kitchener

House prices in Kitchener and Waterloo jumped almost 13 per cent in January due to a buying spree by move-up buyers.

The average sale price hit $315,932 last month, up 12.9 per cent from $279,957 a year earlier. The average price for detached homes increased 14.5 per cent, to $361,470.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors said the increased activity by move-up buyers put upward pressure on the average sale price.

Patrick Carroll beamed under the beams he helped raise.

This new home on Gravel Ridge Trail has the finger prints of the Cambridge teen in a red Dr Pepper T-shirt and a dozen other St. Benedict high school students all over it.

It’s the completed class project in Community Home Building 101.

“This is definitely better than sitting in class” said the Grade 12 student.

“How many kids get to say they built a house?”

Well, 13 boys can say so this year.

It’s the elephant in the room when agents, landlords and developers talk about the commercial and industrial real estate markets in Waterloo Region.

What’s going to happen with Research In Motion, and what kind of impact will it have on the market?

The potential decline of the mobile communications giant will have an “enormous” impact, but the region’s economy is diverse enough to weather the storm, agents with the commercial real estate firm Colliers International said Wednesday.

Plans for hundreds of residential units and commercial space on King Street East may hinge on whether the developer qualifies for millions in incentives provided to other builders in the core.

And Coun. Frank Etherington, who represents that part of the city, supports the call by Fusion Homes to include its property in the zone where fees are waived by the city and region in a bid to attract new development.

The City of Kitchener, in partnership with Community Renewable Energy Waterloo (CREW), offers a grant program that is intended to encourage homebuilders and homebuyers to invest in green buildings, and offset direct building impacts on energy, water and waste for new home construction.

Housing sales in Waterloo Region were down just over five per cent in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period last year.

Over 3400 properties sold in the first six months.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors says a delayed spring market is now shifting into full gear.

The only property type to experience an increase in the number of units sold on a year-to-date basis, were condominiums, up 4.5 per cent to 653 units.

It certainly would be nice to see more people invest in energy efficient homes.  Perhaps this article will educate the public that likes to blame homebuilders and developers for the state of current housing types, energy efficiency etc., and help them realize that the public drives the market.  If more people wanted LEED certified homes, all builders would offer it.  Here is hoping the public changes their misconceptions about the b

As new subdivisions are planned for the largest remaining parcel of undeveloped land in the city, a veteran councillor does not want the mistakes of the past repeated on Fischer Hallman Road.

Coun. Berry Vrbanovic, who chairs the city’s planning committee, does not want to see Fischer Hallman turned into another arterial road choked with traffic and flanked by big-box-store parking lots where pedestrians and cyclists fear to go.

For anyone looking to buy a new home in the Chicopee area of Kitchener, the Fairway Road extension and bridge to Cambridge is progressing along nicely.  According to the Region, the bridge is scheduled to open next year.

The city’s transformation from rubber and steel to software and information continues.

Sandblasting crews will begin work today on a $35-million redevelopment to turn six Breithaupt Block industrial buildings into 175,000 square feet of office space for the creative information technology age.

The buildings that used to manufacture rubber and automotive parts are on Breithaupt Street between King and Waterloo streets in the old industrial heart of Kitchener.