Uta Marshall - REALTOR® Prince George, BC

I was lucky enough to have been contacted by a lady in Germany to list five bare land acreages in my city which she needed to sell. She owned 3 in joint with her late husband and 2 were in his name only. I believe she found me through Activerain, but she had no idea that I spoke German (hmmm perhaps this is something I should start promoting?). She was very surpised and happy to find we could correspond in her native language.

www.3DFlags.com

Now German is actually my first language but I have spoken mostly English for my entire life. I haven't spoken German for a good 24 years and I certainly am out of practice. Needless to say, working with this client has been challenging and satisfying all at the same time.

To add even more into the pot, I have had to deal with estates and probate. I have spoken with our Real Estate Board plus the German Consul in the city and no one was able to give my any idea of how to persue the process of listing the properties. I was lucky enought to get in touch with a German lawyer in Vancouver that I managed to find through the local German paper "Die Kleine Zeitung Mit Herz" which I read every month. Unfortunately, this lawyer only dealt with German law, but he was kind enough to put me in touch with a Canadian lawyer who speaks German and also works with a German speaking accountant (for tax issues relating to a non-resident). This lawyer has been wonderful and we have been in close contact.

Finally I was on the right track! This week I am happy to report that one property is SOLD and two have accepted offers. I am still waiting for 2 lots to enter the courts for the probate process so that I can get them listed... and between other Realtors and myself, have a waiting list of people wanting to purchase them!

I am thankful that we have the internet as I was able to scan and email the contracts to my client. She in turn would print them off, sign, scan and email back to me. Everything done within in a few hours!

Diese letzten Wochen habe ich sehr viel gelernt! Es hat mir manchmal einen bisschen muehe gemacht, aber ich habe es ausgedauert.

House prices hold value for Canadians during uncertain year

· Survey finds increases in 167 neighbourhoods, decreases in 21

· Booming Saskatchewan posts largest price increases

• Canada's solid housing fundamentals contrast with boom-bust U.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2008
Vancouver - House prices have remained a bedrock of value for Canadians over the past year, despite a steady flood of gloomy media headlines about the slowing Canadian economy, the volatility of the world's stock markets, and the United States' housing crash and credit crisis, according to a national survey by CENTURY 21 Canada brokers.

The CENTURY 21 Canada 2008 Spring National House Price Survey of typical homes in 198
neighbourhoods within 66 cities across Canada shows that prices over the past year have increased in 167 neighbourhoods, remained flat in nine neighbourhoods and declined in 21 neighbourhoods.

Don Lawby, President of CENTURY 21 Canada, says the survey results reflect the solid foundations of Canada's housing markets versus the boom-bust excesses of the U.S. housing market.

"The Canadian housing market is based on conservative lending practices and regulations, strong banks and Canadians' pride of ownership and diligence at building equity in their homes. These characteristics will sustain our housing market as Canada's economic growth rate slows this year," says Lawby.

"The price collapse in the U.S. housing market, which happened 18 months ago, was based on lending practices and mortgage interest deductibility tax regulations that lured new buyers into mortgages they couldn't sustain. Many existing homeowners took equity out of their homes and spent it on vacations, new cars and flat-screen televisions."

"Over the past several weeks, I've visited every region of Canada and spoken with hundreds of realtors. Housing sales volumes are easing in most communities as the economic growth rate slows, but prices in the spring of 2008 are strong and stable nearly everywhere across the country," says Lawby.

The CENTURY 21 Canada 2008 Spring National House Price Survey reflects the price of a typical home in communities across Canada. A "typical home" is the type of home that occurs most frequently in any given neighbourhood. The homes selected for inclusion in the survey are based on the knowledge and experience of CENTURY 21 brokers in each of the communities.

The CENTURY 21 Canada 2008 Spring National House Price Survey found that the largest price increases over the past year occurred in Saskatchewan, where jobs in the booming oil and gas, grain and potash industries are attracting record numbers of new residents. Prices for typical homes have increased over the past year as much as:

· 57 per cent to $330,000 for a modest 1,192-square-foot bungalow with three bedrooms and one bathroom in the Whitmore Park neighbourhood of Regina;

· 49 per cent to $379,000 for a 1,440-square-foot split-level with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in the Avalon neighbourhood of Saskatoon; and

• 48 per cent to $219,900 for a small 974-square-foot bungalow with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on a large lot in remote Prince Albert, a small city 140 kilometres north of Saskatoon known as "the Gateway to the North".

