January 2022

We all want to take care of our things, especially when they are expensive to acquire. You take your car to the car watch, and you change your oil when you are supposed to. You take your clothes to the dry cleaners, and polish your shoes. But when it comes to our homes, we often skip routine maintenance because we are never prepared for it. A home is one of the biggest investments you will make in your lifetime, and it should be the one thing we try to keep up the maintenance for.  

It can be hard to stay caught up on home maintenance projects. But when you do, you prevent costly repairs and bigger future problems. 

Why Home Maintenance is Important

Regular home maintenance is a good investment. Yes, it will add things to your to-do list, but they will all be worth your time. When you keep up with monthly tasks around your home, you can prevent major damage and prevent high spending over time. Here are five reasons to stay on top of your home maintenance this year.

Save Money 

If you routinely check your home, you can save yourself a lot of money. Routine maintenance can help you avoid issues by fixing small problems that left overtime, and can become large and expensive problems. 

Enhance the Quality of your Home Life 

If your AC or water heater breaks, your home life will get a huge interruption. If you do annual checks on your AC units and water heaters, you can avoid problems. You can identify problems that can cause long-term damage. And you don’t have to take cold showers while you figure out how to fix something. 

Adds to Market Value

Most homes will appreciate over time. With curb appeal, you could add 10% in value for your home. Maintaining your home with a fresh coat of paint and replacing broken driveway tiles, bricks or slabs can make a huge difference.   

Extends the Life of your Appliances

Your washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and other home appliances come with high price tags. But they are needed for your comfort and some for everyday life. Simple upkeep can ensure that these remain in good condition, so they can continue to serve you and your family.  Maintenance of these is quite easy too. Your stove needs to be cleaned with the right cleaning solutions, etc. 

Increase the Safety of your Home 

When you maintain your home and yard, you are securing your property and keeping yourself and your family safe. Burglars tend to target homes with overgrown bushes. Each season comes with its own set of needs for maintenance. If you can’t do it all yourself, you can hire the right professionals based on your needs and budget.  

There are a lot of perks to regular home maintenance. Saving money, improving home value, keeping you and your family safe are just some benefits of regularly taking care of small tasks around your home. 

What kind of TLC does your home need right now?

At the end of December 2021, the Consumer Price Index had increased by 4.8% for the year. With food costs increasing, the cost of living has risen the fastest we have seen since 1991. Statistics show grocery prices have risen by 5.7%, which is the largest gain since 2011. The two things that are mainly affecting the price of groceries would be weather conditions in growing regions and disruptions in the supply chain also due to the weather. 

Just How Much Has Food Prices Increased?

Apple prices increased by 6.7%, and oranges saw an increase of 6.6%. With the United States being the major supplier of oranges, having bad weather and citrus greening in the major growing region. Orange export and production numbers have fallen their smallest since 1945. This not only affects the price of the fruit, but also the price of frozen concentrate and any commodity it is used in. We are seeing that price increase, with the cost of orange juice doubling in the last few months. 

Other food prices are increasing too, such as frozen beef, which has gone up by 12% over the prices of 2021. Ham and Bacon have also increased in price by 15%. 

With supplier’s costs going up, retailers have to pass on the increases to their customers. Kendra Sozinho, Fiesta Farms grocery store manager, indicates she has never seen a price jump like this one in her 20 years working for the company. 

Current new rules which forbid unvaccinated truck drivers from entering the country could make price hikes more likely in the coming weeks and months. 

As pandemic spending winds down, we expect to see a decrease in pent-up demand, which is one thing driving price increases. We still expect challenges in inflation and the supply chain. 

What is Happening Outside the Food Industry?

Expect to see more rate hikes! Food is not the only thing that we are going to see price increases on  in the future. Shelter prices have increased by 5.4% over last year, which is even higher than the overall inflation rate. Worst is that the factors pushing up shelter costs are all local Canadian problems. 

Yes, domestic issues are what drives housing inflation. There is also the weather driving up insurance costs, which affects homeowners and dwellers. 

Politicians Weigh In

Pierre Poilievre blamed the inflation on the federal government. He is a conservative finance critic who believes that a nation such as Canada should be able to keep prices down. Poilievre told reporters that the biggest increases we have seen on consumer products are on stuff that we source here in Canada. 

He calls home price inflation a “home-grown” problem, and argues that all blame regarding the inflation should be placed on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He noted that the more the Prime Minister spends, the more prices go up. 

Early in the pandemic, we saw lending rates reduced to all time lows. This stimulated the economy, but two years later the housing market has seen skyrocketing prices and reduced listings. 

Investors Weigh In

Investors believe there is a 75% chance of a rate hike soon. While inflation is expected to come down over the year, it is necessary for the Bank of Canada to require tighter financial conditions.  

If we saw any relief at all, it was with gas prices. We saw a drop of 4.1% during one month, which is the largest monthly drop since April 2020. But gas prices are still high compared to 2020 rates. 

How is inflation affecting you? We’d love to hear in the comments!

Throughout the end of November 2021, British Columbia saw 117,965 unit sales, which surpassed the 2016 record of 112, 425 sales. This new record was made for 2021 without December’s total. 

The B.C Real Estate Association notes, the first part of 2021 had a lot of high volume sales, and this is what pushed up the number. Every market of the province saw records being set through spring. Then the numbers settled down during the summer, only to gain momentum into the fall and winter months. 

It is interesting that these record sales were seen while there were reports of a record low inventory. Both of these can’t be true, and the sales numbers do not lie. There are now new listings on the market, and these are seeing activity. So pretty much everything that came into the market was being bought. While the new supply is good, the rebuilt inventory is still low. And because the new inventory is being bought, the total inventory is still looking on the low side. 

The data showed the average British Columbia home price was just a little under a million dollars. This increased 22.1% since November 2020, where the average home prices were $814,310. 

Factors Affecting the Increase

Another factor affecting the price increase is the pandemic induced relocation demand. This is especially true of people moving out of Vancouver. Persons with Vancouver income were moving to different areas of the province that had a lower supply, and so this caused price increases. 

There were people looking for single detached homes and generally more space. Because more people were looking for these types of homes and features, they became more expensive. So this skewed the average a little bit. 

Average Home Prices 

Chilliwack – $794,605

Fraser Valley – $1,107,374

Victoria – $987,970

Greater Vancouver – $1,241,774

With just over 16,000 homes for sale in British Columbia, there is a short supply indeed, as usually the Vancouver area alone has that number of listings. The tightest market in the province is the Capital Region District and Victoria. The population is approximately 400,000, and there are just 672 active. One issue with this area is that people that retire here don’t often move away. 

Anybody looking to retire, whether in Victoria or in British Columbia, is bringing demand, but there is no major increase in supply.