Season’s Greetings
Dear Newsletter Subscriber:
The holiday season offers us a special opportunity to extend our personal thanks to our friends, and our very best wishes for the future. It has been an amazing year. Volumes continue to be way up. The industry seems to be exploding at the seams. Our office is currently searching for people to join our team.
Below is an interesting article showing how the ripple effect works around the major centers.
Small towns—attractive to buyers
About a moth ago, I was part of a group to be the first to play the new Desert Blume golf course in Medicine Hat. While the highlight of the day, something else on the journey caught my attention—the little town of Strathmore.
Not so little anymore. Strathmore is about 40 km east of Calgary and the amount of new home building is very impressive. I had to wonder—who is buying the homes?
I got the answer from Steve Seiler, sales and marketing director for Homestead Homes, which has been building in Strathmore for a little more a year. “About 90 percent of the traffic through our show home is from Calgary,” says Seiler.
The idea that people working in Calgary have no misgivings about commuting from Strathmore everyday is foreign to long-time Calgarians; myself included, but is indicative of the many changes we have seen in our city this year.
People are looking further afield for their homes and builders and developers are looking further down then road to a accommodate them.
Case in point—Calgary’s United Communities has opened The Ranch in Strathmore, with homes being built by Lifestyle Homes, Excel Homes and the Partners Group.
Northwest of Strathmore, the lake of Muirfield, a golf course community if about 650 homes, is taking shape, says project manager Jimmy Souza.
“Our welcome centre should open in mid November, then we’ll invite people up for a tour to what have,” says Souza. South of Calgary, Dundee Developments recently introduced Montrose a new community on the southeast side of High River, which is also about 40 km from the city. Dundee’s vice-president of land, Mike Cowie, isn’t concerned about the distance. “We thought about the commute time, but it’s only 20 minutes from the south side of Calgary and 40 minutes to downtown,” says Cowie.
“We think Montrose will be a real attraction for people working in the south end of the city.” To the west Canmore, thought more of a weekend retreat in the past, is seeing more and more people up full time residence and traveling the roughly 200 km round trip to Calgary, says the Swan Group’s Mike Butt. “Canmore is not just a weekend destination anymore,” says Butt, who is z Canmore resident with an office in Calgary. “We have buyers lined up who work in Calgary but want to live Homestead’s Seiler.
“Strathmore still has the small-town feel,” says Seiler. “Plus, you get more bang for your buck out here and bigger lots. We have 50 foot-wide lots, which is a real drawing feature.” Even though Seiler says 90% of this showhome traffic is by Calgarians, my is they are relatively new Calgarians, who have experiences commutes much longer than 40 or 45 minutes.
I spoke recently with gentlemen who moved to Calgary from Peterborough—his office was on Bay and Bloor in downtown Toronto. The commute time, on a good day, was an hour and a half each way. “You guys don’t know anything about traffic,” was his comment.
With migration to Calgary forecast to continue at the rate of 25000 people per year, look for these and other outlying communities to carry some of the weight of that growth.
(December 6, 2006)
Today’s ProLink Interest Rates on First Mortgages are as follows:
Rates are subject to change without notice.
| Description | ProLink Rate |
|---|---|
| 6 Month Closed | 6.10% |
| 1 Year Closed | 5.50% |
| 2 Year Closed | 5.35% |
| 3 Year Closed | 5.29% |
| 4 Year Closed | 5.30% |
| 5 Year Closed | 5.10% |
| 7 Year Closed | 5.48% |
| 10 Year Closed | 5.69% |
| 15 Year Closed | 6.09% |
| 25 Year Closed | 6.28% |
I trust this information will come in handy and help you to stay informed.
I will continue to update you on the Market and where things are going.
One Small Saving on your Interest Rate will be worth Thousands! in the Long Term.
Feel Free to call anytime…
Regards,
Dan Heon
ProLink Mortgage Inc.
Phone: Calgary 403-257-1801
Phone: Edmonton 780-701-7100
Fax: 403-206-7622
Toll Free: 1-888-281-0111
Email: ProLink@telus.net
The best way to thank your Mortgage Broker is tell others about your Savings and Service.
