Edmonton Real Estate Blog

OK, so you have a perfectly good kitchen. The layout works; the cabinetry is solid; but it just needs a little uplift. There are plenty of relatively minor changes you can make that don’t involve restructuring your life and house. Here are a few.

1. Repaint your cabinets. A fresh coat of paint can transform a kitchen from dark and dingy to light and airy. If you are a few years away from that big kitchen reno, this is a great time to have some fun with color.

2. Upgrade your countertop. Upgrading a dated countertop will give new life to your entire kitchen and add value.

3. Install a new backsplash. If your cabinetry and countertop work nicely but your room lacks pizzazz, a new backsplash can add lots of personality and really dress up a kitchen. A bit of texture, sparkle or gloss will give simple cabinetry a lot of presence.

4. Make a statement. New jewelry always picks up my mood. It can do wonders for your kitchen too. New hardware can dress up plain cabinets, while standout lighting fixtures can add a surprising wow factor.

5. Change your faucet. A detachable hose with a hand spray comes in handy for so much more than just giving a bath to the cat. I prefer a faucet with a flexible braided water-supply hose. It looks better than a plain black rubber hose and will last longer.

6. Expand your horizons. Need more surface area? Don’t think you need to start from scratch. If you have an island, you can introduce a different material on an added eating counter either below or above the counter.

The standard counter height is 36 inches. A nice option, like you see here, is to add an extension at table height (30 inches is typical). The great thing about adding a table-height extension is that regular kitchen and dining chairs will pull up to the counter comfortably. If you prefer a higher surface, you could go with bar height (40 to 42 inches).

7. Consider refacing. New cabinet fronts and doors can dress up the cabinetry boxes if the layout already works and they are solid.

8. Rethink the uppers. Open shelving offers an opportunity to display collections or just keep frequently used items accessible. Wine comes to mind, but that’s just me.

9. Add some cozy touches. A runner is a great addition to a galley kitchen. I don’t know why we are disciplined to treat our kitchen like it has a different set of rules when it comes to decor. I’m all for adding a table lamp for an unexpected element in a kitchen.

10. Add a floating island. If a new bank of cabinetry is beyond the budget, try a ready-made freestanding piece to add extra storage and a surface for working and eating surface.

Add a new top to a freestanding piece of furniture and extend the edge for an eating counter. The minimum overhang would be 10 to 12 inches, but there are a few considerations when extending the top. Take care not to shift the balance of weight so much that the piece is unstable (people love to rest their elbows, adding weight to the surface). Also you may need to add brackets to support the overhang.

11. Add a showstopper. A simple kitchen with simple cabinetry is downplayed by a showpiece range. Playing up one feature is a great way to detract from less interesting elements.

Source: Houzz.com

EDMONTON- A new mandatory warranty program designed to protect people buying new homes across the province comes into affect this weekend.

The government calls the New Home Buyer Protection Act the strongest consumer home warranty protection plan in Canada.

“This legislation will help protect the single largest purchase that most people make…a home,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs Ken Hughes.

Ninety per cent of homes built in Alberta already have new home warranty, but the new legislation will require all builders to provide more comprehensive home warranty coverage for all new homes and condominiums built in the province.

At minimum, all new homes will have the following warranty protection:

• one year labour and materials – this covers the way the home was built or the materials it was built with, such as flooring and trim;
• two years distribution systems – this covers the labour and materials related to heating, plumbing and electrical systems;
• five years building envelope protection – this covers the exterior shell of the home, including the roof and walls, and includes a requirement for the warranty provider to offer the consumer the option to purchase two additional years of building envelope coverage; and,
• ten years coverage for key structural components, including its frame and foundation.

“Reputation is very important,” said Tally Hutchinson, vice president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, Edmonton Region. “And we will continue to build homes with best practice and we think that this initiative is very, very important for the consumer and for the industry.”

However, not everyone is convinced. Homeowner Meaghen Allen took possession of her home over four months ago and says she’s still fighting with her builder over several issues.

“The side of our house stairwells, we didn’t have an exit there. The garage, the electrical to the garage, lighting fixtures. Just the quality of work, the stairs, the paint,” she said. “And just too, they were building properties next door to us.”

Allen says going through warranty hasn’t worked, either.

“My experience with New Home Warranty is that they don’t do anything,” she explained. “I have dealt with New Home Warranty (on) three different houses, and three different houses, nothing out of it.”

