TOP 5 TOPICS OF 2021
“May you live in interesting times” – it’s an ancient proverb, equally optimistic and a curse at the same time.
Depending on your personal philosophy, 2021 may have been another wretched year filled with doom-scrolling through the internet, or one of opportunity. Maybe you were one of the many that chose this time to pivot to a new lifestyle, community or way to earn a living.
It was certainly an interesting year in the real estate market. For some it was the continued struggle to gain a foothold in the market before being completely priced out. For others, it was a time to realize long term gains in the market and find a smaller, perhaps more rural, place to settle in. Regardless, real estate and housing became a major point of discussion this year for many folks – it even showed up as a major platform point in this year’s federal election.
As we approach the end of 2021, we thought it would be interesting to look back at this year’s posts and see what caught your attention. It was interesting to see which posts our readers engaged with the most – particularly this year’s #1 post!
Today, we’re taking a look at the Top 5 Topics of 2021. Enjoy!
5 – REAL ESTATE ETHICS
In October, CBC Marketplace did a sensational hidden camera “investigation” to catch Realtors in the act of steering clients away from private sales and other listings paying less than market rate commissions. It was interesting to watch, because it was clear that the “investigators” really didn’t understand the buying process, and in fairness, it appears that the Realtors involved didn’t do a proper job of explaining representation either.
In our recent post, Buyer Steering, we take a look at buyer representation – how it can make or break your real estate goals, what makes a great buyer agent, and what you should do if you’re planning to buy in 2022.
4 – HOME VALUE SUSTAINABILITY
A momentous topic this year – especially when it became a focal point in the federal election – has been the sustainability of housing prices. Back in February, we explored what was driving the local real estate market. Were we in bubble territory, as some in the media claim, or is this the perfect real estate storm? Historically low interest rates with historically low inventory levels, plus a generation of Boomers who we expected to pack up and downsize ended up sheltering in place and riding out the pandemic. Mix in that the millennial generation is entering its peak first time home buying phase, and you’ve got the perfect conditions to drive prices and real estate activity to all time highs. The fact that COVID had us holed up in our homes – which were suddenly too small, or not practical for remote work, or had lost the benefit of their location – were certainly aggregating circumstances.
We plan to revisit this story later in January as we will be hosting Shaun Cathcart, the Chief Economist with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), at one of our upcoming team meetings. Shaun has been spot on with his interpretation of the Canadian real estate market over the past number of years, and we’re looking forward to his insights on what appears to be ever-increasing home values. Stay tuned for that update in mid-January.
3 – MARKET VULNERABILITY
Hot on the heels of the reports coming out of CREA this fall were reports from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Their take on the market indicated real estate to be highly vulnerable to corrections. While they weren’t so bold this year as to predict a 15% decrease in prices – like they did in 2020 – their argument this year is certainly a strong one for proceeding with caution. In our opinion, there are too many people in the market that think real estate can only go up, which means that at this late stage of the market, one needs to make sure they’ve got some financial flexibility in case the market does correct.
Again, this is a topic we’re keeping a close eye on and will no doubt crop up again in 2022 postings.
2 – TANGIBLE ADVICE FOR NAVIGATING THE MARKET
Some of our most popular blog posts this year were – to no big surprise – focused around tangible tactics being used to find success in a very tough market. This is a topic the HGR team has become very familiar – many of our team meetings in the past year have centred around sharing our experiences in the market, what has worked for our clients, and what hasn’t. With an ever-evolving marketplace and fierce competition, our team has spent countless hours collaborating on techniques to help our clients find success in the real estate world.
These three posts received significant engagement from new and dedicated readers alike, offering guidance (beyond the tired and obvious ‘outspend your competition’) to buyers, of course, but also to sellers, a group whose experience often gets overlooked in a market like ours.
1 – LOCAL EVENTS
Ironically, our most popular post, by a landslide, wasn’t about real estate at all!
Our #1 blog post in 2021 discussed Ribfest, and more broadly, the various in-person events that started to reappear in Guelph this year. It’s become clear to us that these events are what makes a city a community, and the massive number of readers on our event-related blogs this year is reflective of a theme we’re seeing in many of our interactions – people are hungry to be involved in the community again!
The HGR team is deeply engrained in our local community.
On a brokerage level, we support a number of integral community events and organizations, including Ribfest, Tour de Guelph, the Guelph Food Bank.
As a proud member of the Junction – our business district just outside Downtown Guelph, home to Granite Homes, Fixed Gear Brewing, and the variety of businesses in The Platform co-working spaces – we organize community events that engage the neighbourhood and support local organizations. We just wrapped up our second annual Junction Holiday Market last month (an online event that supports local businesses, and has raised over $12,000 to date for Community of Hearts) and we’re looking forward to the return of Junction Streetfest, a neighbourhood block party in support of KidsAbility.
Additionally, our 50+ team members and staff are actively involved leaders in our community – from volunteering with local organizations and boards, to facilitating donations to local causes, and being leaders and mentors in their own communities, we are so proud to have such a strong, dynamic and empathetic group of folks comprise our brokerage.
Real estate, at face value, is about land, buildings, shelter. But what we know, as a group of people with their boots on the ground, is that real estate is more than the physical indicators – there is immeasurable value in building a home, and a community. Looking at our number one post this past year through that lens, it now makes sense.
It seems that local events – especially ones that we could finally attend in-person – drew the most attention from our readers. After almost 2 years of social distancing, quarantining and generally avoiding each other, people were starved for opportunities to come together as a community.
What a pleasant change, and too, a sentiment we want to keep at the forefront as we enter 2022.
Next year will mark our 6th anniversary of this weekly blog. When we started this weekly blog, I, for the life of me, thought we’d barely make it through the year before we ran out of topics and content to share.
Was I ever wrong! We’ve got a growing list of topics outlined to cover in 2022, and we won’t be afraid to dig into some controversial areas either. We’ll keep you informed (and hopefully, entertained) in the coming months.
Thank you for being a subscriber, and for your feedback. As always, we encourage you to send us your questions or suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover. We look forward to bringing more relevant real estate topics and education to your inbox on a weekly basis.
Thanks for reading.
THE PAST WEEK IN THE GUELPH REAL ESTATE MARKET
Take a look at the full key week comparison:
