I have been working around the clock on my new Salt Spring Island interactive real estate map and have just released it to the public. Here is the link to the Salt Spring Island Real Estate interactive map. I have about 70 video clips on the map and will be adding more and more every day. My goal is to have a video clip of most of the island streets posted on the map. So many buyers always ask me what does the street look like or what is the area like. This make should help the off island buyers find their new Salt Spring Island dream home. If you have any suggestions or comments about the map feel free to comment at the bottom of the page.

Cheers
Scott Simmons
Salt Spring real estate agent for
One Percent Realty Vancouver Island

The article talks about the sharp drop in demand for rural real estate homes and the subsequent drop in prices. It is not really breaking news to anyone who has been in the Salt Spring Island real estate market looking. I think it might be news that some of the Salt Spring Island home sellers should read over. Here is the link to the article in __www.canadianbusiness.com_print.   To ad the the article I have seen some home listed for over 4 mil that have sold for less than half of their original asking price.

I would say 2011-12 is going to be a fairly slow market for the high end homes on Salt Spring Island. Part of the main problem is the buyers are still going to Arizona.

After WW11 the baby boom started. Thousands of young men returned home and started families and all these families needed homes. Every city in North America responded and let developers build track home or subdivision homes. Boxes that could be put up fast and cheap. Lots of subdivisions are build by one developer who uses one architect and usually has 5 or 6 standard designed that they build. Usually every street is combination of the same homes in different orders, or maybe a few built as mirror images, you get the point you have all seen this. It is everywhere… except Salt Spring. That’s right no track homes, no real subdivisions, no standard homes. The beauty of the subdivisions is that they are linked in homes but also in price ranges. This make buying in a city fairly easy if you know your price range, check out the suburb that is in that range, pick the box you like, look for a deal and buy… so easy. Photos are our old suburb home Coquitlam. Look at the price my father paid 46k.
Salt Spring is not so easy, no suburbs, no box homes, no standard price range, no two homes on the same street are even close to each other. Then add to that a topography that has every possible description from hillside to waterfront. Then ad builders who were smoking the weed in the 70’s. Then ad streets that were laid out by farmers walking from farm to farm. Just to shake things up add in a bunch of zillionairs and a few out of luck poor folk, mix in a couple of double wides, then through in the Island Trust zoning and… mix it all up, shake it up and you get our little Salt Spring Island. Why is it hard to buy here? It’s just not a normal place if you call cities and suburbia normal. No Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore were on Salt Spring Island and on Salt Spring you never know what is going to be around the next corner. A castle of a double wide… The adventure of buying on Salt Spring.
Have a great day
Scott
I’m off to do a CMA on a home that someone wants to list.