Bombshell news from last week. Metroland has filed for bankruptcy. In case you are unaware of Metroland they are the company behind the largest local print newspaper in Durham Region. They publish under the name “This Week” in most of the communities of Durham Region, and in total the company will cease to print 70 newspapers in Ontario and Quebec.

The question that has come up for me over the past week was, “what have we lost?”

When I look at my career of selling Real Estate in Durham region for almost 40 years, one of my primary goals has been to help educate the clients I work with. Clients who are educated and aware of all aspects of the market make the best decisions. What can be a challenge is finding local information to help a Buyer or Seller determine when it is time to make a move. When you go online, it is easy to find information about Real Estate trends nationally and provincially, in fact it is easier to find information on American home sale trends than local happenings.

In 2020 I was asked by the owner of Oshawa Express newspaper, Kim Boatman, to write a local Real Estate column. I had free rein on what the content of the columns were, and I focused on local trends, how to navigate the market and some best practices for Buyers and Sellers. The column was well received, and ran weekly until the newspaper ceased to go to print in late 2020.

I enjoyed the experience of helping locals understand the market and was asked to pen a column for Metroland and Torstar in early 2021 and have written articles for them since then.

When we lose local content, we lose our ability to understand what is happening in the area we live in. What is lost are the local stories about municipal politics, new developments in construction, the impact our Universities and Colleges are having on us and how the provinces decisions affect our town. We also lose interesting information about local leaders and the impact they make.

I am continuing to write articles for the Metroland online presence and will do my best to continue to add local content to help people in Durham Region understand what is happening with Real Estate.

The other local resource that has a huge following is the blog I update on a weekly basis. Over the past few years, I have covered how mortgage rates affect sales, predictions, when to buy and when to hold off, average sales prices and how to “time the market.”

For those of us (I included myself in this category) that prefer to “watch” rather than “read” I have, for over 6 years done a weekly video covering how real estate is shifting on a weekly basis. I cover how many homes are coming to market along with the number of homes selling conditionally and firm weekly. This content filled video is less than 3 minutes.

I will continue to update Durham residents weekly and if there are any topics you would like to see covered let me know. I am happy to contribute in any way I can.

Here are the links for the Metroland online platform, my weekly blog and the weekly market trend video.

I look forward to hearing from you and working with you.
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.