There might not be a more dichotomous real estate world than what you find in New York State. To say that the world of real estate and investing is different in midtown Manhattan than it is in the rest of New York is to possibly make the biggest understatement humanly possible. There are truly two different worlds when it comes to real estate, and while there are almost no single family homes in Manhattan, condos, co-ops and apartments dominate due to space restrictions, the 11 million New York residents that live outside of the metro area prefer to call the traditional single family home home. So, how are these two areas reacting to the current nationwide real estate slump? It really depends on which numbers you look at.
In a CNN article dated May 15, 2007, housing prices from the first quarter of 2007 are analyzed and compared to the same quarter in 2006. The city of New York, including Long Island and Northern New Jersey hung tough, sporting a modest 1 percent rise in home prices. But things are far from smooth throughout the state. Looking at the White Plains section of New York, prices were actually far healthier, with a rise of over 2 percent in home prices. A tad further south in Edison, New Jersey, the outlook was a bit more grim, with a decrease in home prices of almost 3 and a half percent compared to last year. The best performing area was actually Newark, with a rise of four and half percent. Upstate in Buffalo and the Niagara Falls area, prices fell over three percent. But in Albany and the Binghamton area, prices are robust, with increases of 6 percent and 9 percent, respectively. So, what does all this mean?
It means that New York is one of the most complicated patchworks of real estate investing in the country. There seems to be a real migration out of the city to areas upstate. Even towns like Syracuse and Rochester, known more for their snowfall then their real estate prices, showed modest increases in value that much of the eastern United States couldn’t match. But don’t think the city was suffering, either.
According to a May 2007 article published on the New York real estate site The Real Deal, the average price for a Manhattan apartment was up a healthy 4.5 percent during the first quarter of 2007 to $835,000. Of course, that is taking in all five Burroughs of the city, if you were to just count Manhattan, that number would be significantly higher. According to the article, the price of an average Manhattan apartment could buy you EIGHT homes located upstate.
So, the bottom line question here is, is New York worth investing in right now when the rest of the east coast isn’t doing very well or should you stick to the Pacific Northwest, California and Canada?
The answer is New York might be the healthiest investment out there if you want to keep your money on the eastern side of the Mississippi. Growth is still sluggish compared to five years ago, but it does appear to be moving in the right direction and most cities in the US right now can’t claim that.
The economic monster that drives New York City, and the rest of the state, is simply too big to let a recession in real estate last more than a few months. The 22 million+ residents won’t allow real bargains to sit around very long, which makes New York one of the safest places to invest anywhere. That use to just be a sign of the city itself, but it appears that the safety net has been strung from upstate, as well.
Happy Investing!
Mary Wozny
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Real Estate Investing in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
When housing investors point to different cities in Canada, they each have a reason why investing there is a practical move. Toronto is Canada’s financial capital, Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in North America and has the upcoming Olympics, Calgary and Edmonton are flush in oil money and Montreal has culture, sophistication and one of the highest living satisfaction poll numbers anywhere. Left out of this discussion, in many cases, is Canada’s political capital, Ottawa. What is so redeeming about investing in this, one of Canada’s smallest cities? The answer is price and potential!
According to just-released numbers, Ottawa is the cheapest city of its size to live in in all of Canada. Only Quebec City ranked higher, but Ottawa was number one as far as major Canadian cities went. And even though housing prices are up sharply in Ottawa over the last five years, they still pale in comparison when held up against Toronto or Vancouver. What does this mean for the average real estate investor? It means that there is still a huge opportunity to invest in this beautiful city before prices rise further and the secret of this wonderful place gets out.
So, why Ottawa? Looking on the map, Ottawa is snugly tucked between both Montreal and Toronto, which has made it a popular choice for those needing to do business in both cities on a frequent basis. The home of Canada’s government boasts a metro population of just over a million people, and it is growing rapidly as more and more people realize the appeal of this “flyover” city. 2006 was truly a record year for home sales in Ottawa. It was one of several cities in Canada, including Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton, to break home sales records in 2006. The question is, of course, will this trend continue into 2007 and beyond.
Ottawa’s housing prices have been on the rise since the late 1990’s. During that time, the average home price was just around $125,000-$130,000. But a meteoric rise has gripped the city since then, with housing prices jumping to approximately $225,000 by January of 2004, but it is the rise since that point that has many people skittish about the future of home prices and investment in Ottawa. In the first half of 2005 alone, housing prices jumped from approximately $230,000 to $265,000 in only six months. To say that this growth is unprecedented in a city like Ottawa would be an understatement.
Now, experts are trying to figure out if this jump was merely a self correction that put Ottawa back on pace with the rest of Canada (and remember, even with this growth, Ottawa is still the cheapest metropolitan city in Canada) or has rising prices signals a genuine housing “bubble” in the nation’s capital.