However, the province maintains it will hold builders and warranty companies accountable. In order to crack down on negligent builders, fines of up to $500,000 can be handed out. The Superintendent of Insurance will also investigate consumer complaints against warranty providers.

“Our new home buyer protection office has compliance officers who will monitor compliance,” said Ivan Moore, assistant deputy minister, Public Safety Division, Municipal Affairs.

The Act will only apply to homes with a building permit applied for after Saturday, Feb. 1.

The New Home Buyer Protection Act was passed in November 2012, and was originally supposed to come into effect last fall. However, that date was pushed back to Feb. 1, 2014 to give warranty providers more time to prepare, the government said.

For more information on the Act, including access to warranty information, visit the Government of Alberta’s website.

Source: GlobalNews.ca

Weathering the cold and dark winter months is a challenge for anyone, but can be especially difficult if you live in an older home. Older homes carry a lot of appeal but older homes also come with problems and a lot of them are brought to light in cold winters. These are common issues that should be addressed and corrected so that your focus is on friends, family and holidays, and not with home repairs.

	Many older homes come with beautiful glasswork but unfortunately, these drafty, single-pane windows allow heat to escape, wasting energy and money. Replacement windows can be expensive but they are often the most effective way to increase energy efficiency and comfort.
	Insulation overall can be a problem in older homes, and inadequate insulation should be supplemented with additional insulation, particularly in attics. In order to ascertain how much insulation you need, check with local sources to determine if minimum insulation ratings (R-values) are required in your area for new homes and then meet or exceed those levels in your older home if you can.
	Outdated water pipes can cause huge problems if cold temperatures cause them to freeze or burst. Older pipes made of galvanized steel, iron, or lead may need to be replaced if they are not in good condition. Good replacement options include copper or CPVC.

Early sunsets can make the winter seem dreary and long, so simple steps to brighten the interior of your home can go a long way to lifting those winter blues. Add bright color to any room with pillow covers, flowers, or indoor plants. Likewise, giving a small space like a powder or laundry room a fresh coat of paint in a cheerful color can help brighten an indoor space without becoming a major project. If you’ve got a green thumb, you can also take this time to plan out your spring garden, reminding yourself of sunnier, longer days to come.

Source: Pillar To Post Home Inspectors Newsletter

History has shown that economic recoveries following recessions are typically both strong and durable. As shown in the chart, once the recovery takes hold and the economy does start expanding, it is rarely for a short time. In fact, periods of expansion that came on the heels of downturns averaged 57 months or close to 5 years. After 1960, the average period of expansion following a recession was even longer at 71 months or close to 6 years. Although the transition from an economic recession to an economic recovery can be choppy, once recoveries arrive, they tend to be longstanding.

Feel free to contact me or visit my website for more information.

Douglas J. Bodtcher  
Investors Group Financial Services Inc.
780-448-1988 ext. 284
Douglas.Bodtcher@investorsgroup.com

After 12 years at Apple leading the design of the iPod and iPhone, Tony Fadell told his friends and family he was leaving one of the most valuable companies on the planet to make thermostats. (Could there be anything less glamorous?) Not surprisingly, his move elicited a collective, “Are you insane?”

But yesterday Google announced it was forking over $3.2 billion in cash for Fadell’s company, Nest, which makes a smart device called the Learning Thermostat and a smart smoke detector called Protect. Not such a crazy move after all.

“My initial reaction was ‘wow,’” says Chet Geschickter, an analyst covering energy management at research and advisory company Gartner. “Google would need to sell a lot of thermostats to get that money back, probably too many to validate the price.”

Geschickter believes the move is part of a broader strategy for Google. “They’re probably making a play at what we call the connected home, a ubiquitous networking with low-cost sensor devices, and they’ll start building all different kinds of functionality inside modern domestic environments,” he says. “The fact that they paid $3.2 billion for a company created with a very attractive product that’s getting traction — it’s a very large investment, even for Google. My take as an analyst is, this is part of a bigger strategy for home tech.”

But Google is acquiring so much more than thermostats and smoke detectors that go for $250 and $130, respectively. It’s getting a learning algorithm that’s integrated in Nest products, which interact with homeowners rather than just implementing their commands.“They’re purchasing the customer base and brand name, which Nest has done a good job of popping up very quickly,” Geschickter says. “When you break it down, there are a couple of different key pieces of intellectual property that have legs.”

