With the major market changes over last two months the media has finally caught up to what I said in March and April - the market has shifted. Victoria had a 34% drop in sales in June and a 45% drop in sales in July and only now the Media is picking up on it. This year the most number of sales were in April vs highest number last July. So the market has changed. What else? well there are 4400+ homes for sale. with 527 sales last month that means there are about 8 1/2 months homes for sale. Not huge by some US cities standards but still what the economists say is a buyers market.

So what should you do?

First stop listening to the self serving groups that don't say the truth. I and many friends laughed the other day when our local paper reported on what our provincial association had to say. To paraphrase they said "Sales are down, inventories are up and we expect prices to keep rising". Are you serious? any math student from junior high would realize this is not the way the world works. With less sales and more inventory that means prices will fall not rise. We have seen a 5% drop since May 1 in REAL Prices. by this i mean by what we are seeing from the high in April to now. Take away the multi million dollar sales and see what really is going on. We show our clients monthly what is happening with our Total Market Overview or TMO reports. We show our clients by price range what happened in last month, last 6 months and what was selling and what was not. To see then click here.

Second, find a realtor who will show you the stats and be real and work for you to get you what your looking for in a home. Remember sometimes what you need and a "good deal" are not the same. We can show you the difference.

So your a buyer, what should you do? A great friend and mentor told me one day a basic about Buyers Markets  - Gary said "Ron its a buyers market for a reason, Buyers should buy!"

So you say well I should wait for the bottom. No one knows where that is. The question to you is are you buying an investment or a home? do you want to make your own payments or your landlords payments? With interest rates on way back down owning a home has been cheap for a while, if you focus on payments. you have to make payments- to a landlord if renting or to a bank if buying. After 10 years what do you have? with a landlord - nothing. With a bank you have paid down the principal of your home. No matter where the market is you will have some equity as you have been making principal and interest payments. If you put mortgage on fast pre-pay; things like one extra payment a year, a principal payment, paying bi weekly vs monthly you can shave years off your mortgage. The question is what if market goes down. Then you don't sell. Or you take advantage and buy up in a down market.

You will always need a home to live in, question is are you creating equity or is your landlord?

If you would like to see some options on how to pre-pay and how to make a good buy in today's market give me a call.