At the Crossroads of Downtown, the Plateau and the Village

Just listed!  Here's a spacious two-bedroom condo on the second floor of a classic, stonefronted Montreal six-plex.

1662 Sherbrooke St. East faces beautiful Lafontaine Park, the beating green heart of the Plateau Mont-Royal and a paradise for joggers, cyclists, and sun bathers.

The building dates from 1923. The ground floor is occupied by an accounting firm. They keep 9-5, Monday to Friday hours, which is just the kind of neighbors we all wish we had. No loud parties on the weekends. And no complaints about your loud parties on the weekends.

The condo features two good-sized bedrooms, separated from one another by the bathroom. The living room is at the front. The nicely renovated open-concept kitchen and dining room are at the back, with a large and comfortable back balcony perfect for lazy summer evenings.

The condo also has a private garage with automatic door.  Park your car until the weekend. With a Walkscore of 92,  all the daily conveniences are within a few blocks. STM bus 24 goes right by the door and will whisk you to Sherbrooke metro, or downtown straight along Sherbrooke St. Access to Highway 720 and the Jacques Cartier bridge are super quick.

 The asking price for this condominium is $369,000. Taxes are $2,853 annually. Condo fees, paid quarterly are $1,700.

Give me a call if you would like to visit!

Mary Lamey
Century 21
514 978-6522

A Limited Time Offer on a Plateau Cottage - 4168 Henri-Julien

Yours for $645,000.

The renovated Plateau cottage was stripped and redone in 2009. The result, a big comfortable family home that combines old-school Plateau cachet and contemporary design.

With more than 2,000 square feet of living space, there's plenty of room to manoeuvre, whatever your lifestyle. The ground floor has high ceilings, a double living room and huge eat-in kitchen with a custom island ideal for cooking, eating or hanging out. There's a four-season sunroom off the kitche with windows onto the intimate backyard, where sunlight pours through for much of the day. The unfinished basement is ideal for storage.

Upstairs you'll find three big bedrooms, one with a door leading to a deck-ready roof. The bathroom is big enough to hold a barn dance, if that's your thing.  There's a huge soaker tub and a walk-in shower.

The vendors have dropped the price to $645,000 but that is a limited time offer. If the property is not sold before summer, the house is coming off the market. Make your move.



http://www.century21.ca/mary.lamey/Property/QC/H2W_2K3/Montreal/4168_Av_Henri-Julien

A House for You Where Mile End and Plateau Merge. Explosions of Creativity and Wow Ensue!

 Bye-bye condo fees. Hello your own sweet two-storey home in a very cool neighborhood. 5556-5558 Casgrain is a former duplex converted into a 2- or 3-bedroom with two full baths.

 It features a front living room with a passage to the dining room. A full bathroom with shower separates the two. There's a large open kitchen with concrete-topped counter and breakfast bar. The kitchen has windows on two sides for maximum light.

The dining room is an equally bright and inviting space and is steps away from the back door that leads to a spacious wooden deck with seating for at least eight, planters of flowers, vines and trees. Perfect for summer lounging and dining. There's protected bike storage and up a ladder, a wee playhouse for a kid or maybe the neighborhood raccoon.

Upstairs you will find a master bedroom at the front of the house. There are no bedroom closets, as is often the case with places built around about the turn of the 20th century. To compensate, the current occupants set up a dressing area in a corner at the top of the stairs. There's an oversized armoire and a chest of drawers. The armoire is staying for the next owner.

 There's a second full bath with a deep tub. The guest room is a quirky space with a window onto the porch and another onto the bathroom. The office was once a closed third bedroom with a door to a small porch. It would be easy to put the wall back up, if a third bedroom is necessary.

Twenty years ago the area south of Mont-Royal Ave between Papineau and Drolet was the be-all and the end-all of Plateau living. That's where the fashionable people of the late 1980s dug in and that's where prices quickly climbed beyond the reach of ordinary buyers.

For every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Young, creative types began to migrate north to the ungentrified industrial area just east of St-Laurent, between Maguire and the CP tracks. Ubisoft, the French video game maker, led the parade by setting up shop in the Peck building at the corner of St-Laurent and St-Viateur.

That influx of young creative types was just the encouragement the neighborhood needed. Soon enough, there was an explosion of cafés and boutiques. The old garment factories of de Gaspe Ave. and Casgrain St. became hives for start-ups making everything from jams to custom furniture.

