Housing market

[omro]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

3.0.4

I left my Mac in London, as its battery is buggered, so I can't confirm or deny whether the site is working on my version of Safari at this moment. Ask me tomorrow, when I'm back home

I can say that it worked fine on Safari before I left two weeks ago. Have you tried downloading and running the latest Mac Firefox? I find that it has less issues with certain sites than Safari does. I use that far more often than Safari now and the realtor.ca site was definitely working on Firefox on my Mac two weeks ago, as I brought printouts with me.

[holymoly]

The mls site was going bananas for me too, on Safari, but is better using Firefox.

[adam]

It works in Epiphany just fine (Linux)

[omro]

Originally Posted by adam

It works in Epiphany just fine (Linux)

Geek

Netbook? A cute Asus eeePC?

[MsMe]

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

Not #32 which was Evelyn's house. I fear if it ever comes up For Sale my wife will force me to purchase it.

For some reason she has a fascination with the story, so if I ever go missing......

Just stay on her good side and learn how to become a good ass kisser and you should be fine.

[omro]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

3.0.4

Well am home and thought I'd check this out on my Mac. It is using Safari 3.1.2 (Mac OS 10.5.5 - Leopard) and has no issues with realtor.ca, which is what I said previously.

So.... I am guessing you're on Tiger? Can you upgrade Safari to a higher number on Tiger?

[adam]

Originally Posted by omro

Geek

Netbook? A cute Asus eeePC?

Just a dumb ol' laptop designed for Windows XP - its like twice as fast now!
BTW your MAC O/S is a branch of linux from a while back - our O/S's are cousins!

[omro]

Originally Posted by adam

Just a dumb ol' laptop designed for Windows XP - its like twice as fast now!
BTW your MAC O/S is a branch of linux from a while back - our O/S's are cousins!

I know, linux and openBSD are both Unix derivatives. Gotta love it when you can run apps on the same hardware much faster than windows can

Mac just tends to be a touch more polished than most linux distros, however I plonked Ubuntu's LiveCD on my brother's laptop while I was visiting, as his Vista install was dead, that's looked damned slick...

Totally off topic I know.

Going back on topic, three questions.

My mum saw two houses both in the $259 range. How much do you all think houses in that range today would cost mid next year if they were on the market? Static, up a little, up a lot, down a little, down a lot?

Where in the city (near downtown) should she look for places with gardens (this is a woman used to a 35x100 foot garden and while I've told her it's not realistic to expect similar...)? Any areas you would recommend I monitor would be gratefully appreciated.

Are we thinking the LRT "effect" will stir house prices speculatively before it's even been built or that it won't really have an effect on house prices until after it has been confirmed, but still a ways off, or until they break ground?

[omro]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

3.0.4

Originally Posted by omro

Well am home and thought I'd check this out on my Mac. It is using Safari 3.1.2 (Mac OS 10.5.5 - Leopard) and has no issues with realtor.ca, which is what I said previously.

So.... I am guessing you're on Tiger? Can you upgrade Safari to a higher number on Tiger?

A quick google answered my own question:

Safari 3.1.2 for Tiger

[flar]

Originally Posted by omro

Going back on topic, three questions.

My mum saw two houses both in the $259 range. How much do you all think houses in that range today would cost mid next year if they were on the market? Static, up a little, up a lot, down a little, down a lot?

Where in the city (near downtown) should she look for places with gardens (this is a woman used to a 35x100 foot garden and while I've told her it's not realistic to expect similar...)? Any areas you would recommend I monitor would be gratefully appreciated.

Are we thinking the LRT "effect" will stir house prices speculatively before it's even been built or that it won't really have an effect on house prices until after it has been confirmed, but still a ways off, or until they break ground?

1. I think prices will probably keep rising slowly and steadily.
2. You won't find a garden that size downtown, but there's no reason she can't convert the front yard into a small garden. Gardens in the Hamilton area are very productive, we have a good climate and usually a good amount of rain. The best bet is to get a spot in a community garden, it's about $25 for approx. 20x30 foot plot and there are also larger sizes available.
3. The LRT effect makes it a long term investment, I don't think it will affect things much over the next year or two.

