Planners Part 1 -  Rob Armstrong, Director of Planning and Building Services, Municipality of Meaford

Rob told us that Meaford has adopted urban design standards, and a Heritage Conservation District Plan.  Year-to-date building stats are down over last year (2010.)  The Health Unit is getting out of the business of septic approvals – now application must be made to the Municipality.

The consolidated zoning by-law and related maps are all online now on the Meaford website, as well as other important documents such as their Official Plan and a Development Summary complete with interactive maps.

When summarizing current development activity, Rob mentioned:

Meaford Haven – with 400+ residential units, a senior’s home and a commercial component, this is the largest development in Meaford’s history.

Meaford Highlands Resort – 350 acres on the 3^rd line which is in preconsultation stage.

Meaford Legion Development – 4 storey building with 3 levels of units plus the legion – zoning has been approved – expected to proceed in 2012

Gates of Kent – another 30 units will be built

Downtown – 2 major intensification projects are being considered 

Wind Turbines: 

• MinnieHill – application for single turbine has been withdrawn. 
• Silcote Corners – near the tank range in Meaford – this is still an active file, but it is on hold a the moment as the FIT application has not yet been approved.

• Check out the Ice Sculpture Festival from December 27 – 31 in Downtown Collingwood  PS.  There is free parking Downtown now until January 1st, 2012

• Go Bowling in Collingwood or Meaford

• Rewind and rejuvenate at the Scandinave Spa

• Try out the new Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster at Blue

• Go to an arcade in Creemore

• Go skating of course!

• Head on Over to Rounds Ranch Pardner!

• Play Paintball or Laser Tag in Wasaga Beach

If by some miracle the snow should decide to fall, here are a few more ideas:

• How about a snowshoe tour?  

• Cross-country, snowshoe or hike along the trails and across the suspension bridge at  Scenic Caves 

• Rent a snowmobile for an hour or a day

• Take the family Dog Sledding in Rob Roy!

Do you have some favourite ideas to share?  Please add your comments and let everyone else know too.

The building is also now home to The Market which offers an excellent selection of goods grown or produced within 100 miles of Meaford.  The market was previously located in downtown Meaford but with its new location and owners, the business has the opportunity to expand which is very good news indeed.

On a recent visit, I was able to buy some delicious raw honey produced by a local apiary. I got the most wonderful Kamut pitas by baker, Vitold Kreutzer, some organic veggies, red lentil pasta and a hand-made hummingbird feeder made by a retired farmer who happened to walk into the store while I was there.

The market carries fresh bread and eggs, as well as fresh fish, beef, pork, chicken.elk and bison meat as well as prepared meals.  They carry local jams, honey, maple syrup, pickles, chutneys, salsa, pasta sauce, pasta. Dairy products include goat and sheep cheese, goat milk, goat and sheep yogurt, and organic milk, ice cream, butter, cottage cheese and yogurt. You’ll also find a wide variety of flours, beans, rice, quinoa, cereals, baking supplies, tea, locally roasted Ashanti coffee, sauces and many other common pantry and grocery items.

The Market is open Wednesday to Sunday. Maybe we’ll see you there.

This quaint market is located on Highway 26 just east of Meaford.  It has been in business for over fifty years and offers some of the best home baking you can find.  For the pies, all the ingredients; apples, berries and rhubarb, are grown on their farm or on neighbouring farms.  In general, they say that almost everything they sell is locally grown, produced, baked or crafted.

Grandma Lambes carries fresh vegetables, jams, eggs, cider, maple syrup and a good selection of diabetic pies too.  They have lots of crafts and giftware as well.

Observations for the month of July:

• For the first time since February 2011, sales for the month were up over 2010 levels with 9% more sales (175 versus 160 in July 2010)
• All of the gain was in the Town of Collingwood where the number of sales were up 15.1% over July 2010.  Meaford continues to struggle this year with sales down 24% and in Grey Highlands, they wer down 19%.  All other areas were down less than 5%.
• The 12 month average residential sale price was up in each area of the Georgian Triangle by 5-10% over this time last year
• The number of new listings for the month was up 12% over July 2010 while the number of expired listings were down by 2%
• Of the 175 sales posted in July, 145 were residential sales with 70 being priced from $150,000 – $249,999, 51 from $250,000 – $499,999 and 15 were over $500,000.
• The YTD sales to listing ratio is strongest in Collingwood at 45% suggesting reasonably balanced market conditions
• The average residential sale price, YTD in the Georgian Triangle was $321,726.
• At the end of the month, there were 2525 active listings for sale.