Today, this as yet unnamed corner of Mile End, is where it is at creatively. Le Champ des Possibles, a community-created biodiversity park on former CP Rail land, perfectly exemplifies the area's spirit. It has given birth to Le Marché des Possibles, an outdoor summer market with artisanal goods, fresh produce and free cultural programming.(Just up the street from 5556 Casgrain). Pop Montreal, the annual indie music fest, hosts shows, symposia, screenings and art exhibits all over the area throughout the year. Let's not forget Montreal Roller Derby, headquartered in the St-Louis Arena! Let's not forget Bain St-Michel, once the area's community bathhouse/swimming pool and now an art and theatre space.

La Panthère Verte for the vegans, Magpie for the old-school 'zza, and Café District for the java. None of it is more than a two-minute walk from your front door. And if you don't mind crossing the Main, the best bagels in Montreal.

The asking price for 5556 Casgrain is $523,000. The owner has lived in the house for five years and has put good money into the bricks, the chimney, ventilation and the crawl space.The roof was redone in 2010.

All in all, a pretty sweet place, for a couple, family or a singleton looking for a house of their own.

You can see the complete listing here.

Two Bedrooms, Elegant Architecture and an Oasis of Green, Facing Jeanne-Mance Park

The courtyard, an oasis in the city.

 If you've ever walked past the tennis courts in Jeanne Mance Park, chances are you've noticed Chateau Esplanade, the yellow brick complex directly across Esplanade Ave.  The Chateau, built circa 1915, makes a statement with its dark-stained and arched wood windows and doors, elaborate exterior staircases and elegant courtyards. These are not cookie-cutter condos.

View from the courtyard towards the street and beyond that Jeanne-Mance Park.

 Amy Barratt and I have just listed  Apt. 3 at 4433 av de l'Esplande, a two-bedroom condo with a balcony onto the lovely courtyard. The asking price is $325,000. The monthly condo fees are $158 . Taxes, combined are $2576.

The combined living and dining room.

 There are only two condos per floor in 4433 Esplanade. This unit has two good-sized bedrooms at opposite ends of the apartment, for maximum privacy. The master bedroom is on the courtyard side of the building, with a balcony overlooking the trees and flowers. The second bedroom has a window on St. Urban St.

Second bedroom, now used as an office.

Master bedroom with balcony.

The kitchen is an enclosed galley style, with a pass-through and breakfast bar. The refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer are included.

Kitchen with pass-through and breakfast bar.

Among the features of the Chateau Esplanade, are a communal bike storage room, very large individual lockers, a building sauna and a party or meeting room.

Esplanade and Mont-Royal is an ideal Plateau location. Jeanne-Mance Park, with its tennis courts, soccer fields and open spaces, is directly across the street. The mountain is just beyond that. Every shop and service one could need - grocery store, pharmacy, SAQ, coffee shop, bakery or bank, is located within a three-uminte walk. 

Public transit could not be more simple, with buses on the corners of Park Ave., St. Urban, St. Laurent and Mont-Royal. The Mont-Royal metro station is a short bus ride or 10-minute walk away.

All in all, this condo has everything an urban sophisticate could want - including a little oasis of green when it is time to retreat from the hubbub of Montreal's most vibrant neighborhood.

Call or text me to arrange a visit. Or check the listing on my website: marylamey.com

Making Space Count

I visited a condo on the top floor of a Plateau triplex with a client today. It was a fascinating experience. The condo was a good 1,100 square feet of living space, not at all shabby by Plateau standards. It had good light, two good balconies and up to date plumbing, electrical and a new roof.

And yet...

There was something definitely off about this particular condo. The space was weirdly used. The owner, who had lived there for 25 years, had converted it from a three-bedroom into a two-bedroom but she'd done it in such a way that the place seemed cramped. How do you knock out a bedroom and make a place feel smaller?

The owner, une dame d'un certain age, was European and she'd done some peculiar things to the place, like adding a sauna where part of the south-facing kitchen should have been. Instead of a nice eat-in kitchen with windows on two sides, she had a  narrow galley kitchen. Oh yeah, there was no oven. Correction, there was an oven, the kind that is usually set into the wall, but it was sitting on the floor and was being used as a makeshift table, with a tablecloth draped over it.

Instead of yer basic Whirpool or Kenmore, she had a Super Wave Oven, a gizmo that looked like a popcorn popper or inverted crockpot. You will be surprised to learn that it is sold on TV and in the kind of catalog you find on long-haul international flights. Check out the video:

She assured us that she could cook an entire meal for a dinner party without a stove or oven. I was skeptical. More to the point, buyers are skeptical, too. Her condo has been on and off the market for three years. That tells me I'm not the only visitor who found the space weird and poorly concieved.

