Real Estate Recap & Weekend Tidbits

The weekend is upon us and it's time to catch up on things.  For some of us it is simply doing things around the house such as housekeeping, maintenance, gardening and relaxing at home-sweet-home. For others it's heading out to participate in some activities we enjoy or community events.  Here's a few local Kelowna area events that caught my eye:

• Urban Gardeners Garden Tour Saturday, June 18th starting at 9am. Tickets  and / or registration available at nursuries  throughout Kelowna. Sponsored by Communities in Bloom Project
• Western Regional Roller Derby Tournament 9am - June 18th and 19th at Propera Place and Sunplex Arena. 1st Western regional tournament!
• Earth Wind Fire 2011 5:30pm June 18 at Delta Grand Okanagan Resort sponsored by the Nature Trust of BC
• Internationally renown sitar player Maestro Purbayan Chatterjee at Volcanic Hills Estate Winery 6pm June 18th
• Father's Day Show & Shine 10am June 19th at Kelowna's City Park, Kerry Park [hotrods, bikes and rumbling machines]
• Go Fish extended 10am-3pm June 19th Rods, reels and bait available for youngsters under age 16 to try their 'fishing' luck!
• Sunshine Festival 9am June 18th downtown Vernon street fair
• Mr. T's Turtlehead Triathlon for kids and adults at Vernon's Kalamalka Lake Sunday June 19th
• Skylands Downhill skateboard event 9am June 18th and 19th Kelowna
• Tastings at the many Okanagan wineries!

In between whatever you might be doing this weekend around the house or out & about.....if you've got spare time and like to catch up on recent real estate related news.....check out the easy click format of Real Estate Recap, a summary of my past week of tweets.

HAVE A SAFE, FUN WEEKEND!

KELOWNA AREA REAL ESTATE NEWS

• Who's buying, where & what in the Okanagan today? - June Conway
• What's up with the Kelowna area recreational market? - June Conway
• Great supply of residential properties to choose from - June Conway

OKANAGAN NEWS

• Wednesday wine word: Tannin - Between the Vines

CANADIAN REAL ESTATE NEWS

• Confluence of factors heating up some real estate markets -  CTVnews
• May resale home sales relatively flat with a few exceptions - Globe and Mail
• National housing makret entrenched in balanced territory - PropertyWire
• Overheated housing market to cool - Vancouver Sun
• May housing sales & prices much like April ~ view full report - RE/MAX
• House prices remain steady despite Vancouver pull - CTVnews
• May home prices buoyed by Vancouver numbers - Vancouver Sun
• Most Canadian real estate markets balanced or unremarkable except Vancouver - Financial Post
• Check out the trends of B.C. first-time buyers: Survey - CNW
• Canada's most expensive home markets: Survey - Cagary Herald
• North America's most expensive and most affordable housing markets: Report - MarketWire
• Canadian household debthits record $1.5 trillion - Globe and Mail
• Stage is set for one of the best recreational property markets in years - CNW
• Carney to weigh in on housing market - Globe and Mail
• Canadian real estate - a piggy bank for Chinese investors - Globe and Mail
• Chinese-Canadians and immigrants, not investors from China, largely  driving market, experts say - Vancouver Sun

U.S. REAL ESTATE NEWS

• Predicting U.S. home prices is now impossible - CNBC

INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE NEWS

• U.K. heiress new L.A. pied-a-terre: U.S. most expensive home - Telegraph
• For China's rich, Paris is calling - the Wall Street Journal
• 22 yr old U.K. heiress buys U.S. most expensive home - Yahoo
• As housing prices drop worldwide, 16 countries are still rising - WorldPropertyChannel
• Chinese on a global buying spree - Vancouver Sun
• Global buyers wary to re-enter housing market - International Business Times

MORTGAGE NEWS

• Sounding the alarm on low rates - GlobeAdvisor
• Flaherty and Carney fear household debt impact - CTVnews
• Carney warms of trouble in overheated housing market - Daily Business Buzz
• Variable rate expectation - Varies over time - Canadian Mortgage Advisor
• Interest rate hike forecast pushed back - Vancouver Sun
• CMHC statistics from its Corporate Plan - CanadianMortgageTrends
• Introduction to mortgage financing - RateHub
• Shouldn't Carney raise interest rates now? - Globe and Mail

HOUSE SELLING or BUYING TIPS

• Reasons to plan ahead niggling details of your cottage co-ownership - National Post
• Signs that it's time to lower a home's asking price - Madison.com
• Are the highest offers always the best offer? - BiggerPockets
• Handy
• download: Home buying step-by-step - Verico
• What to watch out for in time shares - the Province
• Pitfalls of buying a foreclosure house - Globe and Mail
• It works to set the sage when selling! - National Post
• Home buying tips for singles - National Post
• Know your boundaries!  Homeowners fined for cutting others' greenery - Vancouver Sun
• Reality check! Is your stuff keeping you from finding the home you want? - ActiveRain

HOME DECOR & MAINTENANCE TIPS & IDEAS

• Fabulous Entires - theRedPin
• How to change the color of hydrangeas - Tree.com
• Does your garage have charging infrastructure for an electric car? - National Post
• Solar-powered lawn care company - National Post
• 8 suprising household deodorizers - RealSimple

WEIRD, MISC NEWS

• Gotta love Tide's new slogan - Twitpic.com
• Home Sweet Home - National Post
• Hatitude at the Ascot races - CBC news
• Users fled Facebook in May - HuffingtonPost
• Infograph of the Day: Facebook is the McDonald's of Social Networking - FastCodeDesign
• Saucy fascinators at the Royal Ascot 2011 - Telgraph
• Car aficionado? Check the array of classic cards going on the chopping block - A Continuous Lean
• Cool online 10,000+ newspaper map - NewpaperMap
• It's a Facebook world - TechCrunch
• Owning awarenss vs just renting it - DavidMeerman

REAL ESTATE RECAP

• June 18
• June 3
• May 28
• May 21
• May 14