Maria Mak – Sutton Centre Realty
Contact Maria Mak @ 604-839-6368 or visit her website @ www.mariamak.com for all your premium real estate services, you’ll be smiling too!
Maria Mak – Burnaby Real Estate Agent
Posted in Uncategorized on May 3, 2012 by Maria MakThe new MLS® Home Price Index: What’s new, what’s different?
Posted in Uncategorized on January 13, 2012 by Maria MakAs announced in December, a new national home price index will launch in February. This index will replace the MLS®Link Housing Price Index, which has been used by Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley REALTORS® since the mid 1990s.
The new index was developed by five of Canada’s largest real estate boards – Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal – in partnership with the Canadian Real Estate Association and will be called the MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI).
The six partners contracted with Altus Group to develop this new tool which, similar to the previous index, will allow housing price trends to be traced over time for different areas within participating board markets and for different property types. The MLS® HPI will also allow for comparisons between local and national markets.
Our current HPI – launched in 1995 in Fraser Valley and 1996 in Greater Vancouver – is widely recognized as providing the most accurate indication of housing price trends in our market, but it’s not usable outside of the Lower Mainland because no other market has comparable data.
“The MLS® HPI is a national collaboration intended to further position REALTORS® and the industry as the most credible and reliable source of real estate data in the country,” Rosario Setticasi, Board president said.
What will change?
The MLS® HPI will replace our existing MLS®Link Housing Price Index. MLS® HPI statistics should not be compared with previous MLS®Link HPI statistics. There will be a few notable changes to the index in the Greater Vancouver market.
Re-indexing
All indexes have a common base. The new MLS® HPI will be indexed to equal 100 in January 2005. The previous MLS®Link HPI was indexed to 2001. Sales prior to 2005 will not be considered in the MLS® HPI.
HPI values track relative price levels by comparing current prices to price levels in a base (reference) period. Because the base period is always 100, REALTORS® can quickly infer the extent to which prices have changed relative to the base period.
For example, if the MLS® HPI value for apartment units in September 2011 was 105.1, this indicates that apartment units in September 2011 had increased 5.1 per cent compared to 2005.
Property types
The MLS® HPI will provide benchmark price trend data for the three main property types: detached, attached, and apartment.
An expanded set of property categories will also be available to members, including one-storey and two-storey homes. A composite category has also been created to track residential activity across all property types in different areas within the region.
Areas
New property markets have been added to increase the scope of the HPI. Some HPI markets have also been redefined to produce more complete data.
Updating the “benchmark” home attributes
An HPI measures how home prices change over time and provides benchmark prices of homes with “typical” characteristics in a given area. It takes into consideration what averages and medians do not – items such as lot size, age, number of rooms, etc. The most commonly traded set of these attributes makes up the typical or ‘benchmark’ house. Prices paid for homes with these attributes determine benchmark home prices.
Similar to the MLS®Link HPI, MLS® HPI benchmark prices will represent the price of a typical property within a given area or sub-area. The typical or benchmark home attributes for the area and sub-areas within the Board have been updated and will be reflected in the MLS® HPI.
For all your premium real estate services, please contact Maria Mak and her team at Sutton Centre Realty @ 604-839-6368 or visit her website www.mariamak.com, You’ll be smiling too!
Listed vs Sold Listings in Burnaby from 2010 to 2011
Posted in Uncategorized on January 10, 2012 by Maria Mak
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s graphs let you compare homes listed to homes for sale in neighbourhoods throughout Greater Vancouver. The charts also show overall activity in the areas and trends.
Units listed is the number of homes listed for sale in that month.
Units sold is the number of homes sold in that month.
Active listings is the number of homes listed for sale in that month plus the number of homes previously listed that haven’t sold yet.
For all your premium real estate services, please contact Maria Mak and her team at Sutton Centre Realty @ 604-839-6368 or visit her website @ www.mariamak.com, You’ll be smiling too!
If you don’t agree with your 2012 Property Assessment, what would you do?
Posted in Uncategorized on January 6, 2012 by Maria MakNotice of Complaint (Appeal) Process
The first level of appeal of a property assessment is to the Property Assessment Review Panel (“PARP”). The deadline to file a 2012 notice of complaint (appeal) to the Property Assessment Review Panel is January 31.
PARP hearings take place between February 1 and March 15 each year. PARP members are members of the public appointed by the Minister responsible for BC Assessment, currently the Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. At this level, the appeal is called a review or complaint. Any person is entitled to file a complaint about their own or another assessment on the grounds set out in s. 32 of the Assessment Act and to have that assessment reviewed by a PARP. The review process provides options to have your property assessment concerns addressed. If you have concerns about your property assessment, you may discuss them with BC Assessment prior to filing a complaint. If there is an agreement to make an amendment through this informal process, a recommendation can be presented to the Panel on your behalf and your attendance at the hearing is not required. For more information on Property Assessment Review Panels, click here. Please note that appointment availability may be limited as not all panels sit throughout the six week hearing timeframe (February 1 – March 15).
To file a notice of complaint (appeal) to the Property Assessment Review Panel, you can use the Online Notice of Complaint (Appeal) Form here.
Notice of complaint (appeal) must be filed with the assessor by January 31 at 11:59 p.m. PST. For more information, refer to our Property Assessment Review Process Fact Sheet and the links provided on the right.
If you pay taxes to a First Nation taxing authority, please check your assessment notice for information regarding assessment appeals as the provincial assessment appeal system and deadlines may not apply.
For all your premium real estate services, please contact Maria Mak and her team at Sutton Centre Realty @ 604-839-6368 or visit her website @ www.mariamak.com, You’ll be smiling too!
Any more questions, please visit http://www.bcassessment.bc.ca/Pages/default.aspx for more detailed information.
