Housing market

[markbarbera]

Hamilton still needs to make its commercial tax rates more attractive than its neighbours. We need to attract business downtown now. Hamilton has played the waiting game for 20 years now and its done the city more harm than good.

[omro]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Hamilton still needs to make its commercial tax rates more attractive than its neighbours. We need to attract business downtown now. Hamilton has played the waiting game for 20 years now and its done the city more harm than good.

Waiting game? Waiting for what?

[adam]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

those office parks in burlington will fill up soon and hamiltons' urban core will become destination number 1.

Those office parks in Burlington fill up as soon as they are built. Then they just build more of them. Hamilton needs to be more proactive. I agree with markbarbera.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by adam

Those office parks in Burlington fill up as soon as they are built. Then they just build more of them. Hamilton needs to be more proactive. I agree with markbarbera.

there's no room for more of them. they could easily house double or triple the development, but since every building needs a mega-parking lot, they fill up faster and are low density.
burlington is almost out of development lands already.

[JT Jacobs]

Originally Posted by realcity

which is what i did too

but there's no ignoring the fact that a generation is leaving this city for other parts of the GTA and AB and BC. It's not that different from US rust-belts and CDN maritimes. I'm only trying to be honest with the facts.

The BC economy is contracting--big time. The next generation of savvy Hamiltonians will be staying put instead of becoming expats in uber-expensive places like Calgary and Vancouver.

[SteelTown]

Local housing starts rise in October
Rick Zamperin
11/10/2008

A big jump in housing starts in the Hamilton area last month.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says housing starts jumped 70% last month in Hamilton, Burlington and Grimsby.

There's a 21% increase in year-to-date home starts.

[comadriver]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Local housing starts rise in October
Rick Zamperin
11/10/2008

A big jump in housing starts in the Hamilton area last month.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says housing starts jumped 70% last month in Hamilton, Burlington and Grimsby.

There's a 21% increase in year-to-date home starts.

SteelTown, could you post the link where can I read the entire article? Thank you kindly..

[SteelTown]

That's the entire article haha

http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/...spx?ID=1038774

[comadriver]

Found it. I guess we built a whole bunch of townhomes this year.

Detached
2007: 124
2008: 155

Others
2007: 148
2008: 307

TOTAL Starts
2007: 272
2008: 462

Ontario is up 23%, Hamilton is up 70% this month over Oct 2007. The overall January-to-October increase in Hamilton is a more moderate 21% over 2007. The western provinces are way down in double digits. This is becoming an interesting phenomenon: resales are down, average prices are down, interest rates are down and housing starts are waaay up and taking off even more. I can't get my head around this just yet.

[SteelTown]

New housing developments has always been strong in Hamilton in the last 5-10 years.

[BrianE]

Originally Posted by comadriver

Found it. I guess we built a whole bunch of townhomes this year.

Detached
2007: 124
2008: 155

Others
2007: 148
2008: 307

TOTAL Starts
2007: 272
2008: 462

Ontario is up 23%, Hamilton is up 70% this month over Oct 2007. The overall January-to-October increase in Hamilton is a more moderate 21% over 2007. The western provinces are way down in double digits. This is becoming an interesting phenomenon: resales are down, average prices are down, interest rates are down and housing starts are waaay up and taking off even more. I can't get my head around this just yet.

I believe this is what indicates the begining of a real estate bubble. A sharp drop in demand for housing while the housing supply continues to increase creating a glut of houses on the market.

It will take a while for builders to adjust for this new rate of demand, in the mean time they will keep building and brand new houses will sit for months waiting for buyers.

The larger markets out west have already burst their bubbles, and i think the Toronto market just burst this summer. Hopefuly Hamilton/Burlington development companies can scale back production quickly, since it's coming into winter and production would be scaled back anyways the timing could work out well for our area.

[omro]

Here's a question...

With the possibility of one or both LRT lines running along Main Street, would you say the purchase of a home on Main Street would be more desirable or less over time?

[adam]

The many laned 1 wayness on Main causes this wierd roar of traffic followed by a distinct hush and its eerie to me. I think 2 way would at least provide some uniform traffic noise and make it tolerable. When there's a red light, everything on Main is absolutely dead...

[Millstone]

Originally Posted by adam

The many laned 1 wayness on Main causes this wierd roar of traffic followed by a distinct hush and its eerie to me. I think 2 way would at least provide some uniform traffic noise and make it tolerable. When there's a red light, everything on Main is absolutely dead...

I don't think this will be at the top of the priority list for making Main St two way.

[BrianE]

Originally Posted by omro

Here's a question...

With the possibility of one or both LRT lines running along Main Street, would you say the purchase of a home on Main Street would be more desirable or less over time?

I would say that buying a house within a block or two North or South of Main St would be a better investment than buying right on Main St.

Unless you want to run a business on the Main floor and live above your business.

Or you could buy a property on Main St and not actualy live in it and just sit on it waiting for the land beneath it to appreciate enough so that some other developer will come along and offer you an obscene amount of money so that he can demolish your house and put up condos or something. That might take 20 years or so tho.

(Also you would be acting like a "wanker" as you brits say and we have enough of those owning downtown properties as it is)

[omro]

Originally Posted by BrianE

I would say that buying a house within a block or two North or South of Main St would be a better investment than buying right on Main St.

Unless you want to run a business on the Main floor and live above your business.

Or you could buy a property on Main St and not actualy live in it and just sit on it waiting for the land beneath it to appreciate enough so that some other developer will come along and offer you an obscene amount of money so that he can demolish your house and put up condos or something. That might take 20 years or so tho.

(Also you would be acting like a "wanker" as you brits say and we have enough of those owning downtown properties as it is)

Well...

It's a nice big old building and I could live above a business in it, though that wasn't really the plan. The lot isn't big enough for a condo building. And since you people have to pay taxes on empty residential properties, there'd be no point buying it and not using it.

However, the idea of walking out of my home and down the street, getting on the LRT and trundling into town does appeal greatly.

[raisethehammer]

you wouldn't be alone. you'd be hard pressed to find empty residential space in upper floors on Main St.
A family recently bought the huge house on Main at Prospect. Right now it probably sucks with all the traffic noise, but knowing that LRT is likely coming would definitely make it worthwhile. As noisy as Main is, it's the same near York, Cannon or any other main street. Traffic noise is traffic noise.

[emge]

Omro -- what general area east/west on Main?

we're putting an offer in on one place this week... we'll see where that goes.

[omro]

Originally Posted by emge

Omro -- what general area east/west on Main?

we're putting an offer in on one place this week... we'll see where that goes.

I'm no longer sure exactly which Street it's near, my brother is dealing with it all. I know it's east of Wentworth, but not as far as Sherman.

[comadriver]

Originally Posted by BrianE

I would say that buying a house within a block or two North or South of Main St would be a better investment than buying right on Main St.

This makes me very happy. The house we bought is 1.5 blocks south of King/Main delta. Everything I've read here so far makes me very optimistic about our investment in the medium to long term.

I can't sit still -- can't wait to move.