Semi-subterranean Homesick Blues

 Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal borough has implemented new rules that will sharply curtail the construction of semi-basement or "garden-level" condominiums. 

For the purposes of the bylaw, a garden-level condo is one in which 60 per cent of the living space is located below the level of the sidewalk. This housing type made huge inroads during the go-go construction boom that began in the late 1990s, as builders sought to maximize the number of units they could cram into their buildings while still respecting height limitations.

 In the Plateau, for example, that often meant that buildings could not be taller than the area's triplexes. One strategy might be to build a half storey below the ground, and three stories up, still within the height restriction and conveniently less than four floors.  Another benefit of building fewer than four stories and yet more than three was that Quebec's building code states that buildings with three floors can be built of wood frame, while those measure more than four must be made of poured concrete.

The problem was that a lot of these half basements were pokey and dark, with windows that let in little light and less air. At least, that's what a 2010 Plateau study seemed to indicate. Of 29 proposed  projects, 19 were to be built in high traffic areas where basement windows would offer little natural light, unappealing views and too much noise.

From now on, Plateau semi-basement condos will be permitted only on strictly residential streets and even then builders will have to ensure that windows are set back a minimum of 1.5 metres from the sidewalk. The space between the window and the sidewalk will have to be 60 per cent planted, not paved. Further, the setback from any parking area on the property will be a minimum of two metres.

In most cases, the new rules will mean that promoters will incorporate the semi-basements into their ground-floor units. It might even be that by tweaking the bylaws, the borough will help make the Plateau more attractive to families looking for homes with room for kids to live, sleep and play.

So far, the Plateau stands alone with these new rules, though the Sud-Ouest borough is said to be looking at them with interest. You can read more about it in La Presse.

New Listing. Two-Bedroom Condo, Drolet near Laurier

Looking for a Plateau condo with tons of upgrades, superior soundproofing and steps from the metro?
Check out my new listing at 5121 Drolet, apt. 202. 

This two-bedroom condo is found in a 2005 concrete building. Concrete means solid construction and superior soundproofing. Just what you need in a Plateau property.
The apartment is located on the first floor of a three storey building, a few steps up from ground level. There's a balcony off the front and a second balcony/fire escape at the back. There are 8 units, two per floor,including two semi-basements.

The layout features an open living and dining area with big windows, a brick accent wall in the dining room and accent lighting.There are built-in speakers for the flat-screen TV. It has a wall-mounted air conditioner and an air exchange system.
The open galley kitchen has plenty of counter space, dark wood cabinets, a combined microwave oven and kitchen fan and a garburator.

Both bedrooms are to the back, one with the aforementioned balcony, the second with two good-sized windows. Both have large closets.
The bathroom is huge, with a corner tub and separate shower. Stackable washer and dryer are in a closet in the hallway just outside the bathroom door.

The condo has exotic hardwood floors, finished in a warm reddish brown. The place is impeccably clean.
Condo fees are $100 a month and there is a healthy $19,000 in the reserve fund. No big projects are on the horizon.
5121 Drolet is located just north on Laurier and one block west of St. Denis St. The Laurier metro is a two-minute walk. Drolet is a one-way south street with very little through traffic. Laurier is a one-way east, with a bike path that serves to calm traffic. All in all, a very quiet corner of the Plateau.
The asking price is $327,000.
The property can be sold furnished or unfurnished.

Plateau Duplex, Ready for Its 2nd Act. $387,000

UPDATE  We sold this duplex in less than a week for four per cent over the asking price. (You do the math.) Our vendor is delighted.


 Amy Barratt and I are about to list a duplex on Hotel de Ville Ave. just south of St. Josph Blvd. The property consists of a two-bedroom apartment that occupies the ground floor and second floor of the building. The third storey is a one-bedroom apartment.

The entire building will be available to the buyer.

The asking price is $387,000, which corresponds to the building's municipal evaluation. At that price, you understand that this is a building that requires some renovation, including a new roof, wiring, plumbing and probably interior finishes.

The current owner has had it for 15 years and has happily inhabited the third floor while renting out the larger apartment to tenants.

This building occupies more than 90 per cent of its lot. There is no yard of any kind.

This would be a kick-ass project for someone wanting to create a three-storey townhouse with a roof terrasse. It could also be reconverted into three-smaller apartments. If you've got the skills and the time or the money and the vision, there's no limit to what you might be able to do.

