Keeping up with the neighbourhood

Magrath

Keeping up with the neighbourhood
5 |& x! v& D( d- }$ @/ @Buying, selling, renovating, rebuilding. In quiet Allendale, a hubbub of real estate activity is changing the face of the community
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David Howell
The Edmonton Journal
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Saturday, May 19, 2007

6 m4 F+ R' r( A' u9 B) E' HModern new infill housing is a stark contrast to the tidy, renovated, picket-fence homes that dot Allendale, a neighourhood that is seeing massive change as result of the market.

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9 x) X4 Y* ~! P2 U- V- H- uEDMONTON - Stick a pin anywhere in a map of the Edmonton area and you'll hit a rich vein of stories about the surging real estate market.
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Hit Allendale with that pin and you'll find a mature city neighbourhood where the buying, selling and new construction is impossible to ignore. For Sale signs sprout like dandelions along tree-lined avenues. Rejuvenated bungalows sit aside handsome new homes selling for $600,000 or more.
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8 F* y# c+ R1 \- U3 ^% B; v, [Go to 66th Avenue, between 108th and 109th Streets, and you'll find three neat homes, all in a row. Each tells a story that reflects what is happening all over the city in today's marketplace.

" B3 K# O% g2 B/ ~4 L, E6 wOne, a semi-bungalow built in 1949, sold in three days for its $416,900 asking price after extensive renovations. Two doors down, a revenue property sold for $410,000; the proceeds will pay off the Calgary home of its former owners.
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In between lives 86-year-old Edith Roberge, who has been there since 1957 and feeds the birds in her back garden without a care in the world about what her place is worth.
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Not that she's oblivious to the activity going on around her. Roberge recently answered her front door to a young woman who inquired if she had thought about selling.
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"She said, 'Even if it's five years from now, I want your house,' " Roberge says. "I said, 'Well, as far as I know, I'm not parting with the house just yet.' "
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* y3 M0 \- W. ^  FGiven the city's booming economy and heated real estate market, many older neighbourhoods just like this one are ripe for gentrification.

& I3 k: ^; v1 e" l# X  |Allendale is nestled between 109th Street and Calgary Trail, from 70th Avenue south to 61st. Strathcona Composite High School is one of its few landmarks. Residents enjoy easy access to the University of Alberta campus, the U of A Hospital, downtown, Whyte Avenue and the river valley.

. F. d4 K+ d3 [" }. p+ A2 l  ~" NNearly half of its houses -- bungalows and semi-bungalows, for the most part -- were built between 1946 and 1960. Lots are typically 33 feet wide, but some are wider.
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Developers are keenly aware of conditions being right for a rebirth.
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, A; Z& y6 O1 l+ ^" ~) V3 y"When you look at Allendale you've got 50-, 60-year-old homes in the best location in the city," says Brent Bailey, a director of Arcus Developments, which finds land positions for Calgary-based WestView Builders.
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Bailey says some empty lots in Allendale are worth more than older homes. Young professional buyers want the land, not the house.
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WestView is getting out of the infill business but in the past year has built three single-family homes and two side-by-side duplexes in Allendale and nearby Queen Alexandra. One of the infill duplexes recently listed for nearly $1.2 million.
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"Allendale is littered with all these 800-square-foot homes, and some of them are sitting on 40-foot lots," Bailey says. "Those 800-square-foot homes on 40-foot lots are gold. If it happens to be a 50-foot lot, then it's really gold -- it's diamond."
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- d8 A0 v% z5 k3 X0 X% KReal estate agent Luke Flanagan, of Realty Executives-Devonshire Realty Inc., remembers selling an Allendale bungalow for $29,000 in 1987.
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In the last three years, he's witnessed a "night and day" transition.
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9 e# z3 T$ u6 f" _"You still have some of the original owners in Allendale, and for them to see the changes, they still can't get their heads around it," Flanagan says.
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! b1 {/ G" \: @/ p0 HThis spring, he says, properties in Allendale, like elsewhere, are selling as quickly as the signs go up.

