This morning I have been reviewing the Barrie Real Estate Board site and the City of Barrie's economic plan. I would like to share with you the 2 below links.
I am very confident in the city's plan for continued growth and job creation. The stats information on the Boards site is interesting. Typically, history repeats itself over and over again. What we have seen is a downturn once every 10 or 12 years. I remember once seeing a graph that took us back to the 40's and the same ups and downs appeared every 10 or so years, over and over until present day... We saw that downturn a couple of years go in the 'overall' picture of real estate. Though with that downturn, prices did not actually decrease here in Barrie, but rather sales numbers slowed and our median increases of 10+% slowed to 2 or 3%. This year they are at 4%, though if you compare only July/11 to July/12 sales, we are at 10%. However if you look at the average price of a home, we are well into the $290's, the highest average price we have ever seen.
The main concern we see here today is fewer homes on the market. Inventory continues to be a struggle for buyers and their realtors and that is something I expect to continue for another year or two. Consumer confidence is still a little weak and that tends to make everyone put plans on hold. Please review the sites at your leisure. There are other useful pages (tabs) on the real estate site you should click on too. They will hopefully give you some hard facts and insight as well as boost your confidence.
http://www.barrie.ca/City%20Hall/MayorCouncil/StrategicPlan/Pages/goal1.aspx
http://creastats.crea.ca/barr/mls_stats.htm
