Bowen Island & Coastal Island Real Estate

First Time New Home Buyer’s Bonus- What does that buy you on Bowen Island

Penny — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:46:36 +0000

The BC budget was released today and with that information regarding a First Time New Home Buyer’s Bonus. It outlines a temporary income tax credit for first time home buyers when they purchase a NEW home. I can imagine that the condo developers downtown are ecstatic but what does that mean on Bowen Island.

BC First-Time New Home Buyers’ Bonus

The new BC First-Time New Home Buyers’ Bonus will be a temporary one-time refundable income tax credit for first-time home buyers who purchase a newly constructed home. The credit will be calculated as five per cent of the purchase price of the home up to a maximum credit of $10,000.

The credit will be phased out at a rate of 20 per cent of net income in excess of $150,000 for single individuals and at a rate of 10 per cent of family net income in excess of $150,000 for couples. Only one credit can be claimed per home.

The credit will be available on purchases of newly constructed housing where both the HST applies and where a written agreement of purchase and sale is entered into on or after Feb. 21, 2012.

Homes eligable for this tax credit on Bowen Island:

1332 Eagle Cliff $545.000 + HST

Exceptional value for this brand new 4 bedroom; 2.5 bathroom home on a level 1/4 acre lot with some mountain view. Easy access and a very usable property. Comes with New Home Warranty. Listing compliments of Angell Hasman & Assoc. Realty Ltd

This house would also be eligible for a HST rebate.

323 Elronds CT $694,000 + HST

New craftsman-style home. Sunny, southeast-facing view lot in Cates Hill Village. 1,772 SqFt home on 0.37 Acre. Charming family home with 3 bedrooms + den, 2.5 baths, open kitchen/dining/living layout, family room, laundry room, 1-car carport. Quality built. New Home Warranty. Walking distance to Snug Cove, ferry, schools, shops, parks, trails & beaches. List price does not include HST. HST New House Rebate available to eligible buyer. Listing Realtor/managing broker are part owner of the property & will not offer an agency relationship to buyer. Buyer is required to sign Disclosure of Interest in Trade prior to making offer and must acknowledge that there is no agency relationship with listing Realtor/managing broker. Listing courtesy of Bowen Island Realty Ltd. Also eligible for HST rebate.

911 Elrond’s CT $1,295,000 + HST

Nicely located on a quiet cul-de-sac in an area of superior homes, this custom-designed and well-built home features a spectacular close-in view of Howe Sound and the local mountains. In the style of early 20th century American architecture, the home is built with high quality materials and techniques throughout. It also contains a fully legal suite that could be used to advantage or as extra family living space. This beautiful quality home is a must-see. Listing courtesy of Prudential Sussex Realty.

1660 Evergreen Ln $ 1,6

Brand New High Performance Home. Builtgreen Gold. Energuide 80 Rating. One of only 8 homes to sit on the ridge to watch the sunset. New subdivision embedded in protected parkland with access to mountain trails and local swimming beach.Click on View Multimedia for more info. Listing courtesy of oneflatfee.ca

Canadian Census- Bowen Island. 40 people in 5 years.

Penny — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:24:12 +0000

Initial results on Population Growth from Statistics Canada 2011 Census indicates that Bowen Island has had a modest growth of 1.2 % since 2006.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2011 Census of Population

According to the numbers there are only 40 new residents since 2006- pretty amazing considering recent development on Bowen Island. Since 2006 developers have added roughly 154 single family lots . If one was to estimate that roughly 70% have sold and perhaps 50% of those have been developed we should still have 50 new households on the island. This doesn’t take into account any of the smaller subdivision plans or previous bare lots that have been developed:

Bowen Island Properties, Cates Hill: roughly 50 residential lots(82 residential lots since 1999) (70 sold since 1999 and roughly 39 since 2006)

The Ridge at Evergreen: 14 residential lots (only 10 of which have been offered for sale) (2 sold)

King Edward Bay: 41 residential lots (36 sold)

Bowen Island Properties, Cowan Point: roughly 38 residential lots (27 sold)

The Cape at Bowen: 12 residential lots (8? sold)

**NOTE: rough estimates of sales are taken from Developers websites.

What accounts for this modest growth: perhaps Bowen Islander’s may not be inclined to be counted, changing demographics, suites that are unaccounted for, fewer full time residents?

How does Bowen Island compare to our surrounding communities:

West Vancouver 1.5%
North Vancouver 2.2%
Lions Bay -.8%
Gibsons 6.1%
Squamish 14.8%
Saltspring Island 6.2%

Stay tuned for upcoming releases from Stats Canada that will focus on population by age and sex (May 29, 2012), families, households, marital status, structural type of dwelling and collectives (September 19, 2012) and language (October 24, 2012).

