Where?

Where?

Well, on the Pacific Northwest Coast of Super Natural British Columbia, in Canada, of course!

The Gulf Islands are nestled into the east side coastline of the very large Vancouver Island…this puts them in the rain shadow of this huge island, and so delivers an exceptional micro-climate known as “cool Mediterranean”.

All of the Gulf Islands, whether ferry accessed or water access only options, and regardless of whether located on Vancouver Island side or Lower Mainland side of Georgia Strait, are “governed” by the Islands Trust.

This is a provincial government mandated body, and it has been in place since 1974. Its mandate is to “preserve & protect” the environmental beauties of the Gulf Islands, for the benefit of all B.C. residents.

This control of growth is achieved through strict zoning/bylaws…the Trust is about land use/bylaws. More info? Call me!

The Pacific Northwest Coast is exceptionally beautiful…mountains, ocean, islands. The Southern Gulf Islands are in the best protected boating waters in the world. This, plus the enviable micro-climate, offer a jewel of a location.

Salt Spring Island is the largest and best-serviced of the Southern Gulf Islands, and enjoys an inspiring year round lifestyle. Close to everything, easy to get to (3 ferries, 3 floatplane companies) from Vancouver, Victoria, & Vancouver Island…plus Seattle. Yet, wonderfully apart…perfect for a family, or as a retirement opportunity, or as a seasonal retreat…a gem to savour!

More details? Call me!

How may I help you to buy your special Salt Spring Island or Gulf Islands property? Look forward to your call.

liread33@gmail.com

What?

What?
Well…
Salt Spring Island & the Canadian Gulf Islands, of course.

These lovely small islands, mainly nestled into the east side of the very large Vancouver Island, enjoy the best weather pattern in Canada.
In the rain shadow of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands experience a temperate climate, known as “cool Mediterranean“. Orchards & vineyards thrive here.

This thin strip of land between the ocean and the coastal mountains, the Pacific Northwest Coast, is generally delectable…the Gulf Islands are just that bit more unique and special!

Each island has its own special signature. It’s what goes “ping” for you that makes the decision about which island will “work” for you…so important to listen for that “ping”.

Salt Spring Island is the largest and best serviced of the Southern Gulf Islands grouping. It’s a stand alone community. One doesn’t have to leave the Island for anything…except to get one’s car serviced under warranty. There are good people to service your car…just not under warranty.

There is a year round lifestyle on Salt Spring Island. It’s not a “summer season only” place. It’s a stand alone & self-contained community and that makes a big difference to the rhythm of the Island.

A hospital, all services, three ferries (Vancouver, Victoria, mid-Vancouver Island), three floatplane companies (to Vancouver Airport, to downtown Vancouver, and to Victoria Airport and to Maple Bay, on Vancouver Island. There is a direct service from Lake Union in Seattle, to Ganges on Salt Spring, in the summer season). All these options are year round schedules.

Three elementary schools, a middle school, and a state of the art senior school, plus night school classes for adult education, are all available on Salt Spring.

An Arts Centre for live theatre productions, concerts, dance, forum speakers, plus gallery spaces for painting, fabric arts, photography exhibitions…there is a strong artistic base to Salt Spring’s lifestyle.

An indoor pool, a Sailing Club, two marinas, yacht club outstations, government docks for transient moorage, several boat launch facilities for day sailors…plus beaches to stroll, to swim from, lakes (all stocked with trout and bass, for freshwater fishing pleasures), park reserves for walking/hiking, tenting & bicycling venues…galleries, studios on tour…an amazing blend of environmental beauty and artistic surprises await your discovery, on special Salt Spring Island!

The Gulf Islands are all a part of the Provincial Government mandated Islands Trust. This Trust has been in existence since 1974. It controls growth through severe zoning/bylaw restrictions. It was created “to preserve & protect” the environmental beauties of the Gulf Islands for the benefit of all B.C. residents. In effect, growth has been controlled on all the Islands, and all of them have benefitted, thus.

Whether it’s for summer or seasonal use, or for year round living, whether it’s a ferry accessed or water access only option, there will be a Gulf Island that will “ping” for you.

How may I help you to buy your Salt Spring Island or Gulf Island property? Call me!

liread33@gmail.com

March 2012, Salt Spring Island Market Analyses

It seems, in our secondary home/discretionary area, that January & February are often a continuation of the rhythm of November & December, of the previous year.

