Lee QuaileBroker of Record Inflation and real estate aren’t two things we often see mentioned in the same sentence. Our notice of the effects of inflation is usually limited to everyday purchases – food, clothing, gas or other household items. After all, it makes sense you’d take note when your weekend grocery run ends up costing you significantly more over time, since it’s...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record Sometimes extraordinary things can start to feel routine if they happen often enough – a phenomenon many of us in the real estate business might be beginning to experience for ourselves. Ever since the pandemic bit down on us last spring, housing prices have soared in defiance of all initial expectations here in Waterloo-Wellington. The latest report released by KWAR...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record Over the past several weeks, I’ve outlined the case for optimism regarding the student housing market in Waterloo on a couple of occasions, most thoroughly here. What seemed to be a particularly vulnerable sector amid the initial uncertainty of last year has since demonstrated an impressive knack for resiliency, with vacancy rates staying low and property...
Presenting our Award Winners for 2020! Lee QuaileBroker of Record After the dramatic ups and downs of the past year, I wanted to take a step away from my typical style of content this week to recognize the achievements of some of my friends and colleagues here at Chestnut Park West. 2020 started out by being anything but certain – I’m sure we can all remember what we were doing almost...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record These are far from the easiest of times to be operating in our market as a home buyer – we get it. The past few months have seen staggering increases in average sale prices across all types of housing in Waterloo-Wellington which have seemingly been pricing ever more people right out of the market, and dashing dreams of homeownership for prospective first-time...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record As temperatures are beginning to edge back above the freezing mark and our days are getting longer, we’re finally in the home stretch of this year’s long pandemic winter. While it hasn’t been an easy season for many of us, perhaps for no group is this truer than those folks who have been trying to get a foot in the door of the local housing...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record A Cautionary Tale. My final post this week is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual analysis. Instead, I’d like to bring a real-life event to your attention – something which occurred just this past week at my own brokerage, and it’s a situation that highlights just how valuable proper representation in the real estate world can be. I know many...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record As the cost of entry for home ownership continues to defy gravity in the Waterloo-Wellington area, it was always inevitable that we’d eventually see a consequent bump up in average monthly rents here, too. People need somewhere to call home – and when they’re being priced out of home ownership in ever-greater numbers, they turn to the rental...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record I don’t often break my professional focus on these pages, but if you already know me well, then you’ll know that not much gets me more fired up than a Leafs winning streak! While the residential resale market has been absolutely on fire over the past several weeks too (I’ll get into a little stats recap later on), I couldn’t help but be tempted to lead off...
Lee Quaile Broker of Record Real estate news in Kitchener-Waterloo was absolutely dominated in 2020 by massive increases in sales prices year over year in every part of the housing market. And when the average sale price of a single detached home surged above $850,000 for the first time ever just this past month, eclipsing even the 16.9% average increase we saw between December of 2019 and...