2011 A year in Review

Penny — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:30:24 +0000

January 23, 2011

While Greater Vancouver experienced a relatively balanced market in 2011, Bowen Island continued to favour a buyers-market with 141 properties listed in 2011 vs. 125 listed in 2010. On a brighter note, sales were up 25% in 2011 over 2010 with 45 (3.3 listing to buyer ratio) vs. 36 sales respectively (3.4 listing to buyer ratio); but down 30% from the 8 year average of 58 sales (2.12 listing to buyer ratio).

The average sale price of homes in 2011 was $795,772, down 2% from last year. There were a number of notable sales including the $2,398,000 waterfront sale on Fairweather and $2,470,000 waterfront sale on David Rd. In addition we have seen record setting prices on 10 acre waterfront lots at The Cape on Bowen selling between 1,800,000 and $2,050,000. The average number of “Days on Market” (DOM) in 2011 for home sales was 242 days and 63 for lot sales based on the cumulative days on the market.

Homes sold for 94% of asking price and lots sold for 95% of asking price.The 2011 YTD Factor Analysis (sale price/assessed tax value) is an average of 1.12% for homes and 1.02 for bare land.

While this information is interesting it is important to note that statistically Bowen Island has too small a sample for accurate statistical analysis. Discretion should be taken in interpreting the data.

Click Graph for a Full Market Update- 2011 in Review

Bowen Island Real Estate STATS

Penny — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:24:26 +0000

Bowen Island Market Report

Overall the market on Bowen Island is slightly behind 2010 in home sales with 23 homes sold in 2011 vrs 25 YTD in 2011. Land Sales are up from last year with 6 sales in 2011 vrs 4 sales YTD in 2011. Homes are taking an average of 118 days to sell and are selling with 95% of asking price and 1.08 % of assessed value. Land is taking an average 66 days to sell and are selling at an average of 93% of asking price, and 92% of assessed value.

Inventory levels continue to climb as new listings exceed sales. In July we had 12 new listings and only 2 sales with inventory levels climbing to 93 homes on the market similar to last summer. Currently we have a .5 year supply of homes in the 400-700K range and 3.44 year supply of homes in the over 1million range. Lot listings also continue to out pace sales with 4 new lots on the market and 1 sale in the month of July with inventory peaking at 43 lots.

The average sale price of homes is $763,000 YTD, down 6% from last year if one includes the record 5.2 million dollar home sale in 2010 in the average.

In short the market continues to favour buyers as inventory levels rise.

Bowen Island Market Report Aug 2011

Greater Vancouver Real Estate Stats- JUNE 2011

Penny — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:44:54 +0000

July 5, 2011

Summer housing market trends toward balance after an active spring season

Home sellers outpaced buyers on Greater Vancouver’s Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®) in June, drawing the market back toward balance this summer.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties reached 3,262 in June, a 9.8 per cent increase compared to the 2,972 sales in June 2010 and a 3.4 per cent decline compared to the 3,377 sales in May 2011.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 5,793 in June. This represents a 4.5 per cent increase compared to June 2010 when 5,544 properties were listed for sale on the MLS® and a 2.3 per cent decline compared to the 5,931 new listings reported in May 2011.

Last month’s new listing total was 9.8 per cent higher than the 10-year average for June, while residential sales were 7.3 per cent below the ten-year average for sales in June.

“With sales below the 10-year average and home listings above what’s typical for the month, activity in June brought closer alignment between supply and demand in our marketplace,” Rosario Setticasi, REBGV president said. “With a sales-to-active-listings ratio of nearly 22 per cent, it looks like we’re in the upper end of a balanced market.”

At 15,106, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS® increased 3.1 per cent in June compared to last month and declined 14 per cent from this time last year.

The MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver over the last 12 months has increased 8.7 per cent to $630,921 in June 2011 from $580,237 in June 2010.

“The largest price increases continue to be in the detached home market on the westside of Vancouver and in West Vancouver,” Setticasi said. “Since the end of May, the benchmark price of a detached home rose more than $147,000 on the westside of Vancouver and over $80,000 in West Vancouver. Detached home prices in Richmond, however, levelled off slightly, declining $25,000 in June.”

Sales of detached properties on the MLS® in June 2011 reached 1,471, an increase of 29.1 per cent from the 1,139 detached sales recorded in June 2010, and an 11.8 per cent decrease from the 1,667 units sold in June 2009. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 13.4 per cent from June 2010 to $901,680.

Sales of apartment properties reached 1,266 in June 2011, a 0.6 per cent increase compared to the 1,258 sales in June 2010, and a decrease of 29.3 per cent compared to the 1,790 sales in June 2009. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 3.5 per cent from June 2010 to $405,200.

Attached property sales in June 2011 totalled 525, an 8.7 per cent decrease compared to the 575 sales in June 2010, and a 34.5 per cent decrease from the 802 attached properties sold in June 2009. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 6 per cent between June 2010 and 2011 to $522,424.Download the complete stats package by clicking here

Where did you spend your long weekend? In traffic?

