Property Details - 35

"Tastefully Decorated, Newer, Fully Developed 3 Bedroom Home in Southridge. Main floor features an open floor plan: living room with gas fireplace, kitchen with island and pantry, as well as kitchen access to deck, 2 pc bathroom and laundry room with access to the double attached garage. The top floor is home to 3 bedrooms and 2 4pc bathrooms. Master Bedroom hosts 4 pc ensuite. Basement is fully developed with large open family/rec room with 2nd gas fireplace and plenty of storage space. Yard is grassed front and back. This well kept family home Shows Excellent!" - MLS 3764

A hectic time has culminated in this listing, which went up yesterday. The realtors walk thru is tomorrow, and the obligatory open house is likely this weekend some time. Good times.

Spending in Canada

“Canadians are spending a greater chunk of their incomes on housing, air travel and cell phones while the proportion devoted to personal taxes has hit a 14-year low, a government report showed Tuesday.” – reportonbusiness.com – Globe & Mail

From this same article; a record 31 per cent of households (in Alberta) bought new computer hardware. I am, unfortunately, one of the remaining 69 per cent who continue using old technology. Much to the chagrin of those folks I *used* to play COD2 with. It’s been a while. Meh.

Rethinking the Reserve

Shackled by red tape: "Even when First Nations wants to get ahead they find that leveraging their land is far from easy" - National Post
/worth the read

Alberta Homeless Secretariat

"The focus of the secretariat, which reports to the Honourable Yvonne Fritz, Associate Minister of Affordable Housing and Urban Development, will be to develop and oversee the implementation of a 10-year strategic plan to address homelessness across Alberta. It will work closely with municipalities to co-ordinate and support the development of their community plans to ensure the homeless are receiving the services and support they need." - Alberta Government Press Release
"MURRAY PROKOSCH, Member - Mr. Prokosch is from Medicine Hat where he gained 20 years of experience in the construction industry, leading to the creation of Classic Construction Ltd., a company that provides housing for first-time buyers."

Local Developer Appointed to Secretariat - Medicine Hat News

Residential Development

For all the work i've been a part of working with municipalities throughout Alberta... i've never seen anything like what is being claimed out in Ontario: "...a home builder in Caledonia, said there is a climate of fear among developers in his area" - National Post

It's quite apparent, to me anyways, that if we were looking to build that far outside of the Alberta market, i'd chose Langford over the Caledonia area (due to it's apparent uncertainty at least).

No matter, Norwood Grande (right here in Medicine Hat) is still top of mind!

Fast 50 - Two Years In A Row

Local company Classic Construction is recognized as one of fastest growing companies in Alberta – again.

Click this link here, you'll see Classic listed 10th!

Classic is again the only company in South Eastern Alberta recognized as one of Alberta’s Fastest Growing Companies.

CCL locally owned & founded in 2002. Employer of me since 2006.

CCL is residential real estate developer specializing in affordable housing.
Past Classic Communities include: River Park Townhomes, Northland Villas, Northland Estates & Ranchland Estates.

Current Classic Communities include: Northlands Pointe (By Crescent Heights Co-op), Somerset Villas (behind Home Depot), Terrace Ridge Villas (Ranchlands), Norwood Grande (13th avenue property) & Sunrise Terrace Villas in High River.

Classic is currently working on a second site in High River. Classic is also in the process of developing land in Brooks Alberta & Canmore Alberta.

/another blogger released this info last year before i did after Classic Construction's first Fast 50 recognition (<- here) but this year, i'm going straight to you all myself. Good news will travel fast, the news will get out.

Alberta Funds Housing

This was a good week. in fact, this was a great week for Housing in Alberta.

"More than $60 million will be invested in affordable housing projects in 15 Alberta municipalities. " - Municipal Affairs & Housing - Alberta

Medicine Hat is home to one of those 15 projects awarded gravely needed funds to increase the available affordable housing stock in our City. The Medicine Hat Community Housing Society will be developing a brand new site in Southlands. Watch for Classic Communities to be a strong partner in this project moving forward.

Beyond that $60 million tho, and what happens next. Who steps up from the for-profit sector and provides attainable housing?

2 articles this week in the Rocky Mountain Outlook were focused on a new builder in the Canmore Alberta market: Classic Communities.

The Medicine Hat News recently parroted the closing comment for one article. Thank you for that, it IS worth repeating:

"Those communities are bound to greet CCL with the same hospitality Canmore exhibited. The RMO article ended with a clear message to the Medicine Hat builder.
“Welcome to Canmore, CCL.”

