New Mini Hospital Coming to Ottawa East!

A new $150-million Orleans mini-hospital will be located on Mer Bleue Rd., with groundbreaking expected by March 2011.

The location of the Orleans Family Health Hub was revealed Monday morning. The new project is being called the future of health care delivery in Ontario by its proponents.

The hub will move day surgery, dialysis and cancer detection and treatment into a clinic setting, at almost one-third of the costs of traditional hospitals, said Ottawa-Orleans MPP Phil McNeely.
"This represents a new vision and a new type of delivery of health care," said Dr. Bernard Leduc, the CEO of the Montfort Hospital, the lead agency on the project.

Cumberland Coun. Rob Jellett called the project "the largest single development in Orleans" with an expected creation of 1,500 construction jobs.

"This is the future of Orleans coming here," said Jellett to a group of provincial MPPs, Mayor Larry O'Brien and other city councillors.

As part of the announcement today, the Taggart Group of Companies made a $3-million donation to the fundraising campaign for the hub. Planners purchased property for the site from Taggart.

2009 a Record Year for Resale Home Sales!

2009 will be a year to remember! After a slow 2008 due to the economic crisis the Ottawa Resale Market got right back on track!

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 689 residential properties in December through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 467 in December 2008, an increase of 47.5 per cent. This brings the total number of residential properties sold through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system in 2009 to 14,742, up 7.4 per cent from 2008 and setting a new record. The previous record of 14,565 sales was set in 2007. The average price for all of 2009 was $303,888, an increase of 4.9 per cent over 2008. Of December’s sales, 185 were in the condominium property class, while 504 were in the residential property class.

“Ottawa’s housing market felt the chill of the global financial crisis last winter, but sales warmed up even before the spring weather arrived, and over the course of the year Ottawa had five record-breaking months of sales. Listing inventory was at a low level throughout 2009, which led to many multiple-offer situations,” said Board President Pierre de Varennes. “Ottawa’s housing market bounced back very strongly from its brief downturn, and we ended the year ahead of the previous annual sales record, which certainly no one expected back in January,” he added.

The average sale price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in December in the Ottawa area was $307,807, an increase of 13.1 per cent over December 2008. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $246,062, an increase of 17.9 per cent over December 2008. The average sale price of a residential-class property was $330,471, an increase of 12.8 per cent over December 2008. The Board cautions that average sale price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.

We finished off 2009 with 5 record breaking months and now we’re headed in a good direction for 2010!

Now is the time to buy or sell! Call me if you have any questions!

Your Real Estate Professional,
Mary-Anne

November Sales Back On Track After Slow 2008!

Wow! The numbers are in and it seems November was an AMAZING month for the Ottawa resale market! In November 2008 there were only 643 properties sold and this November there were 916 properties sold making it an increase of 42.5%!

Of those sales, 214 were in the condominium property class, while 702 were in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, stacked etc.) which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases and timeshares. The residential property class includes all other residential properties.

“The dramatic increase in sales can be explained by last year’s sales being affected by the crisis in the financial markets,” said Board President Rick Snell. “The five-year average for November sales is 809. Listing inventory remains at a low level and we are still in a seller’s market,” he added.

The average sale price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in November in the Ottawa area was $313,370, an increase of 7.4 per cent over November 2008. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $225,767, an increase of 1.7 per cent over November 2008. The average sale price of a residential-class property was $340,075, an increase of 9.8 per cent over November 2008.

We can only hope that our market remains strong coming into the New Year. There are no indications of it slowing down anytime soon!

It truly is the time to BUY or SELL! Call me if you have any questions.

Your Real Estate Professional,

Mary-Anne

KWO Training Department Helps Bailey!

In Hopes of finding a way to tie Mary-Anne Gillespie’s passion for training and giving back to the community together. The Training Department led by Mary-Anne at KWO has found a wonderful way to do both through training! One of their recent guest speakers, Ben Kinney happily agreed to auction off a dinner combined with a coaching session. They raised $1200 for that dinner; The Rushforth Team was the winning bid just barely outbidding the Pilon Hamilton Team. The training department gave $600.00 to KWCares and the other $600.00 to a charity close to Mary-Anne’s heart; The Ottawa Humane Society. Through their Buddy and Belle fundraising initiatives you are able to actually donate the funds to a specific cause and animal. On behalf of KWO, Mary-Anne selected a wonderful little dog called Bailey to help with his surgeries. Below you will see his story, the amount they donated on behalf of KWOttawa and of course......he is up for adoption so maybe we can find this little puppy a home for Christmas.

http://bit.ly/2HnxyG Here is Baileys Link and the donation.

