Detached listings
There are 621 current detached listings and 142 sales year to date. The current market’s hot price range is below $400,000, with the 77 of the sales occurring in this price range. With the current pace of sales this represents a 17 month supply of listings. Comparing the previous year’s detached sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 148 sales. The detached listing inventory climbed but with an increase sales volume in March the market supply decreased over the previous month.

Attached Listing
There are 145 current attached listings and 26 sales year to date. With the current pace of sales this represents a 22 month supply of listings. Comparing the previous year’s attached sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 35 sales. Attached listing represents strata unit apartments, condos and townhouses. Attached listings climbed over January with the market supply.

Land listing
There are 417 bare land listing and 15 sales year to date. With the current pace of sales this represents a 111 month supply. Comparing the previous year’s bare land sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 31 sales. Increase in sales over the previous month led to sharp decrease in the monthly supply

Well April was a better month and the market seems to be getting warmer than the weather for May. The areas of the market that is hottest up to $400,000. with 77 sales, $400,000 to $500,000 with 35 sales, $500,000 to $600,000 with 9 sales, $600,000 to $700,000 with 11 sales, $800,000 to $900,000 with 3 sales, $900,000 to $1,000,000 with 4 sales and only one sale over a $1,000,000 this year. Next week we will have a look at Mortgage Rates.

Keep the letters coming in regards to improving the ferry service change will only come if we make ourselves heard.

- Kenan

It is great to see that Sechelt passed this Resolution at their Committee of the Whole meeting and moved to council: Recommendation No. 10 – Resolution Request – Passenger Ferry Service

Lutes/Siegers
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that all the governments on the Sunshine Coast work together and in unison to attract families and workers to the Sunshine Coast by promoting it as a safe community and an alternative to Vancouver for housing and lifestyle, and by lobbying the provincial government and BC Ferries to provide an affordable passenger-only ferry service between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale that gives priority to the needs and schedules of commuters.

CARRIED
Why do all the local governments need to be on board? Too often in the past we have spoken with differing opinions and our voice gets lost. The Langdale Bypass is a prime example: it goes nowhere because we as a community could not get it together so the money was spent in another community.

Why Langdale to Horseshoe Bay for the passenger service? The infrastructure is already built at Langdale in terms of parking. BC Ferries could work the schedule around their other routes and times. For the service to work it needs to be reliable and run 365 days a year. The Horseshoe Bay to Langdale sail is largely in protected waters other than a few days a year when we have the Squamish outflow winds. I think Bill Howe states it well when he said, “It can get really nasty in the Salish Sea”. It is actually faster on most days to go by bus from Horseshoe Bay to downtown than by boat and let the bus system take you to your destination. Not all users will be going downtown.

Perhaps a passenger service will help attract young families to the Coast, bringing balance to our community.

Who would use the service? All of us. It would boost our fledgling EcoTourism and environmentally, make sense for us to use public transit and leave the car at home.

- Kenan

After serving on council for eight years and seeing some great ideas and proposals for economic development rejected it leaves one wondering what will work for the Coast? Some of the ideas that did not make it involved: a Call Centre , an LNG plant, a Federal Port for Howe Sound, a private College, a Mining enterprise, to name but a few that I can recall. All were rejected or lacked community support.

It seems local government spends a fair amount of time every year on Economic Development with very little result. There are grants in aid of a variety of sorts handed out to numerous organizations from Business Associations, Chambers of Commerce to Tourism Groups and despite spending all this tax payer money we do not make satisfactory progress. In fact we went from being forecasted as one of the fastest growing areas in the province to the one of the slowest! Jobs! – That is what we are missing and moreover we can plainly see that people regularly protest just about any project that involves the creation of jobs on the Coast (whether this is sane and sensible or even fair or not).

So it seems the missing link if we do not become more rationale about job creation here in our own backyard – which seems unlikely – is the ferry system. It separates us from the province’s largest job market. The current ferry system does a pretty good job of moving cars and trucks back and forth but does nothing for the person needing to keep a schedule (other than every two hours). If we really wanted to see economic growth we would have our four local governments lobby the province as a single voice for a commuter service between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale. I have personally handled many listings where the seller just could not take the commuting any longer. ( Endless waiting and over runs and then if you arrive the 2 minutes late you are told at the ticket booth that sales have been stopped and you need to get comfortable for 2 hours).