Home sales in Ottawa did not meet the national average, but they were still up much higher in 2006 then most experts believed. Sales rose in Ottawa almost 14 percent over 2005’s blistering pace, while home sales nationally climbed a tad under 18 percent. Critics of the bubble theory point to the fact that interest rates in Ottawa have remained low and unaffected by a perceived artificial housing bubble. The longer that this housing rise continues, the more and more it looks like is a natural market correction that got Ottawa on the same page with the rest of Canada than a bubble that will burst any time soon.
Predictions for the rest of 2007 are, as usual, all across the board for Canada’s capital. But since there has been very little in the way of concrete evidence of a bubble collapse anytime soon, the smart money is on continued growth in Ottawa for the foreseeable future, which makes this city a fantastic place to invest now and into the future.
Happy Investing!
Mary Wozny
According to just-released numbers, Ottawa is the cheapest city of its size to live in in all of Canada. Only Quebec City ranked higher, but Ottawa was number one as far as major Canadian cities went. And even though housing prices are up sharply in Ottawa over the last five years, they still pale in comparison when held up against Toronto or Vancouver. What does this mean for the average real estate investor? It means that there is still a huge opportunity to invest in this beautiful city before prices rise further and the secret of this wonderful place gets out.
So, why Ottawa? Looking on the map, Ottawa is snugly tucked between both Montreal and Toronto, which has made it a popular choice for those needing to do business in both cities on a frequent basis. The home of Canada’s government boasts a metro population of just over a million people, and it is growing rapidly as more and more people realize the appeal of this “flyover” city. 2006 was truly a record year for home sales in Ottawa. It was one of several cities in Canada, including Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton, to break home sales records in 2006. The question is, of course, will this trend continue into 2007 and beyond.
Ottawa’s housing prices have been on the rise since the late 1990’s. During that time, the average home price was just around $125,000-$130,000. But a meteoric rise has gripped the city since then, with housing prices jumping to approximately $225,000 by January of 2004, but it is the rise since that point that has many people skittish about the future of home prices and investment in Ottawa. In the first half of 2005 alone, housing prices jumped from approximately $230,000 to $265,000 in only six months. To say that this growth is unprecedented in a city like Ottawa would be an understatement.
Now, experts are trying to figure out if this jump was merely a self correction that put Ottawa back on pace with the rest of Canada (and remember, even with this growth, Ottawa is still the cheapest metropolitan city in Canada) or has rising prices signals a genuine housing “bubble” in the nation’s capital.
Home sales in Ottawa did not meet the national average, but they were still up much higher in 2006 then most experts believed. Sales rose in Ottawa almost 14 percent over 2005’s blistering pace, while home sales nationally climbed a tad under 18 percent. Critics of the bubble theory point to the fact that interest rates in Ottawa have remained low and unaffected by a perceived artificial housing bubble. The longer that this housing rise continues, the more and more it looks like is a natural market correction that got Ottawa on the same page with the rest of Canada than a bubble that will burst any time soon.
Predictions for the rest of 2007 are, as usual, all across the board for Canada’s capital. But since there has been very little in the way of concrete evidence of a bubble collapse anytime soon, the smart money is on continued growth in Ottawa for the foreseeable future, which makes this city a fantastic place to invest now and into the future.
Happy Investing!
Mary Wozny
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Perhaps no housing and real estate market in North America is as healthy or contains as much potential as the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For decades, the public at large viewed Vancouver as nothing more than a squalid mill town beseeched by rain 300 days of the year. But Expo ’86 changed all that forever. The city did an incredible job of cleaning up many industrial sites and the 10 solid days of nothing but beautiful sunshine demonstrated to the world that Vancouver was truly an unpolished diamond with incredible ocean and mountain views ready to be invested in.
Since 1986, real estate prices have been rising, and they haven’t really stopped. For those familiar with the Vancouver housing markets, it has become a bit of a running joke trying to figure out where the ceiling is for investment here. The short answer is that there might not be a ceiling at all, at least for another 5-10 years.
Vancouver was picked as the host for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and real estate investors are watching this date very closely. Much like the massive clean up and infrastructure improvements spawned the first major real estate boom in Vancouver in 1986, many experts believe that the exact same thing is going to happen with the 2010 games, but on a much larger scale. Combine this with poll after poll showing the quality of living in Vancouver is consistently in the top three in the world, and the fact that there are still real estate bargains to be had here when you compare it to other world class cities like San Francisco and New York, and you have one of the hottest real estate investment markets anywhere in the world.
