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Have you updated your WILL? Have you declared speculation & vacancy tax? & REMAX's 2023 Barometer Report on the market! Season 5 Episode 214

February 16, 2023 | Posted by: Michele Cummins

Have you updated your WILL? Have you declared speculation & vacancy tax? & REMAX's 2023 Barometer Report on the market!

Season 5 Episode 214

To listen to the podcast go here:



To watch last weeks episode on my Youtube See below 
Segmant 1:

Segmant 2:

WARNING: this is a transcript from the audio of the Podcast.....

OK, so here goes the latest podcast episode via transctipt:

Curtis Pope: 0:25
Well, here we are. It's a Saturday morning. That means it's time for the Cummins Real Estate Group show with Michelle Cummins and myself Curtis Pope. Good morning, Michelle. That better not be a Christmas coffee.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 0:34
No is just a good old Canadian Tim Hortons.

Curtis Pope: 0:37
Okay, that data girl.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 0:39
Yeah, I'm being good.

Curtis Pope: 0:40
You're becoming more and more Canadian. The longer you live here.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 0:43
It's true. Well, you know, Christmas has passed.

Curtis Pope: 0:48
That's fortunately that is true.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 0:50
Everyday should be Christmas really?

Curtis Pope: 0:53
Well, why not? You know what, I was just talking to a friend the other day and he's one of these people. It's crazy about Christmas. And he's telling me he goes, I still haven't taken my Christmas decorations down. Oh, still, he's like, but it makes me happy. It's February. He's like, drink COVID I never took it down because it made me happy. And I'm like, Good for him. You know, that's, you know, it's kind of smart. When you think about it. If you've got something as simple as leaving a Christmas tree up or whatever, that brings you happiness and helps with your overall mental health. Why not

Michele Cummins - PREC: 1:17
so true. So absolutely. Christmas in July, Christmas in February doesn't matter.

Curtis Pope: 1:23
To Christmas in February and by Richard new guitar. Curtis, we talked about that. Nature talked about it when he was in here a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I

Michele Cummins - PREC: 1:31
ended up watching that show. And thank you by the way, it was so sweet with the things that you said and nice things about me. I really, that was Oh, thank you, right?

Curtis Pope: 1:39
Yes. Every once in a while me and James were talking about you as a realtor. So we said Yeah, okay. But no, he

Michele Cummins - PREC: 1:45
doesn't need a 12 string. Okay, I'll give him that. I'll give you that too. So if you find one

Curtis Pope: 1:51
maybe I can help you find a 12 string I'm sure it'd be real cheap.

Unknown: 1:55
First 50s He deserves it.

Curtis Pope: 1:58
I don't know if you're supposed to give that information out over the air you know now people are gonna know a woman

Michele Cummins - PREC: 2:02
never gives her oh right but a man that's better with a fine wine and he's

Curtis Pope: 2:08
just becoming more distinguished Exactly. Yesterday has to get through some distinguished I don't know if that's the right word is it we'll leave it at that. Yeah, yeah.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 2:18
And talking about age oh my gosh, you know all of us as you know we cannot go backwards every day is forward but you know our will like you and Kelly like you guys have your Will you know updated

Curtis Pope: 2:33
updated ah, ah, no.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 2:39
Didn't I advise you to update your well when you bought your your last property if you did, okay, because yes, it's a good trigger every time you buy a new property you know, when things change majorly in your life you should definitely update your well been for me

Curtis Pope: 2:53
I don't trust my kids that are not going to kill me off if I do that.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 2:57
Well if you keep on getting people to beat Cody up

Curtis Pope: 3:01
all the time hockey he deserves it. I was only during the music video for Todd recharges video for stick on the ice and that was a good video so good we may take a few extra shots of Cody taking the body check

Michele Cummins - PREC: 3:15
yeah that was a good good good one though. I'm glad you did that

Curtis Pope: 3:19
it was a lot of fun actually you know I you know it was it was pretty cool to be watched the process and and you know all the all the hockey players weren't sure they wanted to do it. But they all love doing it once they did it. Especially Cody's like I was actually a lot of fun.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 3:35
You guys like being beat up? Yeah, exactly. In a way

Curtis Pope: 3:38
he's a hockey player. He's used to it

Michele Cummins - PREC: 3:41
so I did you get your vacancy tax? Speculation tax form I

Curtis Pope: 3:47
did I got it funny enough. I guess it was I checked the mail because I checked the mail a few days after the show last week and lo and behold it was in the mail

Michele Cummins - PREC: 3:55
good because I wanted to mention reminder to definitely clay Have you done it on an undeclared?

