Keeping it Real
Meet Jacquie McCarnan your host for Keeping it Real, the Vancouver and area residential real estate podcast that aims to demystify all things real estate in our crazy market.
Jacquie has been a licensed Realtor since 2016 and, in that time, has come across just about every scenario you can think of in our residential market. From hoarder homes to those for sale by owners to crazy strata situations and more, Jacquie provides real stories to help you navigate real estate in Vancouver and surrounding areas.
Each episode of Keeping it Real is short and to the point and provides you with great information about the topic discussed. Jacquie is always available to answer more in-depth questions and is happy to feature your own experience in future episodes.
Episodes also contain additional, non-real estate info about local businesses, experiences, and hidden gems around town that will make you sound like a local expert!
If you live in Vancouver or surrounding areas you know that the #1 thing people talk about is real estate (then the weather) if you want to sound knowledgeable and up to date on the real estate part listen weekly to hear topical issues that affect our market. We try to pick the most interesting and current issues to demystify each week and eagerly anticipate your input.
Join us every week for the very newest info on residential real estate in Vancouver and area.
Keeping it Real
Ep. 43 How Will the Newest Rate Drop Effect Vancouver Real Estate?
Hey everybody, welcome back to Keeping it Real, the Vancouver. Oh my gosh. If you've listened to the show, you know the intro. I don't have to say it every single time, of course. Did you miss me Because I've taken a couple weeks off?
Speaker 1:I was just in Ontario for a week visiting my 94-year-old mom, who is amazing and has a better memory than me, which I find considerably concerning. Look, I almost forgot the word concerning, but I'm back now and have some interesting information on the market in North Vancouver, the lower mainland generally, but and you know maybe the rest of Canada. But I'm going to regale you guys with some of the stuff that I have found out over the last couple of weeks. So, if you follow this sort of thing, you know that sales increased quite a bit in the fall of 2024, so much so that they actually outstripped the December 2023 by about 30%, which is a consistent increase since September 2024. So things started really picking up in the fall of last year again. Finally, and for those armchair realtors and you guys know who you are you're the ones who always corner me at parties and say, hey, I hear the bottoms falling out of the market or houses are selling for less. I always just laugh because I'm not quite sure where these people get their information. But we actually are not. It's just a modest increase over last year at this time, but we are up 0.5% in the average home price in North Vancouver. So the prices have not gone down despite having almost a full year, like a good nine months of pretty slow activity through 2024.
Speaker 1:I could run the actual numbers for you guys. Stats are a little bit boring and unless you are super, super into it it doesn't make a ton of sense. Essentially, the big question everybody asks other than how's the market, which I get all the time um, and which I, if you've listened to this podcast, you know how much I laugh at that, um, that comment, because the market can be single family homes in north vancouver or condos in abbotsford. All the, all these factors factor into, um, that was redundant. Factor into again uh, what, where the market is, or in at what time, uh, in at what point in time? Sorry, obviously I haven't done my podcast in a couple weeks so I'm a little out of practice, but anyway, the big question that most people ask is who has the benefit right now, buyers or sellers?
Speaker 1:So I want to explain that, at its most basic level, a seller's market means that there are more buyers than there are listings, and a buyer's market means that there are more listings than there are buyers. So where are we at right now, in January, february 2025? Well, after a very long period of being in a buyer's market or even a balanced market, but in Vancouver, in the lower mainland, a balanced market, which means we're selling through the inventory at a regular rate. Even a balanced market looks like a buyer's market in Vancouver, because we are so accustomed to being in a seller's market and we're back there now. So, as of December 2024, we are firmly back in a seller's market, which is great news for anybody who was thinking about listing their house in 2022 and then just missed the great boom of kind of those COVID years and decided to sit on things until the market recovered, which it most certainly has. But another slightly weird thing about Vancouver, lower mainland, is that buyers are also in a pretty good position right now, with the drop in the interest rates that just took place. This week we are now looking at a 3% mortgage rate, which is getting close to what we had before, and now the buyer activity is coming up and the timing is pretty fortuitous as well, because for anybody who follows lower mainland real estate, you know that things really tend to pick up in the spring, and here spring is defined basically by the weather. So we have had such a mild winter that we are starting to see more and more and more listings come online earlier in the year than we normally would.
