Winnipeg Real Estate is a smart investment

With an economy that is diversified, strong and stable, Winnipeg Real Estate remains both affordable (remarkably so, compared to other Canadian cities) and a smart investment.

It’s a good place to further your career, raise a family, own your own home much sooner, or retire in a city that offers a good lifestyle and all the conveniences.

The average selling price for a Winnipeg home in 2009 is $199,233, up 4.9 per cent over the past 12 months.

Condos are even more affordable, with an average price of $145,943, (although they have also risen in market value by as much as 30 per cent in the past year).

While home prices have fallen in most other Canadian cities (the exceptions are Regina and Saskatoon), they have continued a moderate but steady rise here. Predictions are that Winnipeg Real Estate prices will continue to rise, perhaps at a somewhat steeper pace, in 2010.

At the same time, Winnipeg Real Estate offers good value for your dollars. The average sale price of all homes listed by realtors in Canada this year is $306,366, or a third more than in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Real Estate tends to sell quickly

The average time on the market for homes in Winnipeg is just 26 days, so you need to have your financing in place before you look.

Expect competition from other buyers, particularly in the $100,000 to $200,000 ‘starter home’ price range.

Any Winnipeg Real Estate priced at less than $100,000 is likely to be either a trailer home on leased land or a fixer-upper in need of more than just cosmetics.

Where to look for your new Winnipeg home

You can find Winnipeg Real Estate listings with agents, in free Winnipeg Real Estate magazines (stands are at grocery stores) or in the Sunday Homes section of Winnipeg Free Press.

What’s available in re-sale homes in Winnipeg?

Easily half the re-sale homes in Winnipeg are small, just 800 square feet or less on the main floor though the average size of new-builds is closer to 1,400 square feet (on the main floor).

Something I still find odd is that well over half (and nearly every new home built here) have exteriors of either off-white or light gray or beige stucco. No one seems to know why, it’s just the way it is. What this tends to do is make the blue skies, and the green of trees and lawns an even more intense splash of colour.

Winnipeg Real Estate re-sale prices for smaller homes (under 1,000 sq. ft.) are in the $80,000 to $180,000 range, depending mainly on location.

Semi-detached and town homes are around $140,000 to $190,000.

Winnipeg bungalows currently sell for around $175,000 to $300,000 (twice what they were 10 years ago). New houses, in new subdivisions, average $250,000 plus the price of the lot, another $50,000 to $80,000 (plus GST.)

If you are looking for something more modest (and pre-owned) in the $100,000 to $150,000 range, you can expect competition (including bidding wars), though buying competition is not nearly as fierce as it was in 2006-2007.

Well-maintained homes in attractive family neighbourhoods in this price range still commonly sell for as much as $20,000 over asking price. Here’s a recent example: a character two-bedroom, single storey bungalow in East Kildonan with 840 square feet on the main floor. Asking price was $119,900, with annual taxes of $1,902. It sold within days of listing for $140,000.

Winnipeg condos offer a more carefree lifestyle

Fed up with ongoing (endless, it seemed) renovations and with a house that no longer worked for us when our son was ready to leave home, we sold up and moved to an apartment a few years back, and then found it was just too much like a return trip to our student days.

So we moved again, this time to a condo in one of the pleasant family neighbourhoods west of downtown. The condo our agent helped us find is the perfect combination of home ownership and the convenience of apartment dwelling. The only downside is that now we wished we had purchased something just a bit larger and that would allow us to have a dog. There are always compromises.

Condos have traditionally been a good ‘starter home’ or downsizing-to-retirement option

More retirement housing options

Winnipeg Real Estate - how to buy a house here

Back in 2000 when we were getting ready to move here I had just five days to find a house (my husband couldn’t get away from work just then and our son was in school).

We got a house for what we wanted to pay, found, financed and purchased in just 5 days, though in hind-sight, I missed out on some good deals on great homes in parts of town I now know we would have preferred (and where values have appreciated considerably since then).

We sold our first Winnipeg house (and did OK on the deal) and bought another, but we could have avoided the hassle and expense of moving by buying smarter the first time.

Here’s what I wish I’d known before we bought our first house (too quickly, as I came to regret) in Winnipeg:

There are good homes, and good neighbourhoods, in every sector of the city.. Many people told us (and still believe) that the only “good” place to live in Winnipeg is the southwest.

This is traditionally where Winnipeg’s most successful citizens moved to once they’d arrived, both socially and economically. There is no denying that there are beautiful mansions in Tuxedo, lovely character homes in River Heights, and Whyte Ridge (big houses; small lots) is a more modern take on gracious living, while semi-rural Charleswood is the very definition of middle-class Canadiana.

All of these neighbourhoods in south-west Winnipeg have been and will continue to be very desirable and thus sound investments. Drive around and take a look – they’re each distinctive, have great schools and aren’t far from downtown.

Lovely (and leafy) as these neighbourhoods all are, they are not the only safe, comfortable and attractive places to live in Winnipeg. There are pretty (but less expensive) neighbourhoods in the Northwest, such as Heritage Gardens (where we live literally steps away from a park and less than 10 minutes from my husband’s office, the easiest commute he's ever had).

Fort Richmond (near University of Manitoba) has seen a boom in development (and prices), as has St. Norbert at the south end of the city. And once grubby and working class Transcona has completely reinvented itself as a pleasant and prosperous small town that is still part of the city. They’re all worth a look.

Looking for a character home?

You’ll find character homes at a premium in River Heights – but there are heritage homes just as charming in less pricey Wolesley, Saint Boniface and St. Vital.

There is a general belief that the North End is to be avoided, which could work to your advantage. The North End (taken as a whole) is still the least prosperous part of Winnipeg (and particularly the part just north of Downtown), but even in the North End there are streets (and sometimes specific blocks of certain streets and whole neighbourhoods) that are fine in terms of quality of life and a sensible investment.

Winnipeg Real Estate 101 -- Re-sale homes

Vertical cracks are not a deal-breaker; horizontal cracks probably are. Winnipeg is built on a floodplain – in other words, we’re all floating on clay (locally known as gumbo). There isn’t a structure here that doesn’t have vertical cracks and fixing them is something we take pretty much for granted.

It is an everyday straight-forward and therefore not expensive repair. However, horizontal cracks are something else, and could be a symptom of major (read expensive) structural problems. You could get in a structural engineer, but my advice is close your chequebook and walk – or possibly run -- away.

Does the home you want need a new roof? Also not a deal breaker. Re-roofing a house costs about half as much here as in Ontario or B.C..

Termites aren’t an issue because there aren’t any. It’s too cold here for them. Squirrels can be, if you are looking at homes with attics (they try to get in to nest).

Dry rot and wet rot are just about non-existant here, unless you are buying something that hasn’t been inhabited for years, and not many of those come on the residential market except as tear-downs.

Would you rather RENT in or near Winnipeg?