Curtis Pope: 4:01
I've done my I did it right away and then I said, Kelly come do your thing and she went you do it. I'll just tell you the stuff. I'm like, okay, because I can't remember I don't know. barely know my social insurance number, let alone hers. Good

Michele Cummins - PREC: 4:11
point, Curtis. It's not just one of you. It's everyone on title has to declare it is yes. Thank you for mentioning that.

Curtis Pope: 4:17
And there's even a spot saying are you the person? Are you declaring it for the moment? I'm declaring it for them?

Michele Cummins - PREC: 4:22
Excellent. Yes. Go out there and do it if you haven't done it yet. listeners. Okay. And then also, I am pretty excited because you know, I used to be a runner. I used to run run I actually ran till I could feel like I couldn't stop I just ran ran ran it was so it was like you get to a point where you just it's just like you're running on like you're not running like your legs are moving, but you're not really moving. Anyways, I haven't been that way in many years. I won't say how many. But I saw this race come up. It's called heritage to hat sick race. It's a five to 10k or five or 10k you can do. It's April 2, and it's raising money for the mission hospice society. So I was totally inspired one night when I'm on my phone and I see this on your guys's website, actually, or social media. And I'm like, I'm going to do this. So I registered and I'm doing the five. I'm going to do the 5k this year, because it's my first race ever. Yeah,

Curtis Pope: 5:17
why not? I mean, I did one years ago didn't have to train for anything, because it was the was not the Tough Mudder one, they did that kind of Ms. Mud one. Oh, yeah. And I did that. And I did it with some co workers that really muddy, really muddy and cold. But the funny thing was, I learned real quick that even though I wasn't in great shape, I was in better shape than my coworkers. Because I'm at least running and they're walking and I'm like, Come on, let's run. I'd run up and wait a while or I'd get to the obstacle going well, I'm not going to do this by myself. If I'm gonna have to, you know, fall on my face and slip and get all muddy and dirty. I gotta wait for them. And was that fun? It was a blast. Yeah,

Michele Cummins - PREC: 5:50
that always looks fun. Man. I'm really inspired by my brother in law. Kurt, Abner, he, he works for Chick fil A, you know, and he's amazing person. But he runs He's been running for I think 15 Or

Curtis Pope: 6:05
because he works for Chick fil A he has to. Because if you're gonna eat that stuff all the time?

Michele Cummins - PREC: 6:09
No, they got so much healthy stuff. No, he's like, so amazing. Like, he runs all the races. And so I'm like, I'm going to step up my game here and I'm going to run my first run plus, it's for a great cause. Hospice society. So needed so Oh, and so if anybody wants to they can go on of course, your social media country one Oh 7.1 FM or my social media and click the link to register yourself or donate if you can't run the race yourselves. And I was wondering, I wanted to mention because we talked about my newest vacation rental property that I purchased up in Sasquatch, right, and it's available for rent. So I just wanted to say to everyone if you're looking for a great place, it's two storey base walkout basement cabin up at Sasquatch hammock mountain. It's a 10 minute walk to Molly's restaurant and to the base of the gondola gondola. And he could have been in the summertime dirt bike, ATV, hike, mountain bike, there's so many things to do around there all year round. That's why it's called the All Seasons Kevin. So you can find that on my social media as well. Or just contact me today if you want to rent that at a great price. And I'm an investor. As you know, myself, I have nine doors right now and moving upward from there. And I wanted to share a bit of advice. Now I've, I've been fortunate that none of my tenants have left me but I can only imagine the strain if they did. And I use Dan and Ethan Lange of REMAX property management to place all my tenants and they have always done a fantastic job and worth its weight in gold. It's priceless. Definitely, I would encourage anybody going to rent a place to use a property manager. And if you're anywhere in the Fraser Valley, go to Dan and Ethan Lang, because they are they're really good at what they what they do. And they find great tenants all the time. But I wanted to mention that there are five top or the five top reasons that tenants may leave. So one is they can't afford the rent rate, of course. And so if you're if you're talking to your tenant, or if you know, it's really hard, it's if you have a good tenant, again, it's worth keeping them because the vacancy rates and then the whole turnover part of it to number two, that they need more space. That's, you know, obvious some of us grow out of our space, you know, have children or whatnot. And then the third reason is they want new amenities. Fourth reason is maintenance and repair requests are overseen. And the fifth reason is issues with other tenants or neighbors. So those are the top five reasons in the surveys that are why tenants leave, I have an article that I can email you if you would like it just text me or email me for it. It's on some ways to help you keep your tenant and avoid a vacant property. So now, I wanted to talk about the REMAX 2023 Canada housing barometer report. But I'm thinking maybe we can go into that. Well, actually, maybe I'll tell you the key findings and then when we come back from our break, we will actually go through it. So now plan we can

