Edmonton Single Family Home Sales Jump in November - UPDATED

Game Changer:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/treb-court-ruling-1.4428262

Why game changer?

TREB that says they have concerns about client privacy, but this is a flimsy argument at best. It's well known that this information is available in the U.S. through sites like Zillow and it works just fine.

The only reason for hiding detailed information about home sales is that it allows property prices to be elevated if buyers don't know what a property sold for previously. Obviously when a buyer can see the price history of a property than they can better determine its true value rather than having to go through a realtor intermediary.

But this could be good for the industry. It can be seen as an opportunity for Sarah and other marketers to change the story.

Instead of contributing to the over pricing of houses, resulting in people getting into massive debt, realtors can now focus on getting people into properties they can truly afford and at the same time get a fair price for sellers.

I'm confident it won't go this way, it looks like TREB will fight this to the death.

I'm not sure it makes that big of a difference. Provides more immediate access to fodder for the amateur real estate statisticians out there, but not much else.
Buyers already know what the house sold for in the past- Every time I buy one, the standard questions I ask are "when did it last sell, and for how much?", "give me everything that's sold in the entire neighborhood in the past two years, comparable or not", and "give me comparable sales for the past three years". If info is available, I also ask what the current owner owes on the place.
The info is already available. Just need to ask for it. I support the move to open data though- the competition bureau is right. Just not sure it make much practical difference.

When you control the information it gives you tremendous power and Realtors know this. That's why they're willing to fight this all the way to the Supreme court.

Controlling the industry information allows realtors to manipulate it however they want, which is a huge competitive advantage.

Let's dispel the myth that realtors are professional statisticians, they are not. Sara is very clear that she is a marketing professional, which makes her .about as qualified a statistician as all the other amateurs out there. I'll give her credit though, she does know how to make a nice looking graph and write a good headline.

One more day to get bank approval on the old mortgage rules if you make an official offer.. .This will give the bank enough time to close before the end of the year.. January 1st, new rules....

The new rules might not have a big impact as there are always loopholes and ways around. The only rule where there's no loopholes is if they raise interest rates substantially. But anyway let's see how it's gonna play out.