I do appologize for my poor blogging. What happened…. was that for some reason my blog had attracted thousands of spam responses. I would be getting litteraly hundreds of bogus responses that I had to filter through. Finally we seem to have it figured out and I will attempt this once again.

My brief synopsis of the year thus far is as follows:

Late winter to early spring was very slow for our market. We did see a real flurry of activity in March and April, but with the weather, things cooled off for May. Things have been hopping again in June. You wouldn’t think that real estate would be so weather dependant, but since there is no economical explanation for the slower period I will stick with my weather theory. I predict that the summer will be more of a normal market. The Toronto market has been hot, and we ussually follow.

Our office took a tour through” The New Village”. Our tour was hosted by John Hawley, founder of the Village. We were all impressed with the value of the models viewed. Entry level is in the low 300′s, yet if you loaded up your dream house, you could push a million. Congratulations to Gatta Homes for being the new builder for the remaining lots in the first two phases. There are roughly 6 lots remaining. Look for renderings and models on out NOTL Realty web site. (comming soon). Brookfield homes have some wonderful inventory that they wish to move. The New model home is outstanding.

HACKED BY PDK A.K.A NEC

DEC 2011

The new year is upon us and I have not added a new post to my blog in nearly 5 months. Lame. To be honest, I have had a little difficulty figuring out how to approve the posts that are sent in. Moreover, most of the posts that I receive seem to be spam or written in Russian.

It seems fitting that the first real post that I put up should be real estate related. Real Estate in Niagara on the Lake is very unique and does not follow the same trends as most areas in Ontario. Niagara on the Lake (NOTL) is a destination market. People move here because they want to, not because they have to. It is a semi isolated little pocket of “niceness” to where many people like to retire. We have history, theatres, old homes, wine, tender fruit and beautiful scenery (amongst many other amenities). The point being, our property values have maintained quite nicely over a long period of time and through many diverse real estate markets. Our urban boundaries are small and there is not much room for expansion which creates a demand for our real estate. Lets say conservatively there might be 500,000 baby boomers planning to retire over the next 10 years or so. Lets say just one percent of these retirees decide to move to our town, it would add another 5000 people to a population of approximately 16,000. The urban boundary of the old town holds less than 6000 people.  

The above being said, the real estate market in Ontario has been for the most part steady with all that has gone on in the past few years. Our biggest source of imported buyers is from the GTA. The Toronto market has been for the most part steady. We seem to have as bany new buyers as ever. I would say that our greatest problem at the moment is a lack of inventory in the “Old Town”. What this means is that I think our prices will increase over the next year. I will not put a figure on it, but I would suspect it will be steady, much like what is predicted for the areas from which people are coming from.

The market will be more of a “normal market”. People will not be rushing to make pressured decisions. Our town is small enough that buyers can quickly get a grip on what is available and what is fair market value. We have seen that homes must be priced properly, and within certain thresholds. $700,000 to $1,000,000 is a very difficult price range. Thus a home that is worth roughly $700,000 should be priced at $699,000. Thus, fishing for $749,000 is difficult.

Interest rates appear as if they will maintain their “still” historically low levels. This being said, it is more difficult to attain a mortgage now than it was 3 years ago. The fact is however, most people who buy in the “Old Town”, do not require hefty mortgages, if any at all. Most people are downsizing for retirement. In a funny way, a rate hike might actually stimulate our market as it would mean better returns in investment portfolios.

I think that 2011 will be a decent year in real estate for our town. Not spectacular, but credible.

I suppose there is a lot more to say, but I will open this topic up for debate.

Hello world!  Welcome to our new and improved web site.  First and foremost, I wanted to create a site that was easy to use and visually attractive, a site that showcased our clients homes to our maximum capability.  I took my time in coming up with the layout. So many web sites that I visit are filled with endless links which take too long to load etc. We wanted to stay away from this type of site.

We still have a way to go. Some of the new features to come will include a flash player located within the actual property listing which can display as many pictures as we can take. Currently there are only 3.  We do however, include a virtual tour of most of our homes for sale, be sure to visit the tours. Stephen Duckworth, our photographer does a great job. 

I am excited about the Blog portion of the site. I hope to give my spin on many important topics such as real estate, local news, sports and yes…. wine.

I will keep this first post simple and ask for your opinion on the site. I would appreciate the feedback both good and bad.

Niagara on the lake Realty,

Chris Bowron – Broker of record