) C+ U5 r& n# ^2 w"You list a property today, and if it's properly listed it hits the MLS system and you give it two days before you look at offers.
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"More than likely you'll have maybe anywhere from two to six offers. And there will be a few of those offers (that are) unconditional, and it will be sold right away."

# s( [$ n! w$ k0 w% f9 B7 p/ ?$ wdhowell@thejournal.canwest.com
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6 p; a; k5 m. H; M/ A$ m'THE FIRST OFFER WAS THE ONE WE FINALLY ACCEPTED'

) s; n. v# M$ K& x3 a3 y( A6 zDAVE WHEADON: RENOVATOR
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10819 66th Ave.

7 \, [. f8 J' z$ [9 H* f8 zValue: Sold in April for $416,900

4 t  d0 p' ]( c5 W3 X9 d* z( X9 FDave Wheadon is proud of his latest reno project. He has redone the 58-year-old semi-bungalow top to bottom since buying it in May 2006 for $238,000.

) ?9 Z2 d% s0 d/ ]  |2 l0 @0 i# GBefore Wheadon purchased the property next door to Roberge's home, neighbours knew it as "the purple house." Wheadon told his youngest son he bought it from Barney, the TV dinosaur.

The purple asbestos siding is now gone, replaced with beige vinyl. Wheadon also installed new shingles and eavestroughs and put in a sump pump and weeping tile. He upgraded the plumbing and electrical, added new hardwood floors and framed new stairs leading to the second floor. He moved the kitchen and main-floor bathroom and painted the interior a happy shade of yellow.
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"It was about an eight-month plan, but as I tore things out, there was a lot more work than I expected," says the 41-year-old who has bought, improved and resold 15 houses in the past 12 years, all of them on the south side.
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"So it turned out to be a year plan. And I guess about Christmas I decided that I wouldn't rush it through until spring, because I figured that's when the market would really start taking off."
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He was right about that.
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In December, the average price of a single-family home in Edmonton was $341,933. By April the average selling price had climbed to $413,488.
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! T# q$ L* E" K3 L. G5 a8 C3 OOn April 26, Wheadon listed it for $416,900. Agents immediately started bringing clients through the 1,100- square-foot house. By Sunday of that weekend, there were offers on the table.

( ?4 r  T% D) z9 P! n$ G, }+ K"It turned out that the first offer was the one we finally accepted," Wheadon says. "It was an offer of what I was asking.

: E0 U  O9 w6 O2 K' w6 Z"I've never been in that circumstance before. I've been in this a lot of years, and in the past -- five or six years ago -- it wasn't uncommon to be on the market for 30 to 60 days before you had an offer."

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; n8 V1 `" d" h' }8 l) k'YOU'VE GOT TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOUR NEIGHBOURS'
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EDITH ROBERGE: OWNER
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Value: Not for sale
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Half a century ago, Edith Roberge and her husband Paul were young marrieds working for the Alberta government when they bought their three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot semi-bungalow.
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$ O- s2 j8 ~( _* i% vThey paid $15,000 -- $3,000 down, and then mortgage payments of $40 a month. But they paid off the house early, in just four years.

After Paul died in 1972, Edith stayed put. The home has changed little in the past 50 years. A lamp in the living room previously lit up the couple's rented apartment near the old Misericordia hospital.

Roberge hopes to live in her house as long as she can. Given the rental market, she knows she couldn't afford an apartment for what she pays in property taxes and utilities.

" X! x/ ?' l: I1 T: x& b5 I( ]Besides, Allendale and its residents have been good to her. A man who lives nearby mows her lawn in summer and shovels her walks in winter.
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"My husband always said you've got to be friends with your neighbours," Roberge says. "People have changed, neighbours have changed, some that were here for quite a while are no longer here. But like I say, it's a nice, quiet neighbourhood.