[adam]

I'd be surprised if we didn't see a housing crash in '09 through to '10

[omro]

Originally Posted by flar

1. I think prices will probably keep rising slowly and steadily.

That's what I thought, but didn't want her to miss the boat, as it stands she can buy twice the size for half the price, leaving her (and my stepfather) a nice chunk of change to retire with. If she waits too long, she'll be able to buy less for more.

Originally Posted by flar

2. You won't find a garden that size downtown, but there's no reason she can't convert the front yard into a small garden. Gardens in the Hamilton area are very productive, we have a good climate and usually a good amount of rain. The best bet is to get a spot in a community garden, it's about $25 for approx. 20x30 foot plot and there are also larger sizes available.

Alas not her mindset. A front garden is possible, but she likes the whole private oasis thing. It's a british thing I guess, plus she likes doing it. There was a house on Melbourne Street that we saw, biggish garden, shame about the house

Originally Posted by flar

3. The LRT effect makes it a long term investment, I don't think it will affect things much over the next year or two.

Awesome, would be awful to have decided I was moving to Hamilton, sell up here and find I'm priced out again and back to the same huge mortgage situation I am in here!!

[omro]

Originally Posted by adam

I'd be surprised if we didn't see a housing crash in '09 through to '10

For everyone's sake I'm hoping it'll be no more than a slight dip, rather than a crash, in Canada.

[Berklon]

Originally Posted by adam

I'd be surprised if we didn't see a housing crash in '09 through to '10

I don't know about a full fledged "crash", but I think we'll be seeing a big correction. Housing is just too pricey right now, especially for first-time buyers. I'm hoping the correction comes big and fast enough for me to jump in and grab something. A 10% reduction in price and an increase in houses to choose from would make me happy.

[emge]

Depending on how far it is from the downtown for her, Omro, some houses up by the Bayfront have deep lots - 125 or 150 feet even. I looked at one house up there where the lot was about 130 feet deep and even had some fruit trees out back.

[flar]

If there's a real estate crash it won't affect downtown Hamilton houses as much because they aren't overvalued, no correction necessary. The crash would mostly affect all the $300,000 cardboard McMansions and houses in grossly overpriced cities like Ottawa.

[omro]

Originally Posted by emge

Depending on how far it is from the downtown for her, Omro, some houses up by the Bayfront have deep lots - 125 or 150 feet even. I looked at one house up there where the lot was about 130 feet deep and even had some fruit trees out back.

I'll keep an eye out. Thanks!

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by omro

I know, linux and openBSD are both Unix derivatives. Gotta love it when you can run apps on the same hardware much faster than windows can

Mac just tends to be a touch more polished than most linux distros, however I plonked Ubuntu's LiveCD on my brother's laptop while I was visiting, as his Vista install was dead, that's looked damned slick...

Totally off topic I know.

Going back on topic, three questions.

My mum saw two houses both in the $259 range. How much do you all think houses in that range today would cost mid next year if they were on the market? Static, up a little, up a lot, down a little, down a lot?

Where in the city (near downtown) should she look for places with gardens (this is a woman used to a 35x100 foot garden and while I've told her it's not realistic to expect similar...)? Any areas you would recommend I monitor would be gratefully appreciated.

Are we thinking the LRT "effect" will stir house prices speculatively before it's even been built or that it won't really have an effect on house prices until after it has been confirmed, but still a ways off, or until they break ground?

prices depends on where in the city. Meadowlands and other suburban sprawl projects have seen prices already drop by 5% in the past year. Expect that trend to continue. Hopefully for many years

Strathcona, some in Durand, Kirkendall and West Harbour area can have huge back gardens. Most homes in my area of Strathcona have lots that are about 150 feet deep and homes that were built close to the sidewalk.

LRT should start having an effect as soon as it's confirmed to be constructed, and then of course, even more so once shovels are in the ground.

[omro]

Cool stuff, did the links help?

[raisethehammer]

haven't tried yet...I'll get around to it later in the weekend.
Thanks for the tips. I'm sure it'll work great based on your experience.