And recent polls of current Vancouver residents bear this out. A March 2007 poll by Royal Bank of Canada shows that a higher percentage of BC residents, 11 percent compared to the nationwide average of 9 percent, consider themselves ‘very likely” to buy a home within the next year. Not only does this demonstrate that BC is definitely the best place in Canada to buy a home, but also that the 4 million plus population of Canada’s western-most province see the potential value in BC real estate, too.
For those that are scared off by the skyrocketing price of real estate in Vancouver (compared to Canadian standards), the same poll showed that an astonishing 93 percent of those polled consider owning a home in BC to be a good or very good investment. So while it may take the average BC resident a little extra while to afford the home of their dreams, they are dedicated to the idea of owning their own home; which is music to the ears of potential investors in the greater Vancouver area.
So, what about the two years until the Olympics come to town? No one wants to invest in a property only to see the value remain stagnant until some future event. A 2006 article in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix says that while the Vancouver housing boom is extraordinary by Canadian standards and while all booms do eventually end, that the most likely outcome of the current surge in the Vancouver housing market isn’t a bust or a collapse, but a slow leveling off of prices, also known as a “soft landing.” Which leads to the question: when? Many experts believed the housing market in BC would begin to slow in 2006, then it got put off to 2007. But one look at current downtown Vancouver and the construction that is taking place to get the city ready for the two week PR campaign known as the Olympics, and there is no sign anywhere that the housing market here is headed for decline.
The most optimistic perspectives on the Vancouver housing market is that the current surge will continue through the Olympics in 2010 and, thanks to the games, it will receive a renewed burst of energy that could carry it through 2015, or later. With this much potential, it is easy to see why Vancouver is the place to be for the next decade, plus.
Prosperously Yours,
Mary Wozny
Since 1986, real estate prices have been rising, and they haven’t really stopped. For those familiar with the Vancouver housing markets, it has become a bit of a running joke trying to figure out where the ceiling is for investment here. The short answer is that there might not be a ceiling at all, at least for another 5-10 years.
Vancouver was picked as the host for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and real estate investors are watching this date very closely. Much like the massive clean up and infrastructure improvements spawned the first major real estate boom in Vancouver in 1986, many experts believe that the exact same thing is going to happen with the 2010 games, but on a much larger scale. Combine this with poll after poll showing the quality of living in Vancouver is consistently in the top three in the world, and the fact that there are still real estate bargains to be had here when you compare it to other world class cities like San Francisco and New York, and you have one of the hottest real estate investment markets anywhere in the world.
And recent polls of current Vancouver residents bear this out. A March 2007 poll by Royal Bank of Canada shows that a higher percentage of BC residents, 11 percent compared to the nationwide average of 9 percent, consider themselves ‘very likely” to buy a home within the next year. Not only does this demonstrate that BC is definitely the best place in Canada to buy a home, but also that the 4 million plus population of Canada’s western-most province see the potential value in BC real estate, too.
For those that are scared off by the skyrocketing price of real estate in Vancouver (compared to Canadian standards), the same poll showed that an astonishing 93 percent of those polled consider owning a home in BC to be a good or very good investment. So while it may take the average BC resident a little extra while to afford the home of their dreams, they are dedicated to the idea of owning their own home; which is music to the ears of potential investors in the greater Vancouver area.
So, what about the two years until the Olympics come to town? No one wants to invest in a property only to see the value remain stagnant until some future event. A 2006 article in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix says that while the Vancouver housing boom is extraordinary by Canadian standards and while all booms do eventually end, that the most likely outcome of the current surge in the Vancouver housing market isn’t a bust or a collapse, but a slow leveling off of prices, also known as a “soft landing.” Which leads to the question: when? Many experts believed the housing market in BC would begin to slow in 2006, then it got put off to 2007. But one look at current downtown Vancouver and the construction that is taking place to get the city ready for the two week PR campaign known as the Olympics, and there is no sign anywhere that the housing market here is headed for decline.
The most optimistic perspectives on the Vancouver housing market is that the current surge will continue through the Olympics in 2010 and, thanks to the games, it will receive a renewed burst of energy that could carry it through 2015, or later. With this much potential, it is easy to see why Vancouver is the place to be for the next decade, plus.
Prosperously Yours,
Mary Wozny
Friday, June 1, 2007
Real Estate Market in Canada's Beautiful Toronto, Ontario
For those looking to immerse themselves in the business and the bustle of the world’s most natural resource-rich country on earth need not look any farther than Toronto. To say that Toronto is the focal point of Canada is to state the obvious, much to the chagrin of residents of both Montreal and Vancouver.