We do not need increase sailings of the costly car fleet we just need a more efficient and environmentally friendly passenger service on an efficient and effective public transit system (could be private not public if arrangements were right). With the price of parking downtown who can afford to bring a car, we need to move people. There is a great bus service waiting in Horseshoe Bay to take us to our destination(s). The latest announcement by the Federal government and others regarding ship building contracts is going to bring a lot of workers to the Lower Mainland and it would be nice if we could attract some of them to the Sunshine Coast. Who would not want to live on the Coast if that was feasible? It would be great to see the parks full of children playing and see our community growing and thriving as it obviously could do. It is a great pity and a bitter disappointment for so many young people and others to realize they need to move to, or in some cases back to, the Lower Mainland because of the economics of the situation!

- Kenan

Market update for the month March

Detached listings
There are 561 current detached listings and 88 sales year to date. The current market’s hot price range is below $400,000, with the 47 of the sales occurring in this price range. With the current pace of sales this represents a 19 month supply of listings. Comparing the previous year’s detached sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 108 sales. The detached listing inventory climbed but with an increase sales volume in March the market supply decreased over the previous month.

Attached Listing
There are 144 current attached listings and 19 sales year to date. With the current pace of sales this represents a 22.75 month supply of listings. Comparing the previous year’s attached sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 22 sales. Attached listing represents strata unit apartments, condos and townhouses. Attached listings climbed over January with the market supply.

Land listing
There are 381 bare land listing and 10 sales year to date. With the current pace of sales this represents a 114 month supply. Comparing the previous year’s bare land sales, in 2011 for the same time period we had 27 sales. Increase in sales over the previous month led to sharp decrease in the monthly supply

So far this year we have only seen one sale over a million dollars in Redrooffs a low bank waterfront.  It is interesting looking at where the sales are so far this year Sechelt Area led the pack with lot sales, 38 detached sales and 7 attached. Gibsons  Area followed up with no lot sales, 33 detached sales and 7 attached. Roberts Creek there was 5 sales, Halfmoon Bay 7 sales and Pender Harbour 5 sales. I know from the showing activity that there have been a lot of buyer’s looking around. Dealing with 3 multiple offer situations this year it tells me Price it Right if you want to sell. Remember phone your local representative for a commuter service to Horseshoe Bay.

- Kenan

Setting the balance for our future community

Thank you for all your calls regarding my last column. I acknowledge that there were some disagreements about some of the statistics that were mentioned, but one thing that we can all agree on is that the majority of the people moving to the Sunshine are going to be over 65; what the exact percentage is may not be the major concern. Of course we clearly welcome people of all ages to the Sunshine Coast and if we make a decision that we want to put an emphasis on our community as a retirement community, then we need to plan for that and spend our tax dollars on the appropriate economic development. But I do believe that some, if not most of us, would also like to see our children and grandchildren, among other groups of younger people, having the opportunity to work and live on the Coast. The main reason we have difficulties attracting young families to the Coast is a profound lack of employment opportunities. We can study that and discuss it and again bring in the consultants as we have done so often in the past, or we can ask our government representatives to make a fundamental change that has been long needed.

Moreover, it will obviously enhance our chances for success if we speak with a single voice for the entire Sunshine Coast. Why is a realtor concerned that as we move through life we change our housing needs? If we don’t have young people buying family homes that seniors are now selling, how will those seniors buy the condo or the smaller rancher they now need to better suit their lifestyle?

We all know that the Sunshine Coast is an affordable alternate location to the Lower Mainland for accommodation. 
We all appreciate that the Coast has developed and provided amenities and services that are attractive to families and workers, including workers who commute to Vancouver. So let us all lend our support to the following proposition. Send this resolution to your local councils and government representatives to show your support for an age-balanced Sunshine Coast of the future:

“NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that all the governments on the Sunshine Coast work together and in unison to attract families and workers to the Sunshine Coast by promoting it as a safe community and an alternative to Vancouver for housing and lifestyle, and by lobbying the provincial government and BC Ferries to provide an affordable passenger only ferry service between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale that gives priority to the needs and schedules of commuters.”

- Kenan