The Ottawa Humane Society thanks the wonderful agents of KWO for giving not only in our community but for thinking of them with such a wonderful donation!
Thank you to everyone who supports these training events. Being able to do this creates a wonderful new purpose to training that we will carry into 2010. Feel free to share the link with your clients, friends, families and peers! It is a wonderful way to spread the word that we truly Care in our Community.

Olympic Torch Relay Coming to Ottawa!!!

This weekend, Saturday December 12th the Olympic Torch Relay will be making its way through our Nation’s Capital. This has been a long awaited journey for a lot of us and we cannot wait to take part in all of the festivities! The torch will arrive at noon on the 12th and depart the morning of the 14th. It will travel around the city covering roughly 75km, with more than 220 torchbearers.

On Saturday at 2:16pm, Mayor Larry O’Brien will host a ceremony at Ottawa City Hall to officially welcome the Olympic Torch Relay to Ottawa. Nineteen year old Ottawa resident, Melissa Brunet, has been selected as the City’s official Torchbearer.

The arrival of the flame will coincide with the 25th edition of Christmas Lights across Canada will be launched with an illumination ceremony on Parliament Hill. The festivities on Parliament Hill will begin at 5:45pm. Everyone is welcome at Parliament Hill to join the celebration for this special moment in the countdown to the 2010 Winter Games.

Here is a full schedule of where in Ottawa the torch will be visiting throughout its visit:

Saturday, December 12:
12:12pm : Arrive via Alexandra Bridge, Sussex Drive
12:48pm: Rockcliffe, Vanier
1:47pm: Byward Market
2:16pm Official Welcome to City Hall
3pm: Downtown
3:58pm: Queen Elizabeth Drive, Carling Avenue
5:36pm: Westboro, Wellington Street
7pm: Parliament Hill Festivities

Sunday, December 13:
7:30am: Ben Franklin Place, Centerpointe Drive, Baseline Road, Greenbank Road to Queensway
8:05am: Kanata via Eagleson Road, Hazeldean road, Terry Fox Drive and Palladium Drive
8:54am: Departure for Pembroke via Carleton Place, Arnprior and Petawawa

Monday, December 14:
6:50am: Capital Infocentre, Wellington Street
6:59am: Sandy Hill, University of Ottawa campus
7:15am: departure via Queensway for Orleans
7:25am: Orleans, Jeanne D’arc Blvd and St Joseph Blvd
8:01am: departure for Kingston via Rockland, Cornwall

...Another Buyer Picking Up a New Condo Downtown

Buying ahead of the market...2years ahead, was no problem for my client.

She is in a great location with excellent rent. So she viewed this as a wonderful investment opportunity. With continued growth and increase in costs of condos in downtown Ottawa, it’s almost a sure thing that the value will be substantially more 2 years from now. She went green and did not buy a parking spot. With Central condo’s this is more common than ever. Not to mention a parking spot costing onwards of $25,000.

The builder has a financial agreement to lock down today’s rates until she closes, that’s an opportunity even I couldn’t pass up. The ladies selling the Condo’s at Central in Ottawa with Urban Capital made this such a fabulous experience as well. They were high energy, non pressure and very much into making sure it’s all about the purchaser. Often as a Realtor we walk in and feel somewhat like a third wheel in new home developments. This was not the case. These ladies are the type that you know will be there helping your client until the end and then some more.

My client got to put her own red dot on the new condo she purchased and she will be part of a great experience, even though it’s years away. Having a happy client is all you can ask for in this business!!

Call me if you have any questions!

Your Real Estate Professional,
Mary-Anne

KWO Brings Holiday Cheer to Orleans Parade of Lights!!

On Saturday November 28th over 120,000 people came out to watch the Orleans Parade of Lights put on by the Ottawa Firefighter’s Association. This is the 12th year that the parade has been going strong and every year it continues to grow with more and more participants.

This year the Keller Williams team decided to build a float of our own. It was an incredible experience shared by our Agents, Staff and children. Our float had over 1500 lights on it, Xmas music, tree and a fireplace at the back. Most items were donated including the flat bed, driver and truck. It is a fabulous way to pick up food, toys and money for the needy with over 120,000 people watching and 81 floats.

Nothing feels more like Christmas than seeing the smiles on all the children lined along the streets waving and dancing to the music. We were truly honoured to represent KWO and be a part of something so amazing!