January 2010

 “The article below is the latest news release from the Hamilton-Burlington Real Estate Board. We had healthy single digit gains all over our area, keep in mind comparison’s made to last December can be a little surprising but we have to remember last December was a bad market due to the uncertainty out there but the people that did go into the market have been rewarded. Overall it was a very good year and yes real estate has proven to be a very good investment. December was a very strong Seller’s market with more homes selling in Burlington, Waterdown & Flamborough than were listed which has just brought our already low inventory of homes a little lower.”

MEDIA RELEASE 

2009 proves real estate is a great investment

(January 6, 2010– Hamilton, Ontario) The Greater Hamilton-Burlington area resale market reported a total of 779 units sold in December, indicating an increase of 70 per cent over the same month last year, but only 18 per cent higher than December 2007.

The total unit sales for 2009 are being reported at 5.8 per cent higher than 2008, while new units listed are 6.8 per cent lower for the year-to-date, according to Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) statistics released by the REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB).

“December 2009 was the best December RAHB has seen, rounding out the best fourth quarter in area history.” said Joe Ferrante, RAHB President. “December is traditionally the slowest month of the year, but that was not the case in 2009.”

Residential properties sold during December totalled 733 which included 568 freehold properties and 165 condominiums.  Commercial sales for December, including industrial, farm, vacant land and business, totalled 46 units.

The average price of freehold residential properties sold in the month of December was $298,641, an increase of 13 per cent over the same month last year, and a decrease of 10.2 per cent over last month.  The average price for all freehold residential properties sold in 2009 was 2.2 per cent higher than 2008.

In the condominium market the average price of condominiums in December was $241,574, an increase of 26.3 per cent over December 2008, and an increase of 5.3 per cent over last month.  The average price for all condominium properties sold in 2009 was 4 per cent higher than 2008. The average sale price reflects the dollar volume of residential sales divided by the number of total residential units sold.

December’s total residential average sales price increased 14.6 per cent over the same month in 2008, and the average price for the year to date increased 2.6 per cent over 2008.

The total number of units listed for sale during December was 826, which is 51 per cent more than were listed in the same period in 2008. 

“The Greater Hamilton-Burlington and the surrounding housing market performed reasonably well in 2009, outperforming most other markets in Ontario,” added Ferrante.  “

Unit sales reflect “all property types” including residential, condominiums, commercial property, farmland and sale of businesses.

Established in 1921, the REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) represents more than 2,400 real estate brokers and sales representatives from Hamilton, Burlington, and surrounding areas. Members of the association may use the REALTOR® trademark, which identifies them as real estate professionals who subscribe to a strict code of ethics. The association operates the local Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) and provides ongoing professional education courses for its members. In addition, RAHB is an active participant in the Home Ownership Affordability Partnership (HOAP) and holds an annual auction in support of local charities. Advertisements of local MLS® property listings and information about the services provided by a REALTOR® can be found at www.REALTOR.ca.  More information about RAHB is available at www.rahb.ca.                                         

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For further information, contact:

Joe Ferrante                                         Megan Platts

President, RAHB                                  Manager, Government Relations & Technology

Ph: 905-662-6661                                  Ph: 905-529-8101 Ext. 295

E: president@rahb.ca                           E:  meganp@rahb.ca

I have had a few people express a little bit of horror at their most recent hydro bill and not  aware of our new time-of-use billing. I am probably a fairly energy conscious person but a couple of changes we will encounter with energy this year in Ontario are making it worth being that much more aware.

1.  First of all the change to HST on July 01/10 will be a direct increase of 8% on our current energy bills to start.
2. Time-of-use billing rates. Most of us are not conscious at all what time of day we use electricity but once the smart meter installed on your home gets turned on, which it has in a number of area’s and will be completed everywhere by the end of the year. You need to start monitoring and adjusting a few habits unless it does not matter to you if your bill doubles. Our cheapest current rate is 5.8cents a kilowatt and worst case scenario is the new peak rate is 9.3cents a kilowatt, an increase of 62%.

A couple suggestions: 

• At least be aware of some cost changes to your bill by your most common appliances – check out this document created by horizon utilities to see some of the dollar and cents differences and some useful tips on energy shifting:               http://www.horizonutilities.com/pdf/TOUBrochureIntroducing.pdf
• If you have electric heating – Might be worth programming multiple times of day into your programmable thermostat to take advantage of off-peak times, if you have central A/C the “peaksaver” program may be an option for a new very programmable thermostat free of charge.
• If you are close to replacing your clothes dryer and you have natural gas already– might be worth upgrading to a natural gas dryer (don’t forget you will have to have a gasfitter put in a gas line for you also– one time charge)
• If your forced air furnace is older and you are thinking of replacing– Might be worth upgrading circulating fan to a DC motor. These fans are much more efficient with electricity consumption among other benefits. Standard furnace fans use between 300-700 watts and a DC motor on low speed might be less than 100 watts. This will result in considerable electrical savings over the life of the furnace.                                                                      

NOTE: Check into government grants before replacing the furnace and if applicable (Some are in place until Jan 31/10), a home energy audit MUST be done first to be applicable for any grant.