Give me a call at (514) 978-6522 to find out more or to book a visit.

The property will be listed on the MLS just as soon as I can data enter all the information. Probably tomorrow or Thursday, March 7, latest.

Exterior view. The property is the left side of these twin buildings.

View from the third-floor balcony.

Street view.

View of the corner of Hotel de Ville and St. Joseph.

A Little House in Little Portugal

4255 Hôtel-de-Ville. Asking price $439,000

I've just hammered the sign in front of this sweet little cottage on Hôtel-de-Ville Ave. north of Rachel St in the heart of Little Portugal.

There's so much to like about life in this part of the Plateau. Location, for one.The bright lights of St. Laurent are four blocks west. The brighter, possibly more elegant lights of St. Denis are four blocks east. Duluth St. with its BYOB restos is a block south and Mont Royal Ave in all its hemp-covered, tam-tam jamming glory, is two blocks north.

You can stand at the corner of HdeV and Rachel and gaze upon the mountain. It's prime dog-walking, bike-riding, cross-country skiing and jogging territory. Skating on the serpentine lake at Parc Lafontaine is another option in winter.

All this, and more can be yours for the price of $439,000. What does that get you? It gets you a house lovingly renovated from roof-top to foundation. The current owner bought a wreck in 2006 and spent the next few years making things right.

People go nuts for decor, but let me tell you, there's nothing more exciting than a Plateau house with a waterproof membrane and functioning  French drain. I kid you not. He also did the roof and installed  energy-efficient windows and doors.  He had the place energy audited after the renos were complete and got a clean bill of health. This house is as energy efficient as a new Novoclimat certified home. Not too shabby, considering it was built in 1885.

This is a two-bedroom house with a bright living room, as well as a roomy and functional kitchen with new Shaker style cabinets. There's bedroom or office off the kitchen, plus a powder room with washer/dryer hook-up. Access to the large fenced yard is through the kitchen.

The upstairs is essentially loft style, with the large master bedroom at the front and a second open room that could be closed to create another bedroom. There's a balcony off the back. The upstairs bathroom is large and fully renovated.

The seller installed new plumbing and wiring. He's a sound engineer who used the downstairs for recording and basically lived upstairs. He insulated and soundproofed the building to a fare-theee-well so that the neighbors would never be bothered by the strains of late-night thrash metal.
In all, there's 1,050 square feet of living space. It would be the perfect size for a couple or single person working at home.  Do you know anyone looking for a Plateau pied à terre? Have them give me a call.

This one won't last long. Here's the listing.

Living room

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Just Listed - Mile End Condo. Charm + Space + Location

 Are you looking for a condo that exemplifies everything people love about charming, funky Mile End? Look no further. This gorgeous two-bedroom corner unit has more than 1,100-square feet of living space, a large private deck, basement storage and shared use of the back yard. Asking price is $385,000.

It's the ground floor of a red brick triplex located on Clark just south of Laurier Ave. There's a bike path outside the front door, a Bixi bike stand on the corner as well as all the shops, restos and services your heart could ever desire.

Inside, you'll find all the charm typical of a 1910 building: high ceilings, elaborate wedding-cake plasterwork, cast-iron radiators, vintage suspended light fiixtures,  high wooden kitchen cabinetry and beautifully weathered wood floors.

Charm will take you so far in life. This condo has benefitted from quality upgrades, including all new plumbing and electrical (2004), new argon-gas filled windows and the installation of a high-efficiency Veissman gas furnace that keep those radiators toasty warm in winter.

Unlike many of the apartments offered in Mile End, this is a divided condo, meaning that the down payment required is a minimum five per cent, not 20 per cent.

There's lots more to love about this place. It currently has one closed bedroom but also has two double rooms, one of which could easily be converted into two more bedrooms.  Or you can enjoy the open, airy layout as is.

The recently renovated bathroom has an exposed brick wall, white subway tile accented by a strip of red and brown floral tile in the tub and dark brown wooden cabinets. Very zen!

The kitchen has a door leading to the private deck and shared yard where a sour cherry tree produces huge quantities of ruby red fruit each summer.

Library

Living room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Would you like to know more? Drop by our open house at 5048 Clark, Sunday, November 14, 2010 between 2- 4 p.m.

Verdun Eco Condos Plaguued By Delays

Phase I is completed, Phase II, hoarding and a patch of dirt.