Penny — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:10:43 +0000

It took me 8 hours to get home from the Cabin yesterday. 1 hour by boat 1 hour of driving and 6 hours of ferry waits. We live on Bowen Island but we are building a summer cabin on Hardy Island. One might ask why one would need a 2nd island property and after yesterday I wonder the same thing. The truth is I live and work on Bowen Island so every so often it is nice to get away from computers and the constant reminders of work (in the form of For Sale signs the line the roads of Bowen Island). The other truth is that in a month - in the height of the summer- we have devised a way to bypass the Langdale ferry by leaving a car on the sunshine coast and taking a water taxi from the back side of Bowen Island to Gibsons. Complicated yes- but it takes 6 hours less and all the agrivation off the commute. The final truth is that on Hardy Island I can afford 15 acres of waterfront - something that would cost me roughly 8 times more on Bowen Island.

The other realization I had while waiting 4 hours for the Langdale ferry is what an easy commute Bowen Island is. I’m off island once or twice a week and yes occasionally I miss a ferry or come across an oversold ferry and a quietly curse to myself. It forces me to slow down, read the paper, take a trip over to Starbucks for an hour tops. I have never had to wait 4 hours for the ferry. Occasionally I might get aggravated about having rush for a boat but on the whole I am thankful every day that I get to live in a wonderful community surrounded by nature and without stoplights. The trade-off is easy in my mind.

This brings me to the point I really want to make which is- where can one find a cabin by the sea without the commuting by BC Ferries?

I suppose one could always opt for a boat. I was raised with the boat being my summer cottage. Every weekend we would drive downtown and take the boat out on Lake Ontario and in the summer we would spend a month cruising down to the Thousand Islands. Boats make great cottages but as we all know they make lousy investments. I’d love to hear from people who have made money in boat ownership. If this is the route you want to go- I have just the boat for you http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/boa/2370065185.html

The second option would be to find a cabin in the Howe Sound area. For as little as $99,000 you can buy a lot on Gambier Island and start building your Gulf Island Get-a-way. You can take a scheduled water taxi to walk on BC Ferries and be there in an hour or less from Horseshoe Bay. Waterfront lots can be found for as little as $259,000 on Passage Island- only 5 mins by water taxi from Eagle Harbour in West Vancouver or 20 minutes from Granville Island by water taxi. Are you not ready to build it from scratch? You can buy a turn-key waterfront/water access cabin with dock on Bowen Island for $490,000 or a beachfront property on Keats Island for $499,000- just 40 minutes by scheduled water taxi from Horseshoe Bay. For more information on these or any other listings feel free to visit my website at www.bccoastalliving.com

Most of us are resigned to BC Ferries and their preference for parking cars rather than moving them as the price we pay to escape to the wonderful coast. My point is simply that there are options and sometimes you just need to think outside the box.

Penny — Tue, 10 May 2011 01:38:39 +0000

May 10, 2011

The Greater Vancouver market stabilized last month after 2 months of record sales. Bowen Island had moderate activity in April resulting in 14 sales YTD compared to11 sales YTD in 2010. This indicates a 27% increase year over year but it is still down over 50% from the peak year in 2007. 3 Lots have sold this year compared to 2 at this time last year.

The average sale price of homes is $788,535 YTD, down 3% from last year, with homes selling at an average of 95% of the listed sales price. Lots are selling at an average of 90% of asking price.

The average number of “Days on Market” (DOM) for home sales YTD is 161 days and 127 for lot sales. This number only looks at the most recent listing and does not take into consideration properties that have been re listed- some homes have been re-listed multiple times.

The number of active listings hovered between 67 and 72 listings in the month of April maintaining an even inventory and roughly a 2 year supply of homes based on the 2010 sales of 35 homes.

The 2011 YTD Factor Analysis (sale price/assessed tax value) is an average of 1.13% for homes and .93 for lots, compared to 1.04% in 2010 and .91 for lots.

I am pleased to share this information taken from the MLS, but please keep in mind that while this information is interesting Bowen Island has too small a sample for accurate statistical analysis. Discretion should be taken in interpreting the data. Please see the link below for a full report.

Bowen Island Market Report- May 6 2011

Taking advantage of a little sunshine.

Penny — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:10:26 +0000

When the skies opened up and let a little sunshine in on Sunday- my fabulous photographer (Deb Stringfellow) and I took the opportunity to re-shoot a couple of great homes. Look how it sparkles. 895 Windjammer, Bowen Island. $639,000.

941 FORECASTLE WY- stunning waterfront setting

Penny — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:41:47 +0000

Our Realtor tour today took us to this treasure. The custom coach house is complete with plans for a post and beam home. Outdoor living room with rock fireplace is nestled against the cliff with a stunning view over Keats Island and the Sunshine Coast AND the possibility of subdividing off a waterfront lot. Worth exploring!

Listing provided by :Macdonald Realty Ltd.

Rain Harvesting Promotion

Penny — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:56:57 +0000

In an effort to start a dialog regarding the advantages of Rain Harvesting on an Island we are offering our clients a FREE leaf eater leaf catchment system and a FREE consultation with McTaggart Water Systems. See our Flyer.