Tag Archives: Gulf Islands

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.

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?

Market Analysis | December 2010 | Gulf Islands

2 Replies

December, 2010 | Gulf Islands | Real Estate Market Analysis

Ah…end of year “market thoughts” time….

My “thoughts” are not meant to be a stats report or a hard market analysis.

That kind of statistical analysis can be found elsewhere, such as with mls statistics or other such “numbers reporting” venues.

My thoughts are exactly that…impressions, and based on 20 + years in the real estate business, all on Salt Spring Island and on the Southern Gulf Islands, and on Southern Vancouver Island.

My impressions/thoughts, then:

Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands have evolved into secondary home/discretionary marketplaces, perhaps since 1999. No one “has to” purchase on a Gulf Island; it’s always by choice. Thus, regardless of market trend in play, at any given moment, it takes time to sell an Island property. It often takes 2 and probably 3 visits, before a buyer will “act”.

The internet erased time and geography. Between 2000 and 2006, a low Canadian Dollar against the U.S. Dollar and the Euro, also made us very attractive to an investor/buyer from afar.

The first visit is usually the “discovery time” of the specific island itself. The second visit, the buyer has “chosen for” that particular island, and is now looking seriously at specific properties. If they don’t see what they “imagine“, they will come back a third time, and might even end up buying vacant land/building.

The first visit is usually the “discovery time” of the specific island itself. The second visit, the buyer has “chosen for” that particular island, and is now looking seriously at specific properties. If they don’t see what they “imagine“, they will come back a third time, and might even end up buying vacant land/building.

Since the buyers are not “local“, in the main, there are significant time lags between visits. It can take one to three years to sell a property, on any Gulf Island, and this kind of time pause is also a marker of all discretionary areas, and globally so.

Time lags, then, are involved in every sale, no matter the market trend. This is the marker of all discretionary marketplaces, and in such a marketplace the buyer is always in charge of the process.

The impact of the internet revolution has changed forever the way all business is conducted, and this is the case in sales oriented businesses, especially.

I think real estate was late to the table of change. The car industry and the stock market side of investing were totally changed by the internet’s delivery, to consumers, of easy access to information, and their shift happened five or so years before real estate noted this. The real estate industry thought it was still business as usual, for some substantial timeframe.

Now, the shift from a company or agent-centric business model, to a consumer-centric style, has profoundly affected real estate marketing choices, too.

Now, the shift from a company or agent-centric business model, to a consumer-centric style, has profoundly affected real estate marketing choices, too.

Approximately 98 percent of property searching apparently now begins on the internet, and a good 14 months before a buyer is ready to “act”. All pertinent information can be found, on regions of interest to a buyer, via the internet, and so the role of a real estate agent has profoundly changed.

The way of introducing oneself as an agent, and of marketing listings, has made an internet presence totally necessary. Specialty print media might still have a place, marginally, but less and less so…print apparently only delivers one percent of buyers, today.

If there was a transition period in marketing between 2000 and 2009, which allowed a blend of responses, it is now over. Print media no longer delivers the buyer. To use it as one’s premier means of trying to attract a buyer means that one’s efforts are doomed. The buyer isn’t “there”.

The post-internet world is now with us. What does this mean?

Technology, created to meet the demands of the wired wireless world continues to expand

…traditional emails and websites are already being transplanted by social media options.

It’s important to have a website, but the template model that has been the norm since 1999 era is seen as the box in the basement or the attic…one can go rummage around in it for deeper information, but it isn’t the “initial attractor” that it once was. Same with emails.

Twitter is not a fad, nor is texting. They are “immediacy” formats, in my opinion.

In our time famine world (no time/always time/only now time), we are always looking for shortcuts to essential information. That’s how I see Twitter.

And Facebook? Ah…that is interesting.

The “real” 21st Century, which has created the global village foreseen by Marshall McLuhan, way back in the 1970s, is also busy deleting our 20th Century idea that there was a separation between our personal and our “corporate” worlds.

Facebook, I think, is about that erasure of separation…think about those three words: “social“, “media“, “marketing“. They really do mean something, and the shift is profound for all those hybrid BG (before google) beings still out there. The AG (after google) beings know nothing else, and swim gracefully in the new global data sea.

What else did McLuhan forecast? Oh, yes…”the medium is the message” was his mantra. The technology created to answer the shift of the internet world has changed us as a species, I believe.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and their kin are early responders to the shift moment of the post-internet world. More apps and options will be spawning daily to fill the craving for information.

The separation between the creator of information and the consumer of same is also continuing to blur and to mesh. Concepts such as “privacy”, “time”, “personal”, “expert” are undergoing change, too. Exciting times, indeed!

Will we end up with virtual real estate offices, and a paperless transaction process, with all information totally available on mobile devices? Yes, I think so.

In change lies opportunity!

And what of our local island market? In Fall 2009, I did project that it would take until Fall 2010 to see uptick in activity, in our secondary home marketplace.

This has indeed been the case. The activity seen in Vancouver and in Victoria, primary residence/city marketplaces, in 2009 and first half of 2010, has now arrived in rural areas. Properties listed between one and four years are now selling.

The difference? The “reluctant buyer” is starting to become active! Why? Perhaps in recognition of significant price reductions coupled with historically low interest rates? Or, might also be fear of inflation and currency instability that is driving buyers back to secondary home/discretionary purchases, in order to preserve capital? Wish we could find that lost crystal ball!

North Trail Island | Mr. Webber’s Salish Sea

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North Trail Island is another rarte opportunity to secure one of Salt Spring Island real estate‘s private islands – truly one of the finest offerings to date.

A unique and beautiful private island opportunity in the amazing Pacific Northwest Coast. Nestled in the Salish Sea (now known as Georgia Strait). North Trial Island is part off the Thormanby Group of islands, off Sechelt, BC.

North Trail Island, a 33 acre private island, offers a rural farm, with all the amenities of Sechelt (including a hospital) at your doorstep.

Incredible viewscapes, ocean, islands, mountain vistas. A stellar opportunity to enjoy of this beautiful coast. Secure an irreplaceable gem for your future — a family holding, a hard asset investment to protect your capital, an immediate pleasure quotient of the best of the best.

Origin of the term “Salish” (as Wikipedia says)

Bert Webber a.k.a The Father of the Salish Sea

The first known use of the term Salish Sea was in 1988, when marine biologist Bert Webber from Bellingham, Washington created the name for the combined waters in the region with the intent to supplement the Georgia Strait, Puget Sound, and Strait of Juan de Fuca waterway names. The adoption of the term, he said, would raise consciousness about taking care of the region’s waters and ecosystems. Webber’s efforts are credited with the official recognition of the term in the US and Canada, although Webber’s original proposal also recommended the removal of the terms Georgia Strait, Puget Sound, and Strait of Juan de Fuca from official recognition.

Coast Salish people

according to the Wiki

The Coast Salish are a grouping of indigenous peoples who live in southwest British Columbia, and northwest Washington state and share a common linguistic and cultural origin. For most of their collective histories (which date back to 8,000 B.C.E.) there was no overarching term to describe these people as a whole. Today the Coast Salish are seen as one of the main cultural and linguistic branches of a larger group known as Salishan or Salish. There are five recognized divisions of the Salish language family, with Coast Salish and Interior Salish being the primary two. The Salish family consists of 23 separate languages.