March, then, usually begins the pattern of the current year, and the number of March Break arrivals to view property, and possibly to make offers, forecasts the summer season…busy at March-Break-into-Easter usually means brisk sales time from mid-May to mid-September (our traditional “season”).

We may be in year seven of a seven to ten year cycle, which means a slow upticking in sales volume may already have begun. To date, there have been fourteen firm sales, since beginning of January. Ten have been under 620,000…most below 500,000.

This steady sales pattern mainly in the entry level residential category has been a feature of the Salt Spring sales picture for about two years…this busier first two months is perhaps a sign of consistency to the marketplace…a good feature, indeed.

Sales in undeveloped land options have not yet improved. In a downmarket, buyers are not seeking a holding property nor do they want a building project. The slow roll-back of the HST tax may help in the new home category
, particularly in city or large town environments, with developments & spec housing…in discretionary/secondary home areas, where building projects are custom & personal options, the HST repeal may or may not create activity.

The upper tier priced luxury residential segment also remains quiet. In some few cases on Salt Spring & the Gulf Islands, extraordinarily motivated sellers have accepted very low prices, well below intrinsic or replacement values & also below tax assessments. Personal need is not noted by appraisers; they look at the sale price, only. These lower prices will affect stats.

In many cases, in the luxury segment, local realtors have encouraged very broad price reductions, in an effort to jump start action from a buyer. These reductions do not appear to create buyer interest. In a secondary home marketplace, a purchase is about choice…and that choosing can be deferred until the buyer sees a definite sign of a hard asset recovery. Buying is an action propelled by confidence.

Price reductions do affect all sellers, however, as it is essential to be seen to be competitive in pricing, when a buyer might be looking at equivalent properties, also for sale.

Thinning inventories may lead to price stability and then to slowly increasing prices.

Nothing ever stays down (or up)…that equilibrium moment, when the teeter-totter of a market cycle appears to be evenly balanced, is of very short duration.

Low mortgage rates are not the motivator to action that one might think. It is buyer confidence that creates a market response. Sellers and realtors do not create a market…buyers do.

In a city market, there are usually more entry level options available, overall, and correspondingly fewer luxury choices. In a secondary home/discretionary and resort-based area, the opposite is true. Such areas attract buyers lucky enough to own more than one property, or purchasers who, because of the Internet, can choose to live anywhere in the world and thus could work from a Gulf Island, or perhaps the buyer is someone who has done well elsewhere & can now choose a Gulf Island to retreat/”retire” to…it’s a specialized buyer profile who is in a position to create their personal dream.

A purchase in an area like Salt Spring Island and the Gulf Islands is about choice…and choice in timing is also a part of this. The buyer sets the pace in a discretionary marketplace.

The Gulf Islands are not municipalities…they are governed by the government body known as the Islands Trust. The Trust has been in place since 1974, & development on all the Islands is firmly controlled by strict zoning/density bylaws.

Bowen Island voted to become a Gulf Islands Municipality some years ago…the Trust & its bylaws remain in place, however. Salt Spring might consider this outcome, too.

There is an impression that the international market is moving out of cash right now and back into hard assets/commodities, including real estate. The continuing unraveling of the global economic picture has an impact on every region. We are in the post-Internet world, vitally interconnected, and the Global Village is with us. In difficult times, hard asset investment is understood as a way to protect capital.

An interesting sidebar to the post-Internet world is that it has not only erased time & geography, but has also made “someplace” in competition with “everyplace”. It’s a big world, after all! Choice, again….

Salt Spring Island and the Gulf Islands enjoy scenic beauty and environmental protection. They enjoy all of the amenities necessary to partake of life in the “real” 21st Century, and yet experience the allure of “yesteryear”. They have easy access to major centres, yet offer a village lifestyle. A temperate climate creates opportunity to be self-sustaining…the 10K diet is alive & well, here. A strong arts community, a dynamic cultural life, an oceanfront pleasure…these islands are in the heart of the best protected boating waters in the world. One is gifted to be able to live in this still very undiscovered area.

What does Christie’s $200 million in sales mean for high end Real Estate

Does the Christies record breaking art sale signal a real estate rebound on the way?