The chart below shows Year To Date data for all areas included in the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board Area. 

I don’t really know why because it is one heck of a pretty little Town.  It surely has one of the nicest trail systems in the area and the best waterfront access of any community in South Georgian Bay.  Driving in from the east, you cross a bridge over the Bighead River and view Georgian Bay straight ahead.  I think it is a challenging location caught between Blue Mountain and Owen Sound but, it has its own hospital, library and a wide range of services and goods available in the town.  I think it simply lacks confidence.

A proposed new development called Meaford Haven is being planned for the west end tucked between Highway 26 on the north and the Meaford Golf and Country Club to the south.  It includes plans for up to 400 units of  mixed-use housing including bungalows, apartments, condominiums, assisted living/long-term care units and a commercial component including health centre and recreation facilities.  (I hope their cheesy website is not any indication of their abilities.)

According to the planning report filed by the developers, Meaford Haven “anticipates a planned community providing a variety of accommodation types, set in an secure and safe integrated gated neighbourhood that includes trails, open space, natural corridors and community facilities.”  Hmmm.  Did that say gated?  (Note to developer:  Gates are not a popular notion in these parts.)

You can find the planning reports and read the details on both the Grey County website and Town website or have a look at that draft plan of lay-out here. 

Maybe my Uncle will finally be right?  Only time will tell.

Update June 15, 2011:  Shortly after this post appeared, I got an email from the developer of this project asking for my reasons for calling their website cheesy and asking for input.  Which of course I gave.  A week later, they sent an email to me detailing the changes they were making and the discussions my comments had provoked within their team.  I have to say I’m very impressed and, as I said to them, if they put the same care and attention into their development as they have into following up on my little blog post, then they are sure to do a great job.  Kudos to them.

Here we are with a whole new year ahead and the best way to make sense of it is to look back.  I’ve done some number crunching and charting based on data from the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board MLS® system for our review.  First a reminder; statistics can be deceiving as extreme highs or lows quickly shift average values and relatively small sampling sizes mislead us however, they are an indicator worth examining to get a general sense of where the market is at.

Below is a chart summarizing sales activity and prices in the 6 key market areas of the Georgian Triangle.  This year, I decided to add in a couple of variables to show you how data quickly changes when these are applied.  In one scenario, I’ve shown you the overall average, single family home sale price for a community.  Note, this is an average, not a median price.  Our real estate board only captures the average price data.  Secondly, I’ve shown you how the figures change when values below $100,000 or over $1,000,000 are taken out of the equation.  Thirdly, I’ve shown you what happens when we only look at properties under ½ an acre in size which often are more concentrated in-town versus rural. 

Here is another telling chart which shows you the number of sales in the Georgian Triangle over-all in various price bands this year compared to last.

COMMENTS:
You can see that the number of sales of properties priced below $250,000 has declined whereas every single price band over than has increased.  I would suggest this is a reflection of reduced supply and higher property values as opposed to pure demand.

The most active price ranges were from $150,000 to $300,000 representing 52% of all sales.

Almost 10% of total sales were priced over $500,000 which we would refer to the upper tier in our market.  The number of properties sold in this category increased by almost 45% over the previous year reflecting the trend we saw in urban centres where high-priced properties continued to sell through-out the year.

As of December 31st, there were 1592 active listing on the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board MLS® system – almost exactly the same as 2009.

TRENDS:
While the total number of listings and sales were higher at the end of 2010 then they were in 2009, most of these increases occurred between January- May.  In every month since then, the number of sales each month dropped below 2009 levels.  While sales levels have slowed, prices have not declined.  Speaking of prices, we cannot say for sure how values have changed over the last year because averages do not tell us that answer.  If I look at properties sold a year ago, I would say the values are relatively the same.  There are pockets where we’ve seen increases however, on average, prices do not seem to have increased in a significant sense and neither have they declined.