Speaker 1:So last year, january I think, it was snowing a lot. I don't remember it was kind of a daze for me, but when it's snowing a lot we tend to see the number of listings not be quite as robust as they have been so far this year. I mean, come on, it's been so nice that I have sorry, I've played pickleball outside I don't know 12 times in January, but it is supposed to snow this weekend. So we'll see what happens and how that might affect listings. I think you know people who are thinking about listing and have had the conversations with their realtor. They're all keyed up and ready to go. So it's not going to. Really I don't think it's going to have much of an effect.
Speaker 1:To be perfectly honest with you, what we're not seeing a ton of just yet because we are getting a lot of listings we're not seeing a ton of just yet, because we are getting a lot of listings. We're not seeing a ton of multiple offer bidding wars that we were seeing in all of last half of 2020, all of 2021 and the first half of 2022. So that kind of presents an opportunity for buyers who have been sitting on the fence or haven't quite seen something. That's perfect, since the interest rates are low, you could buy something that ticks three quarters of your boxes and make it what you want it to be. But if you wait a couple of months, it's possible that we are going to be back into those very crazy bidding war type situations where you are taking a chance.
Speaker 1:I mean, now we have the three-day rescission period and I said this, I think, in the last podcast. So let's say you make a subject-free offer and then you have the three-day rescission period. You can't do an inspection in those three days. That's not permitted. You can withdraw at any time during those three days and you have to pay 0.25% of the purchase price or the agreed-upon purchase price, which is a drag. But if you don't have subjects and you haven't done an inspection, then you are leaving yourself open to the possibility of getting into something very expensive down the road. Which brings me to a point I like to make to everybody all the time, even if you're not my client.
Speaker 1:I would never allow a client of mine to purchase a property without an inspection, particularly if it's of a certain age or if it's in an older condo building. You know it's just too dangerous and you could. You could be buying something that is just a mess and you can't tell because the the issues are hidden. Homeowners are at it, have a duty to disclose, and so do we as realtors. If we know something is wrong with a property, we have to tell you. But if we can't see it and we don't know about it, and we don't tell you about it because we don't know about it, obviously and you buy a place with no inspection and then the water main to the road has to be replaced, which is incredibly expensive and something that you can't see, then you're unprotected. So I just don't let my clients purchase without an inspection. So I bet you're wondering if you see a place on the weekend and they're taking offers on Tuesday, how are you going to make a subject-free offer? Well, usually what happens is we get the inspector in there on a Monday. This is risky because if the inspector goes in and finds a bunch of things wrong with the property and you decide you don't want it, you still have to pay for the inspection, which is anywhere, depending on the size of the place, from something like $500 to $2,000, you know for a much bigger place.
Speaker 1:I'm personally of the opinion that it does the seller a great service to do a pre-inspection ahead of listing, because then there are no surprises when things come up. I really like to do that, particularly if there's a home that is a bit older. For any of you people listening out there who have an older home that you are thinking about selling, just keep that in mind. When I have a listing that's a little bit older, I do a pre-inspection and I pay for it. You don't pay for it, so just keep that in mind. It's an added service. A lot of realtors do it, a lot, don't?
Speaker 1:I just find that it makes a lot of sense because if we get to the point where we have an accepted offer and it has a subject to inspection and the buyer comes back and says, oh, we found all this stuff wrong with it, we want a reduction. I've already disclosed everything that's wrong with it. Your inspector is not going to find something that mine didn't, and if they did, then we would. If there was a discrepancy between your inspector's report and mine, then we would investigate further before having to go back to my sellers and say they want a reduction. It really saves a lot of heartache for my sellers.