Could be… Fine Art has always been a bellwether of all other discretionary spending. Good news, then, that Christie’s Auction House experienced further gains in their recent sale of stellar Impressionist offerings.

Real estate sales, in the luxury and unique properties segment, mirror the arrow of Fine Art sales…usually within four to six months.

Markets are cyclical

After a good three to four years of pause mode, the buyers are again recognizing that it’s wise to own rare & irreplaceable hard assets.

Salt Spring Island & the Canadian Gulf Islands offer temperate climates, & swim alluringly in the best protected boating waters in the world!

Read the signs & don’t miss the shift in the real estate market…Art sets the direction…the move is underway!Vue de l'Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy" by Vincent van Gogh

February 2012, Salt Spring Island Market Analyses

February, 2012.

January & February are the “winter holiday” months…skiers love the mountain escapes (Whistler
, Telluride, Vail, Aspen) & sunseekers are finding delights on beaches (in Hawaii, Southern California, Florida, Caribbean islands, and Mexico).

It’s a time when the Pacific Northwest Coast enjoys its “lull” time….we are a seasonal marketplace.

Property inquiries right now are mainly by phone, text, email, & Facebook, from potential buyers who are “elsewhere”…important then, as a seller, to be “out there”…have to be “seen” in order to be picked up on the Ethernet circles…that initial discovery is what brings interest, which is what brings a subsequent physical visit to satisfy that initial curiosity…then, if the visit “clicks”, there is an offer & a potential sale outcome.

This process all takes time.

Sellers need to understand the time lag aspect in all discretionary area sales.

On Salt Spring & the Southern Gulf Islands, the buyer profile is now mainly from out of province/out of country, and this has been the case since the Internet erased time & geography. Since 2001, perhaps?

In not being a “local buyer”, it immediately builds in time lags, regardless of market trend in play.

A downmarket trend may extend the time lag envelope, as the buyer becomes “reluctant”, but the distance between discovery to arrival to decision-making is a long one, regardless. It involves travel and discovery of an unknown destination…thus might mean two visits before a final decision is taken. It can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years to sell a property in a discretionary area.

A successful transaction always involves a willing seller and an equally willing buyer. This equation has been a lop-sided one for several years, in our secondary home/discretionary marketplace…and it’s been the same, globally, in most secondary home/resort-based areas.

The “flat” period began in 2006; the economic debacle was evident to all by late 2008. All secondary home regions were afflicted by the fact that a discretionary purchase is always one of choice. One can put on hold the purchase of a second or third recreational home or a retirement decision can be deferred.

The uncertainty of the inflation vs deflation debate has also kept people, who are able to act, still choosing to hold cash positions.

Struggling homeowners have tried massive price reductions…with the strong Canadian Dollar against the U.S., and many sunbelt properties having reduced by 50%, we saw one of our traditional buyer profiles (Albertans) heading south of the border.

Price reductions did not work, for the most part, in our secondary home area…the discretionary buyer remains on the sidelines, and historically low interest rates are not yet generating sales action, either.

It’s about consumer confidence, of course. Until that returns, we can expect further doldrums in any secondary home environment, regardless of price point or property type, and that affects Salt Spring and other Gulf Islands, too.

Nothing remains up or down “forever”…all markets have cycles. In some areas of the U.S. there are reports of increased sales volume, resulting thinning of inventory, prices remaining suppressed but stable. This is good news, if authentic information and not wishful thinking. Statistics can be manipulated to support any particular situation!

I always think our local area is the tail of the dog…when the head shakes, the tail responds later, whether in an up or a down scenario.

It could be that we will look back two years from now & decide that the bottom-bottom in the housing market occurred between October 2010 & October 2011. We may actually be in year 7 of a 7 to 10 year cycle, which implies an upward process has begun. Sales volume will improve, if this is so, and sales of undeveloped land would also show improvement…a resulting thinning inventory would presage price increases.

Certainly it is currently a historic buyers market moment…price reductions of a substantial amount, good selection of properties, motivated sellers, historic low interest rates…what is needed is a significant recognition of this by the still reluctant buyers who could act.

This lack of confidence/lack of action is a global reaction to continuing economic uncertainties. Salt Spring & the Gulf Islands are affected, as are all secondary home/discretionary/resort-based areas. That global village means we’re all linked into the same information loop.

