane and regulated seal hunt and the thousands of people who make their living this way, I do not advocate this type of violence of one group against the other. It precipitates escalating tensions between human beings, leads to misrepresentations of the issues and hinders the process of due justice for assaults of this kind.

It is better to treat the protests of PETA as illogical and hypocritical gibberish that is exposed for what it is by the clear arguments from reasonable people who can define the issues with truth. This type of action is merely a cop out.

Photo insert by Keith Gosse/The Telegram

______________________________________________________________

About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

Click Here To SUBSCRIBE. Your Mother will definitely approve!

The MLS trends Newfoundland and Labrador housing market information was released today for the forth quarter of 2009. The market continued to demonstrate strong sales favouring sellers. The number of sales moved up as did the average prices for residential sales. Here is a summary of the main points noted in the release.

• MLS sales increased 7.5% to 1,293 compared to the same quarter in 2008 at 1,203.

• Forth quarter 2009 MLS residential average house prices climbed 10% to $212,992 compared to $193,529 during the same quarter in 2008.

• There were 1,257 new residential listings during the fourth quarter compared to 1,463 during the same period in 2008.

• The sales to active listings in the forth quarter 2009 averaged 29% compared to 26% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

• The report also says that Canadian mortgage rates are expected to remain historically low during the first half of 2010 and increase gradually during the second half, as bond yields start to increase.
  

• For 2010 the posted 5 year mortgage rate is expected to be 5.49% to 6%. The record low bank rate sits at 0.25% with prime at 2.25% and the posted 5 year fixed mortgage rate at 5.49% at major Canadian banks.

These statistics are from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation release for January 2010.

For more information on how your home value has been affected get in touch for a free no obligation market evaluation.

To purchase a home using the power of MLS search providing you current information immediately upon being listed call me today.

______________________________________________________________

About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

Click Here To SUBSCRIBE. Your Mother will definitely approve!

"Oh the horror of it all!" So goes the story of the newest proposed development in St. John's. This week Fortis Properties Corporation announced plans to build a 15 story office building in downtown St. John's. It seems some residents of St. John's are still in shock that development of the capital city might lead to new construction in the downtown core. But the thought of building a high rise tower that exceeds the city's height restriction is pushing some to such states of alarm on a par with those reactions to the earthquake in Haiti.

The sensationalizing CBC news article "Critics Slam St. John's Highrise Proposal" quotes Shane O'Dea, a herritage advocate in St. John's, "I was horrified. There is no design. These are two blocks."

Others left their comments at the end of the article like these.

slowkids wrote: "Oh the horror they're building downtown I think Im going to have nightmares about this one."

WallaceRyan wrote: "Simply put, anyone who likes this development has no taste."

LovesdatFog said: "The mismash of everything going on is what gives downtown it's charm! Every tourist I have EVER spoken to cannot stop talking about how much they love downtown St. John's."

Some people argued quite logically for the idea of preserving the old look of St. John's.

NLViking said: "I am one of the people who will categorically lose my view of the harbour and narrows and I am 100% behind this development. I wholeheartedly reject the notion of building something like this in on Kenmount Road or out on Stavanger. People aren't wrong for wanting to have offices downtown!"

Comman Sense 18 writes: As a firefighter in this great city, I am afraid for my life every time we respond to a working structure fire in the downtown area. I'm sure most people get the jitters every time they hook a fire in your average bungalow or 2 story home, but when a 100 year old, run down piece of junk burns (most likely auto ignites because of some faulty wiring that Benjamin Franklin worked on is after shorting out) I can tell you that every one of those firemen that are trying to save the death trap of a home or business, they are pretty nervous.

Whatever your take, it is probably inevitable that there will be a need for more downtown office space. And that along with the greater need for adequate parking will drive this or some other project forward in the near future. Personally I do not oppose downtown development as long as there is adequate parking provided for in the development.

Businesses downtown will benefit from greater commerce in the area. The one elephant in the room that it seems no one is talking about is the increased demand on the road infrastructure. As St. John's grows it must take a serious look at the need for a modern subway system. Things are only going to get more congested in the downtown core as development expands.

In my view the city needs to begin thinking about putting a subway from one end of Water Street to the other with lots of parking at either end. This would take the pressure off of the core area as those working in the downtown would just park at the subway station and take a train into the downtown center.

It would probably take a billion dollars or more to do it but as the downtown area continues to grow, it is going to need greater transportation efficiencies. The the roads are simply too tight for many more vehicles. Without some forward thinking plans and efforts now the city will be into real gridlock congestion in the years ahead.

________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: R. Greg Osmond is a Platinum Award winning Realtor dedicated to serving the people of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, Kilbride, Goulds, Conception Bay South (CBS), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, Torbay- Flatrock- Pouch Cove, and Logy Bay - Middle Cove - Outer Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. For over 21 years Greg has been practicing in Real Estate. He can be reached at 709-895-2500.

Want to get in touch? Email rgosmond1@gmail.com. For more information, please visit http://www.rgregosmond.com. Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for helping my clients with buying and selling real estate! If there is any way I can be of service to you today, please feel free to contact me!

Click Here To SUBSCRIBE. Your Mother will definitely approve!