Curtis Pope: 9:13
do it. Yeah. Wow. I love plans. I love it when a plan comes together. So is the Canadian

Michele Cummins - PREC: 9:18
real estate homeowners positioned to ride out storm. So again, this is the REMAX 2023 Canada housing barometer report. The key findings are markets with the lowest appreciation over the 10 year period reported the highest loan to value ratios, and eight out of 12 markets analyzed saw the loan to value ratio declined over the 10 year period examined. Three factors were largely responsible for the downward pressure on loan to value ratios over the past decade. Equity gains the pandemic facilitating the ability to work remotely in smaller markets and the transfer of inter generational wealth particularly in the late later half of the last decade and the early 2020s. Now while interest rate hikes serve to destabilize most major Canada real estate markets begin in 2022. Homeowners are well positioned to ride out the coming storm in large part due to lower loan to value ratios on new mortgages, according to a report released today by REMAX Canada. Now this that part is from just the other day I should say not today's Saturday. So the REMAX Canada 2023 Canada housing barometer report examined average price and new mortgage values published by CMHC, Equifax, Canada in 12, major markets from British Columbia to New Brunswick and so we'll get back on that when we come back from our break and talk more about it.

Curtis Pope: 10:50
All right, well, people want to have a look at what listings you have right now or maybe see the stats from last week. I know you've got that all their work and they go to get all the information so come to this.ca We're back with more right after this. Segment Number Two of the Cummins Real Estate Group show with local Rockstar realtor Michelle Cummins and myself, Curtis Pope. And of course, here we are, it's already February. Can you believe it's February now? I mean, we're a couple of weeks in basically it just it doesn't feel right.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 12:07
Valentine's coming up on Tuesday.

Curtis Pope: 12:10
Well, when you're married to me every day is Valentine's Day, so

Michele Cummins - PREC: 12:13
Oh, I bet you that's the way Kelly feels.

Curtis Pope: 12:17
Sure. Let's go with that. She's listening right now she's throwing stuff at the radio. Wire.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 12:26
No plans on Valentine.

Curtis Pope: 12:28
It was like the other day, you know, because Kelly, you know my realtor found is this great house with this hot tub. You may know Rockstar, Rockstar realtor. And I'll tell you one thing a lot of people say that that wears off in time. My wife I said the other day ago I'm not sure mom loves the hot tub more than us to the kids. But she loves the hot tub as much as she loves the family.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 12:51
She loves the family in the hot tub. Yes. Oh, join it together.

Curtis Pope: 12:55
Yeah, sure. No, she goes out there and the cat runs around the hot tub and she's just like me, none of us came up. She's like, Oh, you're ruining my quiet time.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 13:08
See, so many people don't think they want a hot tub. And then once they actually have it they

Curtis Pope: 13:14
some people do like I hear kind of 5050 Some people go the shine wears off after a while and you know, trying to get the water chemicals right and stuff and it's all alchemy to me. I don't have kept it right so far, but I've done okay,

Michele Cummins - PREC: 13:27
but I just have to do the genie little thing and then boom, it's done for you.

Curtis Pope: 13:30
I'm the pool boy. So my wife will go. I think it needs more chlorine. I think it needs to this needs cleaning. And I'm going to go and I'm like, and I do use it quite a bit still to but I don't use it like Kelly uses it religiously. Almost every night. Oh, it's so good. Yeah, she does love it. So. So yeah, she's that as long as she's got her hot tub. She isn't too worried about me and Valentine's Day because she's you know, she loves the hot tub as much as she loves me. So

Michele Cummins - PREC: 13:54
that's the one thing we are adding. We have a sauna in our cabin at Sasquatch, but that's we're adding a hot tub this year. So we should have them by the summer.