Speaker 1:Like, imagine this. Here's a great scenario. I have a house listed for $2.5 million. We get an offer for 2.45 and we accept that, and then the buyer does an inspection and comes back and says, oh, we found this, this, this and this wrong. We now want it for $2.350, so $100,000 off. And because I have in hand a pre-inspection report, I can compare it to what they're saying. To what they're saying, and if they say, well, this whole bathroom needs to be replaced, I can go back to our inspection report and say, well, our inspector found that there was a tiny bit of moisture behind the faucets, but that costs this much to fix. So it's a strategy that I use and a lot of other agents use. Not everybody does, but I just find it to be really super helpful. Not everybody does, but I just find it to be really super helpful.
Speaker 1:Okay, moving on, I bet you are all wondering how the new reduction in interest rates this week from the Bank of Canada is going to affect our market, and I am wondering that too. Traditionally, a drop in interest rates means a pickup in the number of transactions and I think that's probably going to happen. But as I mentioned, I think, in episode 42, which is the last episode there is so much uncertainty right now with the threat of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. It is the 31st of January, so tomorrow we will possibly find out I don't know why it would be on a Saturday, but we will possibly find out if the US is going to impose tariffs on Canadian imported goods into the United States and if we are going to retaliate. I recognize that some of this information has been said in a previous podcast of this information has been said in a previous podcast, but I just want to keep reiterating that if the US imposes tariffs on Canadian imports and Canada has retaliatory tariffs, a couple of things could happen. The Bank of Canada might respond by increasing interest rates to control inflation, so possibly we'll see an increase in rates this year.
Speaker 1:There are a couple other you know economic things that could happen. Obviously, job loss is a significant factor here. If there are tariffs on Canadian imports, and including softwood lumber, which employs people in BC, then we might see some job loss and then people, you know, needing to sell their homes because they can no longer afford the mortgage. Trade war could decrease the value of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar, which, oh God can you imagine which then would make goods more expensive, household goods more expensive. Economists are predicting that, basically, what happens next is going to depend on what happens next. So if inflation becomes a major issue, the Bank of Canada will very likely bring the rates up a little bit. If economic growth slows down quite a bit, then possibly the Bank of Canada will cut the rates more.
Speaker 1:So again, until we see the effects of what the policies that are being proposed in the US have on Canada, we aren't really going to know. All we can discuss is really what's happening right now, and right now we know that interest rates are low. We have a significant amount of inventory, but not a ton of old inventory. We have a lot of buyers looking and it's a good time to think about selling your home, certainly in the next couple of months, because even if all this stuff does happen from the US. It is going to take a little bit a couple of, you know, six months for us to see the actual effects of that. So we have a good three to six months of status quo likely, I would think. I mean, obviously I'm not an economist and I'm going to put a little disclaimer on this to that effect. Basically, we have to keep our eye on the ball right now. We have to watch what the economic indicators are showing us and if you are thinking of making a move in real estate, this is the time to start strategizing about that.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I can help you with that. This is what I live and breathe, as you know. I'm happy to help you at any time and give you my expertise. Thanks for listening to Keeping it Real. I try to come up with a couple of these a month. Now I'm not going to be doing it every week like last year, but I want to keep you guys as informed as possible and just give you the info to do with what you please.
Speaker 1:You can get Keeping it Real anywhere. You get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or you can head over to my website, northvanhomesalescom slash podcast, to get all of the episodes. I also have a whole bunch of cool stuff on that website, including buyer's guides and seller's guides and some videos, information on, you know, ways to set your house up to sell it for more money or less, whatever all the tips and tricks for winning at real estate here in the Lower Mainland. I'm always interested in your feedback. I get a lot of feedback on this podcast and I try to incorporate it into each episode when I can, unless it's mean, which it hardly ever is. So feel free to send me an email, info at northvanhomesalescom, and I will do my best to answer any questions you have anytime. Thanks again, have a fantastic weekend.