"We never hear of any robberies or anything to do with the law. People have left their garages open and things have never been taken."
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'WHAT THE HECK, LET'S CASH IN'

JODY AND JESSE PETERSON: SELLERS

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There are renters upstairs and down in the sturdy 1,100-square-foot bungalow, which was built in 1961.

/ }' Z3 A" J7 x! Q9 s* H  NThere are also new owners.
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- f" A5 A% H  B/ n" U1 T4 W' GJody and Jesse Peterson put the property up for sale in late March. They were asking $399,900. When it sold within days for $410,000, "we couldn't believe it," says Jody, a nurse. "We were blown away that the market would do that."

" j- a) [, n0 H4 L  n( Q& jThe Petersons, both 29, bought their Allendale home in late 2003. As luck would have it, Jesse, a geologist, was interviewed for a new job in Calgary on the day they took possession.

Jesse got the job and moved to Calgary. Jody stayed in the house until June 2004 before joining her husband. They bought a home in Calgary's Ranchlands neighbourhood, and kept the Allendale home as a revenue property.
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- X: P& Q7 E& _- A) h4 y# ?/ Y- ]The plan was to keep the Edmonton house for 25 years, covering the mortgage with rental income. The buoyant real-estate market led them to rethink.
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"In three years, the market went nuts," Jody says. "We kind of thought, 'What the heck, let's cash in.' And now we can pay off our house in Calgary.

" J+ P  ?6 ]  Q# [, |"We never in our wildest dreams imagined we would make our money back this fast."
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

4 ]+ p1 X9 Y$ d5 b5 b2 ?- C) z[ 本帖最后由 Magrath 于 2007-5-19 12:08 编辑 ]

老杨

谁能给翻译一下？我出1万金币。

eric.zhang

买，卖，装修，重建，这一系列的房地产活动正在深刻改变着Allendal得面貌。
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8 Y; I- o6 l+ o& ]0 X% j. K# ?+ ?; DDavid Howell, Edmonton Journal May 19,2007

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在埃德蒙顿的地图上随便插一个图钉你都能碰到一个在当前的房地产市场中发家的故事。而到了Allendale, 图钉下的是则一个房地产买卖和重建不可忽视的成熟的社区。路边的卖房牌就像雨后春笋般到处都是。一个翻新的坐落在一个漂亮的新房旁的平房就能卖到60万以上。
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7 c6 C& L9 \- L% W# b4 N: M到66 ave, 从108到109 street， 能看到三栋好房子排成一排。每一栋的背后都是一个反映了这个城市房地产发展变化的故事。
9 I) s; f# I: h5 ]& r6 A第一个，是一个半平房，建于1949。上市3天就以叫价416，900成交（须重新装修）。从这栋再过去第二栋的房子以410，000成交，房价用来付房主在卡尔加利的房子。
在这两户之间住的是今年86岁Edith Roberge，她自从1957年开始就住在这里。整日在她的后院养鸟从不关心她的房子值多少钱。

eric.zhang

但是，和周围发生的事情相比她是那么显目。Roberge最近就接待了一个到她家前门问她要不要卖房子的女士。
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4 c* h5 W9 f7 g1 x1 SRoberge说：“她跟我说‘即使再过5年我还是想买你的房子‘，我回答说‘我也不是刚刚住在这里的‘“
4 I/ {7 Z+ f, h9 _在这个城市飞速发展的经济和火热的房地产市场条件下，很多跟老住户都理智的搬到过去的低档社区。

4 g3 a! A8 N5 O7 WAllendale位于109 street 和calgary trail， 南70 ave到61 street之间。 Strathcona Composite 高中是这个社区的一个亮点。 住户非常喜欢这里的交通方便，可以很容易得到达艾伯塔大学，大学医院，市中心，Whyte ave 和river valley.

+ Y5 F/ T1 U  C" w0 O/ M这个社区近一半的房子-- 平房，半平房（大部分）--都是建于1946到1960。 占地面积基本都是33英尺宽（有些要宽些）。