Menno van Driel

Housing affordability has always been much better on the Sunshine Coast than in Vancouver. We still hold many real estate bargains as our market is in great shape.

Sunshine Coast scenery is just one of the reasons to move here: there's loads of space, the people are friendly and the air is super clean. Oh and the real estate values are great.

When house prices in Vancouver have gone up like ...

A few days ago, the Bank of Canada’s review of the mortgage and housing markets was published. As always, a lot of interesting points are being made in the report.

The Bank of Canada knows best: mortgage rates can only go up from here on. Sooner or later, there will be an end to our prolonged period of extremely low rates.

A primary conclusion of the report is that households may experience ...

Money is extremely cheap right now. Mortgage interest rates run in the 3 to 4% range – which equates to almost “free” money if you consider that inflation alone may be 2 or 3 percent.

Free money: that's the situation that might exist when inflation is about as high as the cost of money (interest rates). All one needs to do is pay back the principal.

Banks are known to be quite “conservative ...

Buying a house and getting a mortgage to go along with it makes for happy times. Most people really don’t check very deeply into the 200-page contract that goes with their mortgage. This may lead to problems later.

Mortgage contract papers anybody? The last time you saw these, you probably just quickly signed them and did NOT read them. I see a problem with that and I hope you do too.

Of sp ...

Have you ever purchased something and regretted it a few days later? Now imagine that you make a purchase of real estate and want to get out of the deal after a few weeks. That could be easy or not at all.

Buyers' remorse can create problems for all others involved in a transaction. It can be really nasty if the seller has arranged major decisions on the strength of the endangered sale.

If ...

The big Canadian banks have been heard to say that the normalization of interest rates could take several years. We should expect rates to rise 2 to 3 points in that time. What would that do to the real estate market?

Low interest rates that stay low - it sounds like a dream come true. Yet, economists are warning that there are also disadvantages to a protracted period of low interest rates. ...

Mortgages aren’t “for-ever”; thank goodness. Most run for 25 to 30 years. However, every few years during the course of the mortgage, you’ll get the privilege of renewing it. Or you could refinance.

Mortgage renewal or mortgage refinancing? Which is it. Although there are similarities, there are also significant differences between the two that you should know about.

Most people have to pau ...

I just finished uploading this House for sale, 830 Bayview Heights, Gibsons, BC

This beautiful two-storey ocean view home is located in desirable Lower Gibsons. The lovely outside living areas feature stamped concrete south facing sundeck, covered deck (level access from main floor) in the backyard with gas barbecue hook up, fully fenced yard and a stamped concrete driveway. Inside features i ...

Every Saturday and Sunday you see those signs “Open House” around the Sunshine Coast. Visiting these is an efficient way to get acquainted with the local real estate market conditions.

Sunshine Coast open houses, there's nothing wrong with visiting a bunch of them on a Saturday or Sunday. It's an ideal way to get familiar with the market.

At an Open House, pretty much everybody is allowed t ...

Many people have an opinion on market direction and it’s amusing to hear the opposing views of what’s to be expected for our futures. The only sure thing, however, is that real estate markets cannot be forecast with precision.

Sunshine Coast real estate market values aren't quite like the stock market (up and down) but there have been price developments over the years you should know about.

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