I always think that January/February continue what was going on in November/December. It seems to take until March to have the true tone of a year become evident.

In the meantime? Keep up to date on the day to day shifts in economic issues (the media will be sure to keep you easily in their narrow focus tunnel vision reports!), and also tune out, from time to time, to practice your periphery vision, which is always open to the creative spark that evolves the new….

If we’re in one of those major societal shifts, with the same lifestyle schism as the Agrarian/Industrial Revolution split offered, then our outcomes might depend on which side of the abyss we’re on. What abyss? Well, the one separating the 20th from the 21st Century, of course! If you’re on the right side of this major divide, then opportunity abounds….

There are always buyers & sellers. Inventory & prices may shift & change…the dance of markets is wave-like…an up & down rhythm.

Looking for details on “what’s for sale” & “solds to date”? Call me…Salt Spring Island, Southern Gulf Islands, Southern Vancouver Island…I look forward to helping you to discover your dream. Waterfronts, oceanviews, farms, building lots, commercial/investment, recreational…call me!

How may I help you to buy your Salt Spring Island or Gulf Islands property?

January 2012, Salt Spring Island Market Analyses

January 2012, Salt Spring Island Market Analyses

Happy New Year!

I think many people will be glad to see the back of 2011…we may look back a few years from now and decide that 2011 was the key year in the societal shift that has been underway since 2000. Key in the sense that change erupted in all spheres & all at once…political, economic, societal, and personal…you name it, it will have changed, shifted, evolved, erased…and what about the newly created? 2011 seemed to be the year all elements conspired.

The economic downturn of October, 2008, global in its impact, broadened from the housing bubble to the banks and to Wall Street. Now it has further expanded to the geopolitical level. Nothing is exempt…the Arab Spring, the Eurozone meltdowns, the economy continuing to wallow in the doldrums, the power of the consumer of services restlessly angry…think about the now global Occupy Movement & the new Russian dissatisfaction with potentially rigged elections…plus wars & rumours of wars & unrest in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, DR Congo…shift everywhere!

In change lies opportunity…well, yes, but the speed of change is the unknown. The internet’s binary rhythm (on/off, act/react) can occur in an eyelid’s blink. In the past, change was a much slower animal…in some cases, it was possible to think through a shift and to reposition.

Today, our technology has erased time, and instant responses are demanded. Flexibility has become an essential. Twitter’s immediacy gets data out there asap, and the reaction to it is just as immediate.

What about our editing function? Important to turn all that undifferentiated data into worthwhile information…what’s important/what not?

I like to save my projections till later in the month…so many trajectories underway: the uncertain outcome of the bid to save the euro world, the worry about the U.S. ability to restructure & move forward, the concern over outcomes in North Korea, the potential for unrest in China, the continuing dilemmas of terrorism & sectarian violence in Africa & in the Islamic world, and the potential for unrest in Russia. Important, I think, to digest the effects of the last quarter of 2011, and to see what the winds of change are blowing our way in the first quarter of 2012. Perhaps the real beginning to a new year is in early March?

Hmmm…the Chinese lunar new year is earlier this year, arriving at the close of this month, and heralding the Year of the Dragon. Sounding fiery?

Important at such moments of flux to remember what is important…to be thoughtful with our nearest & dearest, to be inclusive & remember those on their own or needing a helping hand, to take time to eat healthily, to walk that 15 minutes a day, to admire a beautiful day, to breathe deeply and to calm that rapid fear-based breath. Read more, less t.v. Move away from the virtual world and take five in the reality check zone. Learn something new…how about a foreign language? A humbling experience & a way to keep the mind active!

It’s the start of a New Year, with everything before us, second chances & new discoveries…let’s take five and accept the challenge.

Oh, yes…the real estate market…well, I think it’s hard asset investment time again, and that those who can will seek safe havens…both as a way to preserve capital and for personal safety/sustainability. Regions such as the Gulf Islands/Salt Spring Island and Vancouver Island will be on the shopping list. Inventory is medium, interest rates remain historically low, prices have reduced around 30 to 35 % between 2007 and now…sellers are highly motivated, allowing for further reductions at the point of an offer. An ideal time to be a buyer…. It may be that we are entering year seven of a seven to ten year cycle, and thus are already slowly on the way up…. Hmmm. Wish I could find where I put that crystal ball!

More information? Call me!