Victoria Market Notes

I've been looking at two types of properties over the last couple of weeks.  One is the single family home with a suite or suite potential $525,000 and under, in the core areas. The other is 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condos downtown under $400,000.   I think these are pretty active categories so I thought I'd share my impressions.

In the single family home category I am finding some value, but not overwhelmingly so.  At the same time I am seeing prices give a little, particularly in the less desirable areas, or those on or near busy roads.  There is some opportunity in this market segment if you're willing to look at a lot of properties and weed through the bad ones.  There are still a ton of people out there dreaming about what there homes are worth.  Listen folks, if you're house has been on the market for 150 days I'll give you three guesses as to why it hasn't sold, and the first two don't count.

Downtown is a bit of a different story.  For all the talk we have about overbuilding condo stock, there is precious little in this price range.  There is certainly no excess inventory here!  There is quite a disparity in pricing between the older buildings and the newer buildings, but I tend to see more value in the newer buildings as they tend to have better locations and don't require the upgrades that most of the older stock on offer require.  

The older stuff is generally larger than the newer, but with condos it is often how the space is used rather than just how much space there is that has to be considered.  There's nothing worse than going to see a 1000 sq ft condo and finding 200sq ft of dreaded "dead space".  Buildings I like are the Juliet, the Wave, 860 View and a few others.  I also like the Songhees area and tend to include it in downtown searches as it often goes unnoticed yet is so close to everything.

If you're looking at either of these property categories, give me a call, I feel like I've walked through every property in both categories!