  Gazette real estate reporter Alison Lampert has dug into the story of Eco Cité' Development's award-winning but oft-delayed Abondance Montréal eco condos in Verdun.
I blogged about the development after taking a tour of Phase I of the project this summer.  The three-unit building, dubbed Le Soleil, has innovative features like solar panels, geothermal heating and gray-water recuperation systems.
For now, there are few signs of life  on the site of Phase II,  right next door on La Salle Blvd. The day that I toured Le Soleil, EcoCité's principal, Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes said the second phase of the project, La Terre, would be ready in January, 2011.
Lampert delves into some of the delays here. She also has a sidebar outlining financial difficulties that  scuppered Eco Cité projects on the Plateau and in Ottawa and may have cost buyers some of their deposits.

If These Walls Could Talk

Here we have the outside and inside view of a century-old Plateau house I recently sold. The interior photo is of the front bedroom, which is to say the two upstairs windows seen in the exterior shot.
Yup, it is the fixer-upper of all fixer-uppers. Beautiful brick, though!
The buyers took possession of the property on September 17 at about 6 p.m. At 8 o'clock the next morning, the wrecking crew had already begun to tear the insides out. It looks like they'll be at it until Christmas, or, possibly mid-January.
Every house has a story, but this one has a capital "S" story.
The previous owners bought the solid brick cottage from a widow in 1984. That was back in the pre-sushi shop and soy latté days of the Plateau when streets like Laval, Henri-Julien and Hôtel-de-Ville were inhabited by shmata workers, bakers, plumbers and others from the labouring classes.
The vendors shared a bit of local folklore with me. The woman from whom their parents purchased the house was the widow of a well-known local gangster. As one of them put it, "He was a crook. His brother was a crook, his uncle was a crook. They were all professional crooks."
The man, Monsieur Galipeau, came to a sudden end in the early 1980s, not at home but on his way to his mistress's apartment.
The widow Galipeau sold the house for about what an indoor garage would cost in one of the Plateau's sleek converted loft buildings. We're talking $24,000. She was glad to be rid of the drafty old house.
Soon after they took possession in 1984, the new owners got a visit from Monsieur Galipeau's brother. He knew them from around the way and was stopping by to wish them well. Here's where it gets interesting.
"You should check carefully," he told the owners. "I'm sure there's money in that house. My brother didn't believe in banks."
For 25 years, the family kept an eye out but they never found any money.
When their parents died within a short span of each other, the three now adult children debated keeping the house, still convinced one day they would find hidden treasure. They made last-ditch attempts, punching holes in the walls here and there and ripping out ceiling panels in a couple of rooms. They even had a session with a Ouija board which led them to rent a jack hammer and break up a corner of the concrete basement floor. Nothing. No money. No guns. No gold. No dead bodies.
As they handed over the keys at the notary's office, the vendors looked a little wistful. "We're sure you're going to find something."
Nearly a month into the renovation job, the only secret my buyers have uncovered is generalized floor rot in the downstairs bathroom. Pretty much every room has been stripped from ceiling to floor. So far, no money, no guns, no gold. Happily, no dead bodies.
They bought the house because it is smack-dab in the epicenter of their preferred neighborhood. Their son attends kindergarten half a block up the street. For the same money, they probably could have gotten a three-bedroom condo in a triplex but it would most likely have been a second or third floor, less space, much less privacy.
Instead, they've purchased a three-bedroom, two-story house, with 2.000-square-feet of living space, 10-foot-ceilings, a back yard and a dry basement for storage. Sure, they'll be coughing up plaster dust for months to come, but the house is going to be spectacular. And, if they play it right, they'll dine out on the story of Monsieur Galipeau for years to come.