Curtis Pope: 14:00
Oh, it's perfect. Especially when you have snow and you can roll around the snow and jump back in a hot tub.

Unknown: 14:05
I can't wait. And then Super Bowl Sunday is tomorrow. Isn't it is?

Michele Cummins - PREC: 14:11
Yeah, didn't think of that. Well, I don't have any open houses tomorrow. So that's okay. No open houses this weekend for myself. You

Curtis Pope: 14:17
got to pick for the winter. Yeah, I mean, you're you're American by birth. So you must know football is what I figure

Michele Cummins - PREC: 14:23
okay. So another brother in law of mine, Justin, that's Heidi's my youngest. We call her number eight. Her guy.

Curtis Pope: 14:29
He's go by numbers and your family. Yeah.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 14:32
Yeah. I'm number five. We that's yeah, that we call each other by numbers. It's easier that way.

Curtis Pope: 14:36
You're the middle child that well, what if several Middle children I guess so. Yeah, definitely have a middle child. And is that many of you?

Michele Cummins - PREC: 14:42
Oh, there's eight. It's really kind of awkward because there's one like, yeah, you're either the beginning of the last four or you're the end of the first four. But no, he bets online. There's this betting of some sort and he won he wants some good amount of money the other day. I think it was a couple of So now I don't know what game it was because I just haven't been watching sports and so long are you betting?

Curtis Pope: 15:05
No, I can't bet on sports. I never win. It's part of being a lifelong Canuck fan I think it just you know, it just works against you but if I was a betting man even though I know a lot of people are saying it'll go the other way to the rounds, I think that I think mahomes is going to pull it out he's just too good.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 15:23
Okay, so I'm going with how much money you want to bet on that.

Curtis Pope: 15:28
Oh, I gotta tune in my pocket I think

Michele Cummins - PREC: 15:30
it's not a penny that's right there's no pennies in cans right?

Curtis Pope: 15:33
I'm going to Kansas City I'm so which means you should probably not bet on Kansas City. Anybody that's listening right now.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 15:39
It's like horse races like do the opposite than what he says do the

