New Homes
New Homes
The importance of house and home
I've been spending a lot of time at the Roar of the Rings Olympic Curling Trials this week. Why not? This is the best curling anyone is ever going to see in their life. Better than the Scotties, better than the Brier, better than the Olympics. There are no easy games in this draw -- ever.
Some of curling's primary terminology got me thinking about the residential construction industry. As everyone knows, you can't score points in curling if you don't put rocks in the house. The goal is to get more rocks closer to the center of the house than the other team.
Why house? I don't know. I doubt that it has anything to do with sweeping a broom. If you want to protect what's yours so you can score points and win, you have to guard the house. After all, what's in the house is valuable to you.
I then let my mind wander to other similar notations. What's the best hit in baseball? It's the home run, of course. You score runs when you cross home plate. You drive someone home, you run towards home, you're safe at home. Very rarely do you steal home.
You even create monuments with these types of references. After all, wasn't Yankee Stadium the House that Ruth Built?
Taking this analogy a little further, we often refer to our local sports venue as our house. Nobody comes into our house and pushes us around. Wait until we get back to our house. After all, isn't that part of home-field advantage? We play to break even or tie on the road, but we always expect to win at home.
Unfortunately, it's only in games like cards or billiards that we can impose such things as house rules. It's a shame we couldn't do that for football or hockey.
I'm certain that there are dozens of other house and home references in sports and elsewhere, and they all reflect the importance we all place on house and home. It's where the heart is. It's how we score and win. It's where we feel most comfortable. So get out there this weekend and cheer for our home teams to get more rocks in the house. After all, two of these teams are going to become Team Canada in Sochi.
Mike Moore is president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association.
New Homes
Let it glow, Let it glow, Let it glow
When most of us think of a Parade, we think of the Parade of Homes, taking place in March and September every year.
However, there's now a third parade that features new homes for your enjoyment. The first annual Parade of Lights started brightening eight new neighbourhoods last Saturday.
The Manitoba Home Builders Association is pleased to present the Parade of Lights through to Sat. Jan. 11 with more than 50 new show homes are on display, fully decorated inside and out for the holiday season.
In Sage Creak, there are 10 homes on Grey Owl and Borealis Bay. There are three houses on Audette Crescent in Canterbury Park, while South Pointe features eight new homes on Stan Bailie Drive and Drew Street. Amber Trails has five homes on Rockmore Road.
Bridgwater Lakes is presenting 14 homes on Lake Bend Road and Eagle View Road, and River Park South has five homes on Wainwright Crescent. In Oak Bluff West, there are five homes on Casselman Crescent and there is one home being featured on Prairie View in Dugald.
Participation is both easy and fun. You can drive down any of these streets to see the exterior decorations, but inside is where the real excitement begins. A new home sales agent will welcome you and show you the features of each home. Using your smart phone, you can scan the QR code in the home and rate the decorations on a 1-to-5 scale. By submitting your e-mail, you're eligible to win a 52-inch TV generously donated by The Brick.
You can also rate the homes you visited by going to www.paradeofhomesselect.ca.
As well, the MHBA is asking all visitors to bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Christmas Cheer Board.
Show homes are open Monday through Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Come join the festivities!
Mike Moore is president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association.
New Homes
Immigration drives housing sector, economy
The number of households in Canada has been going up at a rate of 1.4% per year over the past 20 years. One factor is smaller households. In 1961, half of all Canadian households had four or more people living in them. By 2011, two-thirds of all Canadian households had two or fewer people.
The second major factor, of course, is immigration, especially in the 20 - 44 age group, the one most critical for household formation. This age demographic grew by 147,000 last year; without immigration, it would have shrunk, like most of the developed world. In fact, this age group accounts for 55% of all immigrants to Canada, boding well for growth, development and a stronger economy.
According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, a million jobs are expected to go unfilled across Canada between now and 2021. It asserted that we need to radically boost immigration numbers in order to be an innovative world power or risk draining away our potential. It cited Steinbach as the perfect example of a community that has been growing and thriving due, in large part, to an aggressive immigration strategy.
The CMHC studied housing patterns of immigrants in both large and medium sized Canadian centres. It looked at those in search of affordable housing in order to get started in a new country, but also those who brought wealth and a capacity to generate wealth through entrepreneurship. The study broke down housing patterns and preferences, including those who prefer suburban settlement and nationality trends towards home ownership versus rental. The housing patterns of immigrants did not differ radically from those of Canadian born households, perhaps explaining why they chose to live in particular cities.
The Our Winnipeg plan calls for a population growth of 180,000 people over a 20 year period. This will only happen if our recent immigration successes continue over that time period. For Winnipeg to be a truly great city, we must embrace this international way of thinking and take full advantage of the skills and attributes that our new residents bring. As it relates to housing, we must encourage new growth and development while also bolstering our existing housing stock. This mobility in housing choice and affordability will keep our doors open to a new and vibrant population. To do anything to discourage or stifle people from moving to and living in the city would be a huge disservice to our future growth and greatness.
Mike Moore is president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association.
New Homes
Both inner and outer growth vital to Winnipeg
My friend, Stefano Grande from Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, had an interesting editorial in this paper last Saturday concerning city planning and development practices. In it, he bemoaned the continued outward growth of the city instead of concentrating on the inner city and downtown.
Grande cited a note he received from the recently re-elected mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, claiming that Calgarians subsidize new homes in new developments by about $4,800 per unit. However, he didn't mention that the cost of government-imposed fees and charges increased by five times that amount over the past year, thereby making new residential development a pretty good investment on their part.
Grande also talked about the perils of urban sprawl and the cost to the inner city. In reality, the opposite is true. Winnipeg has become a more affordable place to live, with assistance to those in need of housing, because of new development, not in spite of it.
For example, the Manitoba government has committed proceeds from the development of Bridgwater Forest and Lakes to fund social housing. They would not have the funds to do as much without it. Similarly, the city of Winnipeg will ultimately realize more than $200 million from the Waverley West developments toward its operating revenue.
Road-building and paving, water and sewer lines, utility lines, engineering fees, sidewalks, street landscaping, street lighting, walkways and trails, parks and playgrounds and land allocation for schools are all done at the initial expense of the developer, and eventually paid for by the residents of a new neighbourhood. These amenities do not come from government revenue diverted from other necessary areas.
There's no doubt that a strong and vibrant downtown benefits us all. The MTS Centre would not be located there were that not true. However, we need to develop and revitalize downtown Winnipeg in conjunction with, not instead of, creating exciting new neighbourhoods.
If we're going to continue to attract more than 10,000 new immigrants to our province every year, we need places for them to live and families to grow. And if we're going to increase our population by 180,000 people, as outlined in the Our Winnipeg plan, we need a wide variety of options for people to live.
Mike Moore is president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association.