On Volunteering, Bluffing and Pie

Habitat for Humanity put out a call for volunteers last week, which is how I found myself bright-eyed a bushy-tailed outside a huge storefront on Notre-Dame St. W. in St-Henri at 8 o'clock in the blessed a.m. on Saturday.
I wasn't alone. About 15 volunteers and assorted HH crew leaders drifted in over the next half hour. Our task was to prime, paint the ceiling and put a top coat on the walls of what will soon be Habitat's new ReStore location.
ReStore is the retail end of Habitat for Humanity. It sells home improvement materiials donated by corporate partners. The biggest of these is Home Depot. Makes sense, since both organizations have roots in the region of Atlanta, Ga..
The goods were piled on pallets lining the walls of the store. From what I could see there were boxes of toilets and pedestal sinks, chandeliers, blinds and curtains, dented gallon cans of paint, small electric and hand tools, doors and windows. You get the idea.
The store, at 4399 Notre-Dame, near the corner of Ste-Marguerite, is tentatively scheduled to open on September 8. But first, the volunteer army has to get it ready.
We were led by a ridiculously handsome and charismatic man named Ernesto, whose main job was pointing us in a general direction and leaving us alone to work.
I grabbed a roller and a telescopic pole and, working with two others began laying a top coat of eggshell paint on the walls for six hours. Today, a little like John McCain, I am unable to raise my arms above my shoulders. Totally worth it, though. I'm not complaining.
The paint went on this institutional greyish beige, a shade I quickly came to think of as creme of field mouse soup. It was a vast improvement over the chalky white primer, but still. . . By the middle of the afternoon, it had dried to a warm off white, vellum or linen colour. Nice.
It was cool to see how all these volunteers, most of whom did not seem to know one another, went about getting the job done without anybody telling them how or what to do. Two women, strangers to each other, spent most of the day on a scaffold rolling paint onto the 20-foot ceilings. One said the experience gave her a new appreciation for Michelangelo. He spent seven years on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Had it been me, I would have applied a coat of eggshell and been done in an afternoon. I guess that's the big difference between me and the Renaissance's greatest artist.
By the end of the day, the ceiling was done, and the walls had a first coat of eggshell. The volunteers wrapped the rollers and paint brushes in plastic for the next day. Many of them were planning to be back again on Sunday to continue.

**********

My cell phone rang in the middle of the day. An agent was calling to tell me she had received an offer on a house two of my clients were planning to bid on. If we were still interested in the house, she needed our offer by 7 p.m. No pressure, eh?
I called Amy, my partner in all things including real estate. She phoned the clients and began to prepare the offer, filling in the Promise to Purchase, Annex A (financing) and Annex B (other conditions). Covered with paint, I finished my shift with HH at 4 p.m. Time to get home, shower, change and zip across town to the Plateau to meet the clients at 5:30, go over the offer, do the math one more time, sign all the documents in quadruplicate and then race to Pointe-Claire to present the offer to the other agent and her client at 7 p.m.
It's always a gamble when you learn there's another offer on the table. Is the agent bluffing or are you really in competition with someone else for this really interesting Plateau property? Do you make your best possible offer from the get-go, or do you try to to low ball in the hopes of getting it for less?
I was pretty sure the other agent was BS-ing me. It seemed unlikely that an 11-th hour buyer had materialized. I didn't blame her, she was doing what she had to do to get the best price for her client.
Still, I couldn't take a chance. The clients and I talked it over. We decided to come in $3,000 higher than the offer we had originally settled on. They were still well within their budget.
I met the agent and her client in a Rockaberry's pie shop. (!!!) After five minutes of pleasantries, we got down to business, including a spiel about what outstanding citizens my clients are, how much they love the house, how they plan to turn it into a happy home for their five-year-old boy.
Ten minutes later, after some phone consultation with family members, our offer was accepted.
Ding-ding-ding!! Jackpot! Winner-winner-chicken-dinner! It's the best part of being a real estate. When you get to phone your clients and say, "Congratulations, you have just purchased a home."
Only I didn't. Instead, I purchased a raspberry crumb pie (they mentioned it was a favorite) and drove back to the Plateau to give them the good news face to face.
There was hugging, dancing and jumping up and down. We had pie and milk, as I urged them to contact the building inspector ASAP and to double down on their bank to get the financing squared away. By 9 p.m., I was headed home. It was a full day, and like the raspberry pie, a pretty good one, no matter how you slice it.

L'Actualité Grapples with a "Big Picture Story". Story Gets Away.

L'Actualité magazine's cover story this week is all about Quebec real estate. The headline writer must have pulled a muscle stretching to come up with the headline; "How to profit from the crisis."
Sounds juicy, right? Except after reading the whole dang thing, I don't know what crisis they're talking about. Inside, the headline reads "Where are the deals? Condo or bungalow? In town or the suburbs? How to profit from an end of boom market."
It's partly a matter of scope, as the reporter veers from the big picture in Canada, to the meltdown in Detroit to the price of real estate on the Plateau. Nice work, but could you tell me what these have to do with each other? Real estate is local, even hyper local. Even if you draw the conclusion that prices on the Plateau are overheated and due for a correction, all you have to do is drive, bike or hop on the métro and travel 5 kilometres to find a neighborhood where prices are more affordable.
The one useful thing the mag provides is an online chart that shows the variation in average Montreal prices for condos, single-family homes and plexes (two to five units) between 2000 and 2008. The rest of the report, a bit of a dog's breakfast.