When a behemoth tech company like Google places its chips on the table, everyone starts to listen, and this could be the big break that the home tech sector has been looking for. “I’m really blown away by this news,” says architect Steven Randel. “I think that Google sees a huge lapse in the technology in this specific area. They’re going to try and move in on it because no one else is doing it. All these different home tech devices, nothing is coordinated together; that’s what Google is trying to go for. You’ll see them begin to integrate all these different devices, and they’ll communicate to one source.”

Home tech writer Mike Elgan points out that Google had actually been working on a smart thermostat of its own and may have abandoned those plans. “The company is interested in home automation and the ‘Internet of things’ because Google’s specialty is better living through algorithms,” he says. “The Nest thermostat, as well as the company’s smoke detectors, are intelligent. They learn and adapt. Eventually all these smart things in the home will be connected to each other and to the people who live there through smart phones and wearable computing devices.”

Fadell and Rogers had set out with their company to make home products that users can control with smart phones, but also that learn on their own. The thermostat, for example, learns homeowners’ living patterns and adjusts accordingly for the just-right temperature — allowing the homeowners to save on monthly energy bills.

Canadian home prices ticked back up to a record high in December, thanks entirely to Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto, according to the Teranet-National Bank house price index.

The 0.1-per-cent rise in home prices in December reversed a 0.1-per-cent decline in November, and returned the index to its all-time high.

But the majority of the 11 cities that the index tracks have seen prices edge down in recent months. Winnipeg, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Quebec City, Montreal, Hamilton, Halifax and Vancouver each saw prices decrease from November to December.

December was the sixth month in a row that Montreal failed to see a price increase, and the fifth month in a row in Quebec City, National Bank of Canada economist Marc Pinsonneault said in a research note. Ottawa-Gatineau has seen prices fall for four months in a row and Victoria for three, he added.

But Vancouver, the city that saw the steepest market correction in the past two years, saw its prices rebound to a new high. Toronto’s prices rose 0.4 per cent from November, the first time they’ve risen in four months, and are now almost back up to the peak that they reached last August. Edmonton posted its first price increase in five months, up 0.6 per cent.

All told, national home prices were 3.8 per cent higher in December than they had been a year earlier. That’s an acceleration from the 3.4 per cent year-over-year increase in November, and is stronger than the 3.1 per cent increase in prices during 2012.

But Mr. Pinsonneault notes that the improvement from 2012 comes solely from Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Excluding those three cities, last year’s price increase would have been 1.2 per cent.

Given that higher mortgage rates are eroding housing affordability, Mr. Pinsonneault is predicting that house price increases will barely cover CPI inflation during 2014, about 1.5 per cent.

Calgary has seen its prices rise 6.5 per cent in the past year according to this index, Toronto 4.9 per cent, Vancouver 5.5 per cent and Winnipeg 3.4 per cent. The only city that has seen a price decrease over the past year is Victoria, where prices have dropped by four per cent. But a number of cities, namely Quebec, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, saw prices tick up just a bit.

Many economists say they are surprised by how well Canadian home prices have held up in the wake of the market downturn that impacted much of the country from the summer of 2012 until this past spring. Prices tend to lag sales, and economists expected the slump to translate into more downwards pressure on prices.

“Prices have been much stronger than we anticipated them to be,” Toronto-Dominion Bank real estate economist Diana Petramala said earlier this month.

The Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents the bulk of real estate agents in Canada, will release December’s average prices as well as its latest home price index numbers Wednesday (averages tend to be skewed by changes in the size or types or locations of homes that are selling).

But the Calgary Real Estate Board recently said that the benchmark price of a single family home in the Calgary area has risen to $472,200, up 8.6 per cent from December of 2012.

The benchmark in Vancouver is $603,400, up 2.1 per cent from a year earlier.

The average price of homes that sold over the Multiple Listing Service in the Toronto area during December was $520,398, up by 8.9 per cent from the average selling price in December, 2012. And the average selling price in Toronto for all of 2013 was $523,036, up 5.2 per cent from the average in 2012.

Source: www.TheGlobeAndMail.com

Changing the filter of the home’s HVAC system is simple and inexpensive, and taking care of it at least every three months can mean the difference between optimum comfort and avoidable repairs.

Your HVAC technician should service your unit once a year.  Because a HVAC unit contains moving parts, it is important that belts are not cracked and dry, ventilation ductwork is not gapped, cracked or rusted, and components, such as coils and fans, are clog-free and adequately lubricated for unimpeded operation.  This sort of evaluation is best left to the professional, unless the homeowner has had the appropriate training. The filter of the unit, especially if it is an HVAC unit that will tend to get nearly year-round use, should be changed by the homeowner at least every three months, but possibly more often. Check your filter’s condition and change it once a month if:

You run your unit six months a year to year-round.