At the end of the year, the sales-to-listing ration (number of sales divided by the number of listings) was at 31.45% and just slightly below 2009 levels.  This means that roughly 1 in 3 properties sells.  (Don’t panic.  In boom times, the ration rarely rises above 52%).  Either way, there is some balance in the market giving buyers more time and choices while sellers need to be competitive in order to realize a sale.

So what can we expect for 2011?  My guess is that it will mirror 2010 in almost every regard with continued stability favouring buyers somewhat, very small price increases and no big shocks or changes.  There is continued strength in the high-end market, we see continued interest from investors wanting to buy in our area and, we are seeing more and more newer Canadians who have immigrated in the last decade now discovering the beautiful area we call home here in Southern Georgian Bay.  I am however, watching  the price of oil and the strong value of our dollar with some concern.  Our recovery is tenuous.  There is a need to increase interest rates and a misstep by the Bank of Canada in this area could trigger a decline in sales levels.  So far, they’ve walked the perfect line it seems and if that continues, together with continued recovery in other North American markets, we should expect a stable year ahead.

Collingwood Arts & Culture Calendar
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Blue Mountain Resort and Village
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Have You Started Your Shopping Yet? I hope we will all make a special effort to support our local merchants in each of our wonderful towns in south Georgian Bay.

Collingwood merchants and mycollingwood.ca have also teamed up for a unique Christmas promotion:  Get Your Stocking Stuffed Downtown.  Check out the great offerings and online magazine.

This interesting little boutique winery and vineyard started in 1999 when owners Neil and Gwen Lamont experimented with planting their first rows of cold climate grapes.  The results were excellent and since then, the vineyard has grown and been carefully tended using sustainable viticultural methods with no insecticide use.  The resulting grapes have yielded award winning wines in recent years.

A visit to Coffin Ridge is a perfect way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon this fall.  We first enjoyed a wine tasting with a flight of three wines.  We selected our favourites and then each ordered a glass along with an artisanal cheese plate.  We sat outside overlooking the valley while enjoying the exquisite meld of flavours presented and I couldn’t help but think, it just doesn’t get better than this!

The number of properties sold in the area so far this year is up 28% over last year however sales for the month of June, with 197 unit sales, were down 4% compared to one year ago, reversing the trend of the past few months. There were 503 new listings last month; down 10% from one year ago causing tighter market conditions balanced by moderated demand helping to keep market conditions in balance.

The most active price range for residential properties sold in June was $150,000 – $249,999 (66 sales) followed by $250,000 – $349,999 with these representing 67% of all residential sales in June.  A significant item of note is that the sale of properties valued in excess of $500,000 is up dramatically YTD with 90 sales compared to just 41 in the same period last year.  There have been 7 sales this year over $1.5 million versus just 1 last year at this time.  We are seeing more and more properties listed and sold over the $2 million mark.  Amazing.

The 12 month, average residential sale prices year-to-date are up in all of our major markets this year.  Despite this, we are still experiencing sales-to-listing ratios in the buyer’s market territory and there is a growing sense that we are seeing early signs of some softening in the market.  For example, homes in-town Collingwood priced under $250,000 flew out the door a few months ago and many with competing offers.  Today, they are staying on the market longer and selling in most cases, below the asking prices. Nonetheless, the 12 month average, residential sale price in the Georgian Triangle is up 11.2% over 2009 and 9% from 2007 record levels.

Here is how the 6 key areas in the Georgian Triangle performed last month:

The condominium market has continued to do well with 167 sales year-to-date; well ahead of the 115 sales by June 2009 and even above the 154 sales in the first 6 months of 2007 record year. The average sale price of condos sold this year has been about $226,550 (compared to $198,000 at this time last year).  In June alone, there were 27 condominium sales with an average price of $203,440. We have also seen a significant increase in the sales of vacant land 83 parcels sold YTD at an average sale price of $180,570.

There are currently 2412 active listings on the market in the Georgian Triangle with 1683 residential units, 151 farms, 472 vacant land listings and 106 commercial properties available.

All information was obtained from the MLS® statistics provided by the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board