Curtis Pope: 15:43
opposite of what I say you'll be much better off. So

Michele Cummins - PREC: 15:47
we have Okay continuing on with the Canada real estate homeowners. You know, the barometer report from Remax that's this year. So okay, so the loan to value ratios we were talking about, so they had declined in 67% of markets. So that's over the past decade, with the greatest drops noted in London and machten. That's 21% Halifax was 15%. Hamilton was 14% Toronto 10% and Ottawa was 9%. So for markets including Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina, we're up over 2012 levels, a trend that is set to reverse in the years ahead as Alberta and Saskatchewan economic engines gain momentum and drive home buying activity. The lowest loan to value ratios were found in the most expensive markets including Vancouver 50%, Toronto 53%, and Hamilton 54%. While the highest loan to value ratios were found in Regina at 88% and Edmonton at 83%. Nationally loan to value ratios hovered at 57%. So while challenges certainly exist in today's high interest rate environment, risk factors for the overall housing market are greatly reduced when homeowners own a larger proportion of their homes. And this is from Christopher Alexander, our president at REMAX Canada. He says with half of loan to value ratios within the 50 and 60% range in Canadian markets, homeowners are better able to be to withstand downward pressure on housing values, and fewer will find themselves underwater carrying upside down loans. So three factors were largely responsible for the downward pressure on loan to value ratios over the past decade. According to the Canada housing barometer report, equity gains the pandemic facilitating the ability to work remotely in smaller markets and the transfer of inter generational wealth, particularly in the latter half of the last decade and the early 2020s. Government implemented measures to reduce risks to the country's housing markets, including the much maligned stress tests have also gone a long way in maintaining the overall health of the Canadian market. And that is explained by Elton Ashe, our executive vice president at REMAX Canada, the housing market in Canada has a reputation for stability relative to other international markets, and prudent policy plays a substantial role. Canadian buyers are much better qualified than a decade ago. As a result of that, according to the REMAX report, and a recent CMHC Equifax Canada report confirmed a significant reduction in the number of buyers with the credit scores under 660. In the past decade, nationally, that number fell to 4.7% in the third quarter of 2022, down from 8%, a decade earlier. So Ottawa 3.9% had the lowest share of new mortgage holders with credit scores below 660. While Winnipeg had the highest at 6.4%. The loan to value ratio in all markets was down from a decade ago levels. Mortgage delinquency rates have also fallen in most markets across the country, with a national percentage sitting at just point 14%, down just over 63% from levels reported in 2012. The lowest rates can be found in Ontario and British Columbia where the delinquency rates are below point 08. So rapid population growth was identified as a primary catalyst in driving home buying activity over the past decade with the quarterly population estimate rising 12.1% nationally from the third quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of 2022. Interest rates also played a starring role over the 10 year period, with the overnight rate dropping two point 25% In May of 2009 and maintaining relatively low levels throughout The 2010s climbing in 2018 and 2019, only to fall again 2.25% in 2020. So population growth is expected to continue in the years ahead, given the federal government's commitment to increase immigration levels, but interest rates will likely remain relatively high in the foreseeable future, which should temper home buying activity to some extent, particularly in the first half of the year. So for 2023 There are likely to be challenges but a healthy number of homebuyers are expected to continue to the enter enter into our country's housing markets from coast to coast. The trend toward smaller markets should continue to play out in Atlanta, Canada, Ontario and Western Canada areas where immigration from more expensive markets has occurred recently, major centers in Alberta and Saskatchewan are expected to see strong growth in the year ahead as provincial economic is continues and to operate on all cylinders. However, there could be some tough times ahead for larger markets that are seeing an uptick in over extended buyers, as well as increased financial hardships for parents who helped their kids into homeownership by taking out home equity line of credit so those are he locks. While most charter banks are typically willing to work with the homeowners in distress situations, buyers that chose to work with private lenders are having a different experience, as evidenced in recent stories in the media. While overall risk to the Canadian housing market remains low risk mitigation remains top of mind for regulatories. Given a real estate impact the real estate's impact on Canadian economy, the sector has accounted for 10 to four to 17% of GDP in recent years. The government's stress test is among the additional measures aimed at reinforcing the country's real estate market going forward. While still in development, it would look at addressing three key factors mortgage size and debt load, new debt service ratios, plus a new interest rate stress test. Given the success of the stress test to date, it's clear some constraints can prove invaluable. That being said further measures that would make it increasingly difficult for Canadians to realize homeownership, while well intentioned, may potentially cause more harm than good. At the end of the day. What's evident by the loan to value ratios and by policies to discourage speculation and overextension is that real estate is and will always be a long term hold. The Canadian housing barometer report shows that most purchasers are aligned with the philosophy as demonstrated by their tendency to get into the market and hold steady savvy homebuyers and homeowners are looking to offset carrying costs by reducing their footprint choosing smaller homes as reported in Ottawa or renting out basement suites in their homes. A trend noted across the board but especially apparent in London and Saskatoon, some buyers are purchasing duplexes and other multi unit properties and living in one of the units. multigenerational sales are also happening with increasing frequency across Canada, whereby two or three generations live together. This trend was strong in Toronto's region, as well as in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. And so the bottom line is that the dream and desire for homeownership is unmistakable. The mechanisms in place to underpin stability are working, and although more challenging conditions in 2023 may cause some to temporarily take pause, the longer term outlook remains positive. Once the Bank of Canada has signaled that it is done with quantitative tightening, the market is expected to return to more normal levels of home buying activity overall. And it is a balanced market here locally in the Fraser Valley. So that is the report from Remax Canada. Interesting. Yeah. And on that note, I just wanted to end our show with a beautiful, amazing cool new listing. That's coming up on Monday. All right, what do you got that Okay, perfect. It's a rancher two bedroom, two bathroom corner end unit. It has double side by side garage and double front side by side parking is so beautiful. It's updated, it's renovated. It's in a complex called Eagle Crest. In West Abbotsford. It's for sale. As I said Monday, the unit number is 24 Is it 3293 firhill drive and the price is only 585,000 and my drone video, the cinematography walkthrough, video photos, floorplan all will be available on Monday. So contact me or check out my social media or email me regarding that if you'd like oh, and the quote to end this week on is if you don't run. Remember I'm gonna we're

Curtis Pope: 24:53
talking about running. Look at that. Look, you're tying everything together.

Michele Cummins - PREC: 24:57
If you don't run, you never know how far you can go. A

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