Other strong markets across the country include:

· Winnipeg, where prices in the River Park South, West End and Charleswood neighbourhoods increased 19 per cent, 24 per cent and 34 per cent respectively;

· Lethbridge, where prices in Southgate, Riverstone and Uplands neighbourhoods increased 21 per cent, 21 per cent and 23 per cent;

· Castlegar, where prices in the south, north and rural areas of the city increased 16 per cent, 18 per cent and 18 per cent;

· St. John's, where prices in the east and west parts of the city increased between nine per cent and 19 per cent; and

• Vancouver, where prices in the east, Yaletown, Kitsilano and Marpole increased between five per cent and 19 per cent.

In many communities, local conditions have produced strong, but variable price increases, including;

· Toronto, where a typical bungalow in North York increased six per cent, while a typical condo in North York increased 20 per cent. In Liberty Village, a condo increased 14 per cent, while a bungalow in Scarborough Bluffs increased 11 per cent.

· Montreal, where 11 neighbourhoods surveyed had increases ranging from three per cent for a splitlevel in Cote St. Luc and 11 per cent for a two-storey in Riviere-des-Prairies.

· Halifax and Dartmouth, where 12 neighbourhoods surveyed had increases ranging from five per cent for a split-level in Dartmouth Eastern Passage and 14 per cent for a two-storey in Halifax West.

• Abbotsford, where prices for similar sized bi-level homes in the central, western and eastern parts of the city increased two per cent, seven per cent and eight per cent respectively.

Softening markets across the country include:

· Edmonton, where prices in the south, west and south west parts of the city declined between 12 per cent and 14 per cent;

· Calgary, where four neighbourhoods had declines ranging from four per cent to 13 per cent and three other neighbourhoods had zero, three per cent and nine per cent increases;

· High River, located just south of Calgary, where prices in three neighbourhoods for a two-storey, a townhouse and a bungalow declined four per cent, five per cent and nine per cent respectively; and

• Mont Tremblant, where an alpine condo and a waterfront cottage declined 11 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, while a bungalow in the city increased six per cent.

Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership is a real estate franchisor with exclusive rights to the CENTURY 21 brand in Canada and is part of the world's largest residential real estate sales organization. CENTURY 21 Canada provides comprehensive training, management, administrative and marketing support for the CENTURY 21 System, which is comprised of more than 8,300 independently owned and operated
franchised broker offices in 58 countries and territories, with more than 140,000 sales representatives worldwide. CENTURY 21 Canada is the only organization to offer customers AIR MILES® reward miles on real estate transactions. For all regional releases and data tables please visit www.century21.ca/media.

Companies both new to the region and already established announced over the past several weeks they are investing in the Prince George area, a sign of continued confidence in the regional economy.

First on the list is Alaska Air Group, with companies serving more than 70 destinations in the Western U.S., Canada and Mexico. Starting May 1st, Horizon Air will launch service to Seattle from Prince George providing new U.S. market connectivity at highly competitive fares. Within British Columbia, this will put Prince George in the same small circle as Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria in providing direct daily scheduled service to an international destination.

Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc., one of the world's largest publicly traded, pure molybdenum producers, announced its intentions to grow its investment in the region over the past month. The Company's Board of Directors announced in March that it has approved plans to expand capacity at the Endako Mine from 28,000 to 50,000 tonnes of ore per day beginning in 2010. The expansion project involves a modernization of the mill and expects its capital expenditures related to the expansion project during the period 2008 to 2010 alone will be C$280 million. Supply and service companies in the Prince George area have an opportunity to grow involvement with the expansion and ongoing servicing at the mine 190 km west of Prince George.

Telus announced this past week that it is doubling the size of its call centre to 150 employees in Prince George. Home to post-secondary education programs, the company believes Prince George is a great place to attract the skills they need for their corporate expansion.

