I got married over Canada Day long weekend in 2013.
I had my bachelor party over the Victoria Day long weekend, five weeks earlier.
A friend of mine said, “Hey Dave, thanks for ruining half of my summer!”
Fair comment, or no?
We’re halfway through 2025, if you can believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were opening Christmas presents, and yet I’m sure we’ll blink and the festivities will be upon us again.
If I sound like I’m obsessed with the passing of time, it’s because I am!
Six months into the real estate calendar and it’s been a real slog.
I just put the finishing touches on a sale, representing the buyer, where the sellers were as contentious and as entitled as could be. The listing agent was an absolute pleasure to deal with and she was apologetic throughout, but these sellers should have been thanking me, my buyers, and the Almighty God that they sold their house, and instead, they just sulked.
If there were an emoji to describe the 2025 real estate market through six months, it would be a sulking face.
If anybody is reading this post today, I have two questions:
- What would you like to read about here on TRB in July?
- Are you at work today? Or are you taking the day off like 86.7% of the city?
My office is going to be an absolute ghost town on MOnday and oh my goodness am I ever looking forward to it! That’s the best way to play catch-up while you attempt to get ahead.
I was thinking this morning: it’s been twenty-two years since I put together an outfit of bike shorts and a Canadian flag, and wore it proudly (and shamelessly…) at SARSStock in 2003.
For those that don’t know, we basically had COVID before we had COVID.
Only the first time, instead of shutting down the entire world, we threw a massive party in Downsview Park and invited Justin Timberlake and AC/DC.
I think I saw Rush as well, maybe even The Guess Who.
But yeah, twenty-two years and the memories have faded a little bit.
So make some new memories this (long?) weekend and remember why you’re proud to be Canadian.
Happy Canada Day!
Serge
at 7:48 am
Running half or ruining half?
TRB is OK, and yes at work today.
TRB and Ai – the future? How about that?
David Fleming
at 11:49 am
@ Serge
I meant “ruining” but I suppose you’re right and this could have gone both ways! 🙂
Damian
at 9:48 am
Happy Canada Day!
Artificial intelligence can never write like David Fleming because artificial intelligence can’t tell a story about offer nights with a wicked introduction about 1980s television shows, nor can artificial intelligence write a blog about rental statistics while including an introduction about 1990’s grunge bands. Artificial intelligence can’t be real like this guy ^^
Serge
at 9:48 am
@ Damian
Happy Canada Day!
I did not mean to replace David with AI. I wondered if there are any changes that AI brings into Canadian RE industry. E.g., if agents already use AI to write posters, define price, etc.
Crofty
at 1:43 pm
Hmm, “Damian”… IA is right there in the name…
RPG
at 11:26 am
You know back in my day, a bachelor party was one single night. Perhaps dinner and drinks, maybe a quick stop at a fine gentleman’s establishment. It seems today every young man expects his friends to take a week off work, fly to Mexico, and engage in a series of activities like day camp for adults. I don’t understand how people can commit to this for seven men in their friend group. What do the wives make of this?
Your_favorite_tenant
at 1:32 pm
I’m at work today. Its quiet and I prefer to save vacation days for travelling.
I would love to read about how other places build condos that isn’t the model of investor driven pre-sales. How did we build all those nice, big, liveable older buildings in the 80s and 90s?
It seems like we need to consider other models of funding. Nobody is going to be buying pre-builds for a while while the price per sq foot is so much higher than the price for existing building, but we need to increase supply. Also, catering to investors seems to have created a mismatch between the supply and what end-user buyers actually want. You’ve written a lot about the problems in the industry – How do we fix that? What have other places done? What alternatives exist?
Trevor
at 5:54 pm
I really enjoyed those reviews of new Condominium launches.
Maybe it’s because the prices were so egregious. Are there any new condo launches actually happening?
I would love to see another version of that post.