Hillcrest Elementary School Fun Night is coming up this Thursday from 4-8pm. Always lots of fun for the whole family. Kara, Erinn and I will be out helping out once again. Its a great way for us to support our community and its always so much fun to see all the neighbourhood children having a blast. Be sure to stop by and say hi if you see us. Come bid on the basket we are donating put together for us by La Belle Vie in downtown Cloverdale.

For close to a year now we have been listening to very good friends of ours tell us about their son and his wife opening up a physiotherapy clinic in the Olympic Village area of Vancouver.  Focus Physio + Wellness

We've been excited to hear about their progress and they have been excited, as only proud parents can be to tell us how it was going. They finally opened up this Spring and it occurred to me that my husband should actually go to them instead of our local one. Not because she isn't good, because here in Cloverdale Physio station is the place to go. In fact our daughter has been seeing one of the owners for years, even before they opened up their own clinic in 2014. But since his only option is to book in advance to get an appointment here in Cloverdale in the evening after work, it just makes perfect sense for him to seek out Aaron and Catherine's services at Focus Physio + Wellness. In fact I have been telling him for a couple years now that he should find a local Vancouver physiotherapist and the only reason he went to Physio Station is because of our daughter. Easier to go to a place you know and trust or in this case were inadvertently referred to. :)

So finally today he had some time between his appointments and thought to go check them out, sure enough they managed to squeeze him in for a consultation and he's already booked another appointment. 

If you are looking for a Physio and Wellness centre that you can visit on your break or lunchtime and you are in the Olympic village area, or anytime for that matter if you live in Vancouver...visit their website in the following link for more details on who they are and what services they provide. Knowing the family well I am sure you will be well taken care of!

Focus Physio + Wellness

This article was originally published on BloombergBusiness here. By Katia Dmitrieva. Updated June 3rd. 2015.

Plankton and Other Reasons Canada Housing Won’t Crash

Stuart Levings, head of Genworth MI Canada Inc., the country’s largest private mortgage insurer, has a message for U.S. investors: red hot housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver aren’t about to plummet.

The chief executive officer has his work cut out for him. Figures Tuesday showed Vancouver prices soared 9.4 percent in May from a year ago and the average price of a detached home reached a record C$1,417,409 ($1,143,994). In Toronto prices rose 11 percent on average to C$649,599.

Prices are up 71 percent nationwide over the past decade, prompting organizations from the International Monetary Fund to the Bank of Canada to label the market overvalued, and investors such as Steve Eisman, of Neuberger Berman Group, to have shorted housing stocks.

Levings maintains the market has solid underpinnings and is traveling to the U.S. to make his case. Here’s his argument:

1) The Canadian Real Estate Ocean Is Full of Plankton

“We look at the housing market like a food chain,” Levings said in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in Toronto May 28. “The first-time homebuyers are really the plankton. And if you don’t have plankton in the ocean, you’re going to eventually starve out even the big whales and the sharks. You need that first time homebuyer to buy that home so the next person can move out to buy their own home.”

The demand comes from millennials and the roughly 250,000 annual immigrants buying their first property, according to Levings.
“There is strong demand in this country and there will always be,” Levings said. “Why? Simply because of our immigration policy. We bring in first-time buyer pipelines through our immigration policy. They are great future first-time homebuyers that become plankton.”

2) Mortgage Regulations Worked

The federal government has introduced several mortgage rules since 2008 to take the froth off heady real estate markets. Shorter amortizations and higher down payments have kept the riskiest of buyers out of the market, Levings said. Average credit scores of Genworth customers remained steady at a high 737 points.

The trick is for the government to keep this balance and avoid making further changes that will entirely squeeze out first-time homebuyers and poison the food chain, Levings said. Outside Vancouver and Toronto, markets have cooled.
“We’ve squeezed the first-time homebuyers down into a small group who are qualified, good-quality borrowers,” he said.

3) Where’s the Correction Catalyst?

For a major correction to take place there needs to be forced sales, Levings said. During the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S., mortgages often became bigger than property values, so owners walked away from their homes.

“We don’t see the herd mentality in Canada that we’ve seen in other markets,” Levings said. “Even in the 2008 crisis in Alberta, where prices dropped 25 percent, we did not see people walking away.”

Unlike in some U.S. states, mortgages are typically “full-recourse” loans in Canada, which means the borrower continues to be responsible for repaying the loan even in the case of foreclosure. Lenders can take legal action to recoup the money.

Furthermore, low interest rates keep the plankton alive. The Bank of Canada has held its overnight policy rate at 0.75 percent after a January cut and banks followed suit with mortgage reductions.

4) Oil Slump Not a Big Issue

Housing sales in Calgary dropped 28 percent in April from a year ago and prices have dipped 1.5 percent since November as the oil industry cut thousands of jobs.

Levings said the reality on the ground isn’t as dire as people imagine. In meetings with brokerages and equipment-servicing companies in the province, Levings said he’s learned that many companies have opted instead to retain employees but pay them less. Albertans continue to pay their mortgages. The delinquency rate is still below 0.1 percent in the province, according to the company’s financial documents.

5) Subprime Minuscule

While some estimates of the shadow banking industry range as high as 10 percent, Levings said it’s lower and too small to matter. The non-federally regulated lenders only make up about 2 to 3 percent of home loans in Canada, according to Levings, who arrives at the estimate from conversations with lenders.

