{"id":17133,"date":"2017-04-26T17:34:27","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T21:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17133"},"modified":"2017-04-26T17:34:27","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T21:34:27","slug":"inside-aurora-for-sale-but-not-for-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-for-sale-but-not-for-long\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: For Sale, But Not For Long"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been a lot of talk lately about the skyrocketing housing market, and the situation in our Town is no exception.
\nI may be dating myself, but I actually remember a time when a real estate sign would go up on a lawn, and it would likely be there for a few months before a \u201csold\u201d sticker appeared on it, if one appeared at all.
\nNow, signs go up with subsequent \u201csolds\u201d on them with blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it speed. And they\u2019d probably go up faster, but it takes time for the realtors to run around Town and slap them on between cashing commission cheques.
\nIt\u2019s not just how quickly they\u2019re selling, but the astronomical dollar values these properties are realizing.
\nAs I write this, taking a look at the current MLS listings for Aurora, the average price for the top 10 houses for sale is around $1.1 million.
\nThat\u2019s double the average price from only – brace yourself – five years ago.
\nIt also means that these days your garden shed and the 50 square feet of land it sits on is probably worth more than your car.
\nIn the feeding frenzy over new listings, some people who would normally agonize over whether to spend the extra 20 cents to upsize to an extra large coffee, are placing offers on properties sight unseen.
\nContinued low interest rates are no doubt helping to fuel these bidding war flames.
\nFor those of you who own and plan to sell your home, you may think you\u2019re rich. And, in a way, you are, but financially only for the brief time immediately after the deal closes. Because at that point you need to find new accommodation, which will take up a big part, or maybe more, of your recent gains.
\nAfter all, in the time between selling and buying, relative prices might have gone up a few percent.
\nA way around that is to move back in with your parents, or kids, or some distant relative to whom you once gave a kidney, and whom you\u2019ve been making feel guilty about it ever since for just such a situation as this.
\nAnd if you are just looking to get into the housing market, you better hope your boss is planning to give you a raise. According to a website I came across, based on a 10 per cent down payment, and low-ish interest rates, to cover the mortgage costs on a $1M home, the required annual salary is over $150k.
\nOf course, not all homes are worth $1M. But despite the growing population of our Town and the increasing number of new homes being built, there are surprisingly few low cost options out there.
\nNot too long ago, Council was discussing ways to ensure the Town had more affordable housing. I don\u2019t think this ever went very far, because the least expensive townhome on the market right now is about $400k, and there are only a couple of those before you\u2019re well over $500k.
\nI guess it all depends on your definition of affordable.
\nAnd as the stereotypical marketing pitches and experience show, they won\u2019t last long at these prices.
\nOn the plus side for the Town, higher assessments and associated property tax rates certainly aren\u2019t hurting the municipality\u2019s coffers.
\nThere has been talk of higher levels of government stepping in to curb this situation, but realistically, it\u2019s not likely to change any time soon.
\nSo, until interest rates increase, or more homes are built, or sanity prevails, or something else happens to change this situation, we can only sit back and watch.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston There has been a lot of talk lately about the skyrocketing housing market, and the situation in our Town is no exception. I may be dating myself, but I actually remember a time when a real estate sign would go up on a lawn, and it would likely be there for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4sl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 10:43:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}