For those that don’t know, W.R. Grace, the company responsible for putting “zonolite” insulation out in the open market has settled a class action lawsuit that will put over a billion dollars into a trust fund (over a period of years) to settle damage claims.

http://tinyurl.com/bhbo67

If you have removed zonolite insulation that contains asbestos you can apply for a reimbursement for part of your costs if you complete the application by August 31, 2009.

Details here: http://www.graceclaims.com/

It cost us a little under $5 per square foot for about 940 square feet. Not so much in the scheme of things, but it was a little painful at the time. I’d be tickled pink to get some of it back through graceclaims!

Hard to know. January sales would make up a fairly small portion of the whole.

For interest sake, Canadian MLS sales came in at 523,855 in 2007 and dropped to 434,477 in 2008. If CREA’s predicted drop of 16.1% is realistic, that would reduce sales to $350,616, quite a difference from the peak.

George,

Thanks. When I first got started here I tried to do much more general real estate stuff, but then, well, we all know what happened to the real estate market. Some weeks it’s a bit of a challenge to get the one statistical post going. This article was actually provided to me by the folks at asbestos.com so it was very easy. I would like to try to do more of it. Appreciate the feedback.

“probably has a lot to do with me not posting much lately”

Aaah, no.

TimD,

Excellent point. I’ve come across “zonolite” insulation on a number of occasions. It wasn’t all that uncommon, but it didn’t all contain asbestos. I believe that Health Canada still takes the position that it’s harmless if contained to the attic but I can appreciate why people would sooner not have it. Buyers should definitely consider potential resale implications when making that decision. Just curious, how much money is “a fair chunk” and how much attic space would you have been dealing with in that home.

We are told that it has not been commonly found in Saskatoon in the past couple of years. I think that this is probably due to the buying hysteria that occured here, with people buying with no inspections or regardless of what was in the attic. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in a lot of homes in the city.

great topic. I think most people(myself:)) on here are fixated on prices, sales and the economy so much that important topics such as this are never really discussed. And this is a RE blog. Not downplaying prices etc, but having topics like this, allows people to be more informed.

I would love to see more topics like this. If I find some myself, I will post them as well. I feel this blog just gets better and better. ( probably has a lot to do with me not posting much lately )

I’m sensing some more downward revisions in their next projection:

Home sales fall by 41 per cent

http://tinyurl.com/b22rbn

“Sales of existing homes fell to the lowest level since the mid-1990s last month, with activity dropping by 41 per cent in January from a year ago.

Last month 16,343 resale homes changed sales across the country, according to a report Friday from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). The average price fell by 11 per cent from the year before to $273,607.”

Lots of information about the pace of declines in different regions, but nothing specific to Saskatchewan in this article.

Happy Friday the 13th.