Gary Moran's Kingston Realty Team FEBRUARY 2009 Newsletter

Hi everyone,

We've all been hearing the CNN gloom and doom and the bad news is being spread by most every news agency in the world.  I want to start this month's newsletter with a quote from an article written by Fareed Zaharia entitled "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative" published February 7, 2009 in Newsweek.

"Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1 - compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking."

(You can read the complete article by clicking on the following link:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670)

Well, nice to hear some positive news for a change, don't you agree!

We all know how very fortunate we are to live in this great country and especially here in Kingston, I venture that we are even more fortunate to be somewhat isolated from the economic downturn gripping the world.

Now how did our real estate market do in January?

The number of transactions was down significantly in January - down 25.6% compared to January 2008 and inventory is up about 13% I feel it's too early with too few sales to get any type of read on prices this year.  I'll not speculate on the numbers - we will get a much more accurate read by the end of the first quarter. 

Obviously we cannot ignore the giant gorilla in the room. Even though Kingston is well-placed and will see very little negative impact directly, the news media seems to be winning the day.  The other factor which has likely played some role in the decline is that January 2009 was reported as the coldest, snowiest January since 1944.

With all the negative news going around, there is little doubt that it will have some impact on our real estate market.  It's really too early in the year to tell the extent of the impact but don't get the idea that this isn't the time to buy because it really, really is the right time.  Mortgage rates are at record lows and don't be fooled there is mortgage money out there - as always you need to qualify but money is available.  The rates may dip slightly from here but are likely to begin a gradual increase in the last quarter of 2009. 

Just to let you in on a little secret I can arrange for you a 5 year closed/fixed mortgage at 3.65% - now that's just between you and me - it's a special program - if you want more information about this fantastic rate, simply click on this link SPECIAL RATE OFFER.  Don't ask your mortgage broker about it because it's only available through me and not available to any mortgage broker.

Not only are mortgage rates low but prices have temporarily stabilized and there is lots of choice.  What more could the savvy buyer want!  I believe we'll have this great buying opportunity for the next 6 to 9 months before we see a return to somewhat higher mortgage rates and the beginning of a new round of price escalation.

For the potential sellers out there - if you are going to get top dollar and sell fast the "old" way of doing this business isn't going to help you.  Aggressive, high-tech, Internet savvy, innovative marketing is your only way to go. Call us to see what we can do for you.

Here's a quick exercise for you to do.  Click on the link that follows - it will take you to the Google search engine, which is the most widely used search engine in the world.  Simply type in Kingston Real Estate in the search criteria - see where KingstonPropertyForSale.com is ranked out of 1,150,000 hits for that very popular search criteria.  Now you know another one of our secrets - that's how we get lots of attention for our listing clients - we attract a lot of Buyers - pretty nifty right!  Click GOOGLE.  Try it out it only takes a few seconds and you'll be amazed that we are number one out of 1,150,000.  (We are also "NUMBER ONE" for many other search criteria as well and also number one on Yahoo, MSN and AOL, the largest 4 search engines in the world).

So far this year, the Kingston Realty Team has been having a great year, thanks to you our loyal friends and clients.  Many thanks for your business, your trust and your referrals -all are appreciated.

If you have friends, family or co-workers thinking of buying or selling, please keep us in mind - get them to try the Little Google search - we can and will help them!

Have a Great Day!

Regards,
Gary Moran, M.Sc.
KingstonRealtyTeam
Sutton group-masters realty inc., Brokerage
Independently Owned and Operated