Saturday, August 21, 2010

OK back to RE...

I am not sure how many of you know about Landcor. It is a RE Data service Co, that produces an HPI for many areas separated into Attached, Detached and Condos.

Here's what there say on their HPI page:


The Housing Price Index

This product presents a constantly updated view of real estate market activity in British Columbia over the past two years. You can view trends in the real estate market for BC and areas or jurisdictions within BC that you select.

The Housing Price Index is a new product developed by Landcor Data Corporation. The purpose of the Housing Price Index is to track trends in the general level of residential property prices throughout British Columbia.

The Housing Price Index (HPI for short) covers price trends for detached houses, attached houses and apartment units. Detached houses include single-family detached buildings on lots of up to one acre. Attached houses include duplex, triplex, four-plex, row house and townhouse properties, mostly condominiums and other single unit ownership dwellings. Apartment units, including lofts and artist studios, are also mostly condominiums.

Choose a Jurisdiction and a Property Type and Click the Refresh button to see the graph

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I cannot comment on the accuracy of their HPI, but I must admit they provide a lot more information than you would get from the RE boards. They also produce a quarterly up-date which I make sure to read. Their up-date just came out and is worth reading. Of course many of the comparisons are quarter to quarter.

They have noted what we see too, a major drop in sales but price stability so far, except for certain areas like the Okanagan, where some segments have taken major hits to the price.

Condos in particular have been 'savaged' in some areas, whereas SFH have held up. The start of a trend? We will have to wait and see. Here is a segment form their report:


In Q2 versus Q1 2010, condos in retiree-friendly Okanagan shed almost a fifth of value, off 18.55 percent or from $310,815 to $253,166. In the smaller BC North/Northwest region, the year-over-year drop in average price was 42.51 percent, from $127,339 to $73,206. In the Kootenay, the year-over-year condo plunge was almost 30 percent or from $279,767 to $198,489.


Conversely, SFD and Attached in the Okanagan, Kootenay and BC North/ NW regions have held their ground. Values in both product categories for all three regions posted good year-over-year and quarterly gains.


Condos have been savaged; the more traditional, homey residential product has not. Whether or not this changes depends on the regional economies and, good, bad or both, changes are coming


This link will take you to their HPI graphs. And you can flip through the different areas and segments. The graphs of Kelowna, especially condos, is worth looking at, Vernon doesn't look too hot either. Some areas have not been up-dated, so check the dates when you open the charts.

This is a site well worth book-marking. The more info we have the better.
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10 comments:

  1. Interesting stuff, I don't know about their numbers though, their charts show Vancouver West prices are up 50% from 2009 lows? I think not.

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  2. Using averages and medians is like banging 2 rocks together to start a fire. While you can, there are other methods that produce better results.

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  3. Actually Chad that probably isn't that far from the truth.

    Think of the peak as 100.
    We then had a 20-25% crash in prices in the most expensive areas by the 2009 lows.
    ie 75-80.
    We then had a run which led to new highs (from which we have thankfully descended) 110

    That is almost a 50% rise 75/35 or 80/30.

    I know it seems impossible, but we forget the crisis of 2009 and the parabolic rise since then. I saw a listing in Van West sell for $1.05M after being listed for $1.45M initially. At the peak it was probably worth nearer the $1.45M again.

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  4. Well a 50% rise is quite frothy and the Westside Van detached has probably gotten ahead of itself but I still believe overall Vancouver prices are fairly stable at these levels.

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  5. @fish
    It is my understanding that Rudy has been compiling RE data for a very long time - perhaps 25 years. It is very robust compared to board data and in many regards his 'released for free' information is IMO actually more complete than many boards. It's level of robustness is quite remarkable. However, if you want the meat you'll have to pay to before getting the steaks.

    A heads up: they are quite rigid about posting any of their information as they consider it an infringement of copyright. Perhaps it helps to understand that Landcor is a 'for profit' organization and therefore are very much more protective of their information.

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  6. Hi Larry

    I think this is the same Rudy who ran/runs the NIHO land company.

    I agree, it seems to be a reliable source of information. I have just linked their stuff and have not copied any proprietory information. However if they come across my obscure blog and wish it so, I will delete the post.

    I think the good publicity will draw more viewers to their site and hopefully more paid subscribers. I may become one myself.

    However if you think it may be an issue, drop me an e-mail and I will whip the post off.

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  7. fish your citation is, from what I see, no more than a media outlet does, though I would carefully mark the cited piece. It's up to you of course but citing a segment of a copyrighted piece is not necessarily copyright infringement. A first 15 minute free consultation with a lawyer can tell you that for the cost of a single zone bus ticket and an hour of your time.

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  8. @fish @ jesse
    re NiHo Landcor one and the same.

    Re: their rules. In the past they have asked me to link to the piece as opposed to making a copy on the blog.
    Snippets don't seem to be a problem with correct attribution.
    That hasn't changed.
    @jesse is quite right as long at the link is there you shouldn't have a problem but some folks get funny about their stuff. They are gentlemen about letting you know and make a request as opposed to a demand. That said, I've never pushed the wall to get a demand. I can say they have never gotten 'puffy' about it but from the perspective of fair play they do insist. Oh, and they do seem to have google spies.

    Hope that helps. :)

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  9. @fish

    We appreciate your direct link to the article, as stated above. We wish all of our re-posters were as courteous as yourself.

    @Larry

    Yes, we do have Google "spies". There have been many times where we have been misquoted and the re-postings have either been incomplete or edited to reflect the poster's viewpoint.

    While I subscribe to the "bad news is better than no news" theory, I respectfully request that the information posted be true to the original articles' intent.

    Keep up the chatter, gentlemen.

    Jeff Puhl
    Manager, Customer Retention and Strategic Initiatives
    Landcor Data Corporation

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  10. Hi Jeff

    I have just discovered the property analysis service your company offers and I am going to do a post on it.

    No one should put an offer together with-out it.

    Fish

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