If you are serious about getting things done and being where the action in, Toronto is the place to be, and it is this exact attitude that has carried the Toronto housing market in recent years. While the boom in housing here isn’t quite on par with other Canadian booms in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, Toronto has been holding its own with investors over the last ten years, but as is the case with investing, it is the future that everyone wants to know about.
According to recent reports, however, the city of Toronto is in good economic hands well into the future. In a press release by CIBC, one of Canada’s largest banks, projections of Toronto’s real estate future are rosy, even two decades from now, but the driving force behind this sustained real estate growth isn’t wealthy investors or Canadians picking up stakes and moving to the big city, but immigrants.
Benjamin Tal, a senior economist for CIBC, predicts that thanks to recent legislation that eases immigration to a country that had been losing population in recent decades, the influx of people looking to buy homes will be rising into the foreseeable future. This, of course, is music to the ears of any potential investors who are looking at either small time investing through home-flipping or wealthy investors who might want to take an old apartment complex and turn it into revenue generating condos. Even if you are looking to build fresh, according to Tal, the market will be there to support you.
Looking at the history of Toronto’s housing market, the years 1986-1990 were truly a golden age as the average home price jumped from just over $100,000 to $275,000 in just four years time. Since then, a “smile” has formed, with an initial drop during the early 1990’s, followed by a slow and steady climb back up ever since. The recent rise in housing prices, which started around 1996, has been much more gradual then the sharp rise of the late 1980’s.
For years, optimists in the Toronto housing markets have argued that thanks to this more gradual rise in prices, combined with increased population in the greater Toronto area and the recent influx of immigrants, that it is wrong to call the current Toronto housing situation a “bubble,” but it is more of a permanent rise that has occurred.
More credence is given to this theory when you compare the rise in housing prices with the growth of Canada’s gross domestic product over the same time period. While the 1986 housing price leap seriously out-gained the GDP of the time, the ensuing “burst” of that bubble corrected things. But the current rise since 1996 has been almost in lockstep with the healthy Canadian GDP.
While it is impossible to point to this one statistic as a “smoking gun,” most investors don’t need any further proof that the housing market in Toronto is stable, healthy and ready to grow further thanks to the growing roll of Toronto as a world city and as the financial centre for a country that is becoming more and more relevant on the world stage every year thanks to an almost inextinguishable supply of natural resources that will make Canada the place to be for investors for decades to come.
Happy Investing!
Mary Wozny
If you are serious about getting things done and being where the action in, Toronto is the place to be, and it is this exact attitude that has carried the Toronto housing market in recent years. While the boom in housing here isn’t quite on par with other Canadian booms in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, Toronto has been holding its own with investors over the last ten years, but as is the case with investing, it is the future that everyone wants to know about.
According to recent reports, however, the city of Toronto is in good economic hands well into the future. In a press release by CIBC, one of Canada’s largest banks, projections of Toronto’s real estate future are rosy, even two decades from now, but the driving force behind this sustained real estate growth isn’t wealthy investors or Canadians picking up stakes and moving to the big city, but immigrants.
Benjamin Tal, a senior economist for CIBC, predicts that thanks to recent legislation that eases immigration to a country that had been losing population in recent decades, the influx of people looking to buy homes will be rising into the foreseeable future. This, of course, is music to the ears of any potential investors who are looking at either small time investing through home-flipping or wealthy investors who might want to take an old apartment complex and turn it into revenue generating condos. Even if you are looking to build fresh, according to Tal, the market will be there to support you.
Looking at the history of Toronto’s housing market, the years 1986-1990 were truly a golden age as the average home price jumped from just over $100,000 to $275,000 in just four years time. Since then, a “smile” has formed, with an initial drop during the early 1990’s, followed by a slow and steady climb back up ever since. The recent rise in housing prices, which started around 1996, has been much more gradual then the sharp rise of the late 1980’s.
For years, optimists in the Toronto housing markets have argued that thanks to this more gradual rise in prices, combined with increased population in the greater Toronto area and the recent influx of immigrants, that it is wrong to call the current Toronto housing situation a “bubble,” but it is more of a permanent rise that has occurred.
More credence is given to this theory when you compare the rise in housing prices with the growth of Canada’s gross domestic product over the same time period. While the 1986 housing price leap seriously out-gained the GDP of the time, the ensuing “burst” of that bubble corrected things. But the current rise since 1996 has been almost in lockstep with the healthy Canadian GDP.
While it is impossible to point to this one statistic as a “smoking gun,” most investors don’t need any further proof that the housing market in Toronto is stable, healthy and ready to grow further thanks to the growing roll of Toronto as a world city and as the financial centre for a country that is becoming more and more relevant on the world stage every year thanks to an almost inextinguishable supply of natural resources that will make Canada the place to be for investors for decades to come.
Happy Investing!
Mary Wozny
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