Prince George's locational advantages for business expansion were re-affirmed this month. KPMG's 2008 Competitive Alternatives Guide is used widely by site locators and compares key business competitiveness factors such as land and facility, labour, transportation, utilities and taxes in jurisdictions throughout North America. The study concludes that Prince George has a cost-advantage to many cities including Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, and is similar to Calgary, Kelowna and Phoenix. In this environment, increasing air, road and rail transportation linkages for people and products will direct the flow of capital in a global market to Northern B.C. Facilitating this remains the priority of Initiatives Prince George.

Economic Activity Statistics
Employment The unemployment rate in Prince George rose for the third straight month in March, to 6.7% from 5.6% in February. The rise can be partly explained by a seasonal upward fluctuation that is normal for this time of year, and also by the downturn that continues to be experienced in the forest industry. Curtailments at many of the local mills have contributed to a rise in unemployment that is higher than the trend from the previous year; however, the 12-month average unemployment rate remains lower for the past year than from the year before (5.1% average for April 2007-March 2008 compared to 5.8% for April 2006-March 2007). The employment rate declined slightly from February (from 70.5% to 68.5%), with 1,300 fewer persons employed in March. The decline in employed persons can be mostly attributed to full-time employment (1,100 fewer full-time employed in March than in February 2008).

Real Estate
290 properties (of all types), valued at $64.2 million, changed hands in Prince George in the first 3 months of 2008, compared with 415 properties worth $83.6 million for the same period in 2007. The average resale price for a single family residential home was $246,839 between January and March 2008, up 2.7% from the previous quarter (October-December 2007) and up 6.0% over the first quarter (January-March) of 2007. Despite steadily rising prices, the number of houses sold in the first quarter of 2008 was lower than for the first quarter of 2007 (193 compared to 243). However, the BC Northern Real Estate Board has reported that activity in the real estate market is picking up as spring is arriving and that with the current interest rates remaining low, a strong spring market is anticipated. New home prices also continue to be strong relative to 2007, and have recovered from the slight dip seen at the beginning of this year; the average cost of a new home was $397,433 in February 2008, up 13% from January 2008 and 31% higher than February 2007.

Housing starts
There were 5 housing starts and 11 completions in February, and 6 starts in March. Housing starts are down from the same months in 2007 (5 fewer in February 2008, down from 10 in February 2007, and 17 fewer in March 2008, down from 23 in the same month in 2007), but although the year-to-date totals are down slightly, it is too soon to speculate about the trend to be expected in upcoming months. The number of housing units under construction in the city was much higher in February 2008 than in the same month last year. There were 316 housing units under construction (247 of those units were single family residential units), compared to 223 units (194 of which were single family units) in February 2007.

Building permits
Building permits issued for the month of March totaled $5,862,888. Residential permits accounted for the majority of permits issued (30 of 43), and for 40.9% of the total value. Institutional permit values were a close second, at 38.9% of the total value of permits issued. Eleven (11) commercial permits were issued in March, accounting for 20.2% of the total monthly value. Year-to-date permit totals are up 26.6% over last year.

Business licenses
The City of Prince George approved 99 business licenses in February, and 80 in March.

From Initiatives Prince George 250-564-0282 www.initiativespg.com

I was surprised to read in the local paper that prices have gone up this quarter compared to the same period in 2007 by 6% according to the BC Norther Real Estate Board.

The number of sales of singe family homes had declined during the first three months of 2007. This is not surprising as the market is definately not as active this spring (yet).

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, 193 single-detached houses were sold, down from the 243 in 2007. The average price of a home sold during the first quarter of this year was $246,839, up from $232,951 last year.

You can read more about this at the Prince George Citizen.

On March 29, my family and I partook of the Earth Hour observance of turning off our lights for one hour from 8-9pm. In fact we left the lights off all evening.

This act was not to save money or to make a difference in worldwide power consumption as many people believe. It was done to create awareness that we are consuming the earth's resources and are contributing to global climate change. It was an event to symbolize that people worldwide can work together in an effort to fight climate change.

The statistics are out in regard to energy savings, and I am disappointed to say that Prince George the worst reduction of 'savings' in the province of British Columbia. We managed a whopping 0.2% of electricity, while the provincial average was 2%.

My family and I will continue to save energy where we can. Energy saving tips to make Earth Hour every day can be found here. Please do your part!