Retirement Planning Dreams

Luxury homes on Vancouver Island continue to sell and be a hot bed of activity in an otherwise flat Canadian real estate market. In fa t the number of homes selling in the Victoria are in addition to more luxury homes sales that have been reported throughout August on the rest of Vancouver Island.

It appears these sales will likely increase the average selling price for all homes on the island and in Greater Victoria in particular. For those looking for a measure of where prices are going the single family detached homes, 6 month average, or the median, are the best statistics to consider. After all, no matter how bad it gets luxury homes will always be in demand, especially for retirement homes.

Most of the summer was a relatively quiet month for luxury home sales in Victoria, but entry level homes and condominiums continue to sell, as long as they are priced right.  A more interesting part of these sales is that 3/4 of luxury homes were purchased by out of town buyers.  Vancouver, Calgary, and Asia remain the main players in this segment of the market. Normally the buyers from out-of-town would be only represent 1/4 of the total  but this summer only one high-end home was purchased by a local resident.

In light of the craziness in the financial markets, it’s suspected that luxury home sales will either ramp up or go die off this fall — in other words, luxury home sales will be at one extreme or the other.

It seems the financial markets are hitting both the US and European governments for their nasty squabbling and partisan politics all the while ignoring expenses and properly managing their debt. Hopefully these large losses globally in financial markets will snap governments out of self absorption and into economic action.

Regardless, custom home builders on Vancouver Island can take some solace in knowing no matter how bad it gets, this will always be a longtime dream of many would-be luxury home buyers.

Filed under: Retiree Lifestyle on September 1st, 2011