It has been a great week for Alberta, and this next years pace for CCL is going to be brisk. Good times.

Housing Vital Signs 2007

We shared our Rotary meeting this morning with special guests. We did see most of the aldermanic candidates, as well as Mayoral candidate Bill Cocks. That was nice, but not the special guests i was referring... no, the special guests were from throughout the community, all in attendance to hear first hand how the Medicine Hat & Southeastern Alberta Community Foundation would release their Medicine Hat Vital Signs 2007 Report. (The breakfast was good, as always)

The sub heading Housing within the report had, among other things, this to say;

"Alberta has seen a 19% increase in multiple family residential building starts between 2005 and 2006. In Medicine Hat the number of similar housing starts in 2006 was 545, an increase of 43% from 2005. "

It is good to know that CCL has played a significant part in providing the multi-family answer to the housing continuum right here in Medicine Hat.

P4AH

Blogging has been non existent again this week. i was out of town, attending the Partnerships for Affordable Housing forum in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

House Ownership All Time High

Nationally & Provincially we are on the right path. The right track, as it were. This is relatively good news;

"Figures from the 2006 census, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, show that more than two-thirds - 68.4 per cent - of all Canadian households owned the place they lived in, the highest since this information was first collected in 1961." - Canada's home-ownership highest level on record: Report on Business - Globe & Mail.

This is a big reason why we do what we do; why i do what i do. - Classic Communities - Attainable Ownership.

Kenya's Kibera Kid for President

Dare to dream, and when you do; Dream Big!

"A new film set in Africa's largest slum Kibera - often associated with poverty and crime - hopes to shatter its negative stereotypes.

Kibera lies just outside the heart of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and is home to more than 1m people...

Fourteen-year-old Ignatius Juma, who plays Otieno, has taken to his new-found stardom with ease.

"I am very happy because I am the first person from Kibera to succeed in acting," he says.

"For me it is easy because I also act in school... Now, I am used to being treated like a star."

The film has awakened his dreams of making it big as an international film star.

Unless, he says, he succeeds in his first ambition to become Kenya's president.' - BBC News - Africa

Read the entire article.

This 12 minute movie is a part of an interesting project by US film maker Collett:

"We're not interested in giving people money; we are imparting knowledge and giving them an opportunity to do it themselves."

Hot Sun Films was inspired by and borrows its name from Kenya's informal jua kali industry.

In Kiswahili jua kali means hot sun and refers to crafts people who make their merchandise on the streets, rather than in a factory setting." - Hot Sun Films

Collett has done touching journalism focused on people of Kenya that will challenge you... human interest caught in the slums of Kibera. This will wrench your heart and may change you... to say the least.

Alberta Housing Advantage ;)

" About 10 condominium projects are going up... and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops," - Breitbart.com

Heh.

With Classic Communities we also include granite countertops in all of our condo's. In Medicine Hat those (1000+ square feet)condo's are selling for $200,000 and less.

I guess the market in Tuscaloosa is just that rich.

NIMBY

Not In My Back Yard. - Wikipedia definition

When change, however minor or reasonable... even necessary is proposed to a residential neighborhood, NIMBY will likely rear it's ugly, garish and selfish head. As has recently happened over in the UK;

"Residents' association chairman Malcolm Webb, a 58-year-old oil executive, denied residents were 'nimbys'.

"This is just the wrong place and the wrong property," he said." - Daily Mail UK

Human nature can be so disappointing.

Keeping up with Mukesh

Like me, i'm sure you've read, or heard about more and more families changing pace. Selling their homes in Alberta, and moving east. Maybe to Saskatchewan which is advertising pretty heavy in Alberta that their quality of life is better. Often tho, folks move farther east, out to the east coast. Good friends joined us for dinner tonight, in two weeks they will be in their new home in New Brunswick. They showed pictures, what a house (an acreage on the water). I can't say i'm not tempted with the concept myself... (property values are pretty reasonable, especially compared to Alberta's hot market.

Mind you, this next link is just a tad excessive... or freaking excessive, depending on how you are scoring at home.

"This 60-storey house is for just one family.

India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is planning a palace in the heart of Mumbai with helipad, health club, hanging gardens and six floors of car parking. "

In the middle of all of this jibber-jabber about housing and affordability... i present to you, the utmost in NON affordable housing... not even attainable.



"Construction has already started on what will eventually be a 175m tower and planners are aiming to complete it in September 2008.

Earlier this year, Forbes rated Mr Ambani as the richest resident Indian with a net worth of US$20.1 billion.

He came 14th in Forbes' 2007 worldwide rankings. "