You have pets. Pet dander can become airborne and circulate through the home’s ventilation system just as typical household dust does.

You have a large family. More activity means more household dust, dirt and debris.

You or someone in your household suffers from allergies or a respiratory condition.

You live in a particularly windy area or experience high winds for extended periods, especially if there are no nearby shrubs or trees to provide a natural windbreak.

You live in an area prone to or having recently experienced any wildfires. Airborne ash outdoors will eventually find its way indoors.

You have a fireplace that you occasionally use.

You live on a working farm or ranch. Dust and dirt that gets kicked up by outdoor work activity and/or large animals can be pulled into the home’s ventilation system, especially through open windows.

You have a large garden. Depending on its size and how often you work it, tilling soil, planting, pulling weeds, using herbicides and pesticides, and even watering mean that dirt, chemicals and condensation can be pulled into your home’s ventilation system.

There is construction taking place around or near the home. You may be installing a new roof or a pool, or perhaps a neighbor is building a home or addition. Even if the activity is only temporary, dust and debris from worksites adjacent to or near the home can be sucked into the home’s ventilation system, and this increased activity can tax your HVAC system.
Tips for changing the filter:

Turn off the unit before replacing the filter.

Use the right filter for your unit and make sure it’s not damaged out of the package.

Follow the directions for your unit to make sure you’re installing the filter properly. For example, many filters use different colors for the front and back (or upstream and downstream flow) so that they’re not installed backwards.

Make sure there aren’t any gaps around the filter frame.  If this is the case, you may have the wrong size filter, or the filter itself may be defective or damaged.

Use a rag to clean up any residual dust before and after you replace the filter.

Securely replace any levers, gaskets and/or seals.

Turn the unit on and observe it while it’s operating to make sure the filter stays in place.

Note the date of filter replacement in a convenient location for the next time you inspect it.  A filter that becomes dirty enough to change within a short period may indicate a problem with the unit or ventilation system, so monitoring how often the filter requires changing is important information for your technician to have.

Source: Full Scope Inspections Newsletter

Sales of residential property through the Edmonton Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in 2013 in the Edmonton CMA were almost eight percent higher than in 2012. From 2011 to 2012 the number of sales increased 6.2%. There were 17,055 residential sales reported in 2013 as compared to just 15,812 in 2012.

Sales were up in all residential categories with 10,487 SFDs sold in 2013 (up 3.4%) along with 5,059 condominiums (up 14.7%) and 1,144 duplex/rowhouses (up 18.2%). First-time buyers accepted the condo lifestyle as a way to get into the housing market. Compared to 2012, the percentage of SFDs sold dropped from 64% to 61.5% of total sales while condo sales increased from 28% to 30%.

The higher sales numbers were driven by the strong local labour market, continuing low mortgage rates, and a stable pricing environment. The 12-month, all-residential average price in 2013 was $350,208, a modest 2.95% increase over the 2012 price of $341,891. Median prices increased from $331,000 from $323,000, only a 2.48% lift, indicating that there was increased activity at the mid-market price point this year.

“REALTORS® report that there has been a shortage of lower-priced homes all year which has pushed value conscious buyers up-market or into condos,” said REALTORS® Association of Edmonton, President Greg Steele. “New home builders are trying to fill the void by building more condos and single family homes at lower price points.”

The all-year sales-to-listing ratio was 69% with average day-on-market at 53 days. The active market was highlighted by a year-end inventory of just 3,049 properties: a drop of 1,000 from the month previous.

During the month of December, the price of a single family detached property rose 4.4% from $405,826 in November to $423,544 in December. Condo prices dropped 2.4% in December to $234,967 while duplex/row house prices shot up 9.8% to $358,978 (following a marginal uptick the month previous).  Overall, the average all-residential prices was up just 1.1% to $350,208 when compared to the previous month. December sales (adjusted for late reported sales) were: SFD – 471, condo – 271, duplex/row house – 45, and total residential sales 805.

“Now that the hectic holiday season is over, listing and sales activity will pick up as it always does,” said Steele. “Buyers are urged to take advantage of the low mortgage rates while market conditions are favourable and to consult with their REALTOR® about the advantages of a resale home or condo in any of the communities in or around Edmonton.”

Source: Realtors Association of Edmonton

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