Growth in the sector, which includes mortgage investment corporations and private lenders, has picked up since tighter mortgage rules have pushed borrowers with low income and little documentation from the banks.

“It’s like the flea on the tail of the dog,” Levings said. It’s not going to cause a problem in its current state. When you get to the situation where like in the U.S. it got to as high as 30 percent, you’ve got a very big issue on your hands.’’

Today's Guest Blog was posted by Ainsley Beattie Mortgage Professional from Xeva Mortgage Group to visit her website for more great morgage tips visit the following link:

Ainsley Beattie

We have been quite busy during the 1st half of the year working with a number of Buyers and Sellers. Usually with each offer that is made either on our Sellers property or with our Buyers there comes an inspection. We always recommend to our Buyers that they have their own inspection done by a reputable inspector. Gary from A-Z Home Inspections previously shared some great advice for Sellers on how to ensure your home is prepared for a successful inspection. This doesn't mean you can prevent the inspection from coming up with maintenance issues, but it will help the inspector being able to provide a detailed and accurate report to help the Buyers in their decision making when purchasing a re-sale home. 

To contact Gary, please visit the following link: A-Z Home Inspections

Preparing your home for a home inspection, a request to the seller:

Please ensure access to:

1: The back yard: make sure to have gates unlocked. And larger animals restrained.

2: Remove items that may be leaning against the structure or blocking the visual sight lines.

3: The crawl space panel if present. Remove stored items from around and on top of hatch.

4: The attic scuttle hatch or door way. Remove shelving and personal items from the area.

5: The main electrical panel and any sub panels. Remove objects covering or blocking.

6: Furnace utility room. Stored items on or near furnace should be removed to allow access to open the panels.

7: Water heater area. Stored items on or near water heater should be removed to allow access to open the panel.

8: Kitchen and bathroom vanities. Please remove stored items to allow inspection of plumbing supply lines and drainage pipes.

9: If there are tenants, make sure they have adequate notice of the inspection.

These simple things will help the inspection process move smoothly and efficiently; as well as offer peace of mind to your buyer that a comprehensive inspection was performed.

Thank you.

Gary Ladwig

A-Z Home Inspections

Certified Master Home Inspector

2nd Annual Garage Sale in Encore at Hillcrest Sponsored by the Bettina Reid Group with Homelife Benchmark Realty. If you are looking for some new treasures why not stop by this 198 unit townhouse complex in behind the Hillcrest Village Save-On foods on Fraser Highway anytime between 9-2pm today Sunday June 7th. The Bettina Reid Group will be walking around offering FREE Tim Horton's coffee and timbits to owners and patrons. Be sure to say hi!

We will also be holding an Open House for one of our new listings stop by and get a sneak peak of unit 136 before it hits the market later this week!

If you are from Ontario you will surely recognize the above logo for one of the best fast food Pizza places. Here in BC we are lucky to have Pizza Pizza being offered in our local Cineplex Cinema Langley. But not all of the Cineplex theatres offer Pizza Pizza. Many have changed to Panago...which simply does not compare.

Perhaps its because we are from Ontario but we really missed a good pizza place here. Most places here don't actually use a pizza oven they use conveyer belts to pump out pizza...which is just not the same. The best pizza we have found is in White Rock - Emilio Finati's and then there's Famoso Pizza in South Surrey. But they are a little too far on nights like tonight when I don't get home from work until late and want to pick up pizza. Since moving to Langley we have discovered living close to the movie theatre has one major benefit...being able to pick up a large pizza to take home to the family for dinner. With our scene card it really isn't any different, maybe even cheaper then any of the other local pizza joints and we all love the pizza. Although we do get a few funny looks as we take our pizza out of the theatres instead of into a theatre to watch a movie. 

If you live in Langley, next time you want to pick up a basic cheese, pepperoni or Hawaiian Pizza...consider popping in to Cineplex and 10- 15 minutes later you will get to take home a fresh pizza for the whole family! 

 

5 years ago a family went through what no family should have to and that was to bury their son Kaiden Henderson. Now they are fighting for children like him by throwing a fundraiser in his memory to raise money for families to be able to send their children to CNIB Children's Camps.

The CNIB Childrens Camp Fundraiser will be held on June 25th 2015 from 5:30 - 11:30pm at the Cascades Casino in Langley. Tickets are $40 and only available until June 15th. So be sure to click on the following link to order your tickets today:

CNIB Childrens Camp Fundraiser

The Bank of Canada announced today that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 3/4 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/2 percent.

"Recent indicators suggest consumption in Canada is holding up relatively well, given the impact of lower oil prices on gross domestic income."

This is now the third consecutive announcement where the Bank of Canada has maintained the overnight rate. This was anticipated by most economists.

The next scheduled Bank of Canada date for announcing the overnight rate target is July 15th, 2015. At that time I will be sure to post all the exciting highlights. Let’s see if we can do 4 in a row!

Here is the official press release from the Bank of Canada for your reference.

Bank of Canada Rate Announcement 2015-05-27

Today's Guest Blog was written by Ainsley Beattie Mortgage Professional from Xeva Mortgage Group to visit her website for more great morgage tips visit the following link:

 Ainsley Beattie