July 18 2017
Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate News Update
July 18 2017. In today’s news: lightening strikes Waterloo, growing marijuana, Hooker Oklahoma, Housing starts, border-hopping asylum seekers, Edmonton, Hamilton, Ottawa, Guelph and Barrie real estate markets.
Thunder roared and lightening flashed
The lightening came through the wall and set the bed on fire. The firemen opened up the wall and removed the smoking insulation. The Rogers modem got fried and one light and a couple of breakers and GFIs. Pretty wild. I’ve been dealing with insurance adjusters and electrical safety inspectors and Rogers all day yesterday. Yep that was my house on Dietz that got struck by lightening.
Imagining that
Edmonton’s Imagine Jasper Avenue project hopes to encourage businesses to set up patios and welcome food trucks. The challenge will be finding a balance between foot and vehicle traffic. This seems to be a common theme with cities these days. For me the challenge is staying away from food trucks.
Dave’s not here, man.
Waterloo Regional Police say they’re keeping an eye on a large marijuana grow-op at the former Waterloo Flowers greenhouse site. They believe it’s operating within the law for medical marijuana for personal consumption. Canada’s medical marijuana rules allows a person to grow up to 244 plants at a time and allow a so-called “home grower” to have as much as 10-kilograms of dried medical marijuana at any time. The owner of the former greenhouse has been less than upfront about what he’s doing. Maybe he’s just paranoid.
Hammer time
Hamilton, in the first quarter of this year was the 7th hottest housing market in the world. Toronto was #4. The other cities in the top ten were all in China except for #10 which was Oslo Norway, the land of second chances.
Up close and personal
Canada’s ‘best value’ real estate markets based on average sales prices across all types of real estate close to home include Guelph and Barrie. I said ‘close to home’ but one of the reasons they are on the list is because they are close to Toronto.
Let’s get the party started
The trend in housing starts for Canada reached its highest level in almost five years. So far this year, all regions are on pace to surpass construction levels from 2016 except for British Columbia, where starts have declined year-to-date after reaching near-record levels last summer.
On the 49
Canadian tolerance and Trump’s America has lead to more than 3,000 border-hopping asylum seekers arriving in Canada. Refugees cross into Canada over a ditch, a muddy field or simply across a street.
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Location, vocation, location
There’s a town in the Oklahoma panhandle named “Hooker”. Its slogan is “it’s a location, not a vocation”.
Bytown to boom
After years of stagnation, Ottawa’s housing market is now poised to become one of Canada’s hot ones. Ottawa is unique in that, unlike its counterparts in Vancouver and Toronto, the market has been stagnating for about five years even as mortgage rates have plunged to record lows.
