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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (37629)	8/2/2008 10:37:14 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220190

Even our Robber Barons are colorful! Mr. Cavalcanti, the son of a railroad-track laborer, seemed highly unlikely to become a billionaire. This is the life of the nouveau billionaire in Brazil — the life that Mr. Cavalcanti said he dreamed of from the age of 9 and from the time he immersed himself in biographies of Henry Ford, John Jacob Astor and John D. Rockefeller ... A gentle breeze rustled through his thick white beard. Mr. Cavalcanti stood on the pier and closed his eyes for a moment. A uniformed servant, one of a staff of 15, hovered nearby with hors d’oeuvres and nonalcoholic drinks. She knew better than to disturb a man who meditates for three hours a day and constantly refers to himself as a “mystical” person who draws strength from “the cosmos” — when he is not collecting expensive cars, fine paintings and other playthings. nytimes.com

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (37629)	8/14/2008 1:21:24 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220190

The rise of the log mansion Aug 14th 2008 \| OTTAWA From The Economist print edition The simple life, at a price THE Canadian middle classes have long considered a lakefront log cabin in the woods for summer weekends to be as much a part of their birthright as maple syrup. Suddenly this idyll is starting to move out of reach. Property prices might still be plummeting south of the border, but in the lake country around Canada’s cities they are soaring. Nowhere more so than in the Muskokas, two hours north of Toronto. The most expensive cottage there now costs C$8m ($7.5m), up from less than $1m a few years ago. “Cottage” in a manner of speaking, that is. These log mansions come complete with home theatre and lakeside exercise room. It is true that Muskoka has long been a playground for the rich. Those who have summered on its necklace of deep, clear lakes have included Andrew Carnegie, an American steel tycoon, and Hollywood stars such as Goldie Hawn and Tom Hanks. But the price rise has rippled across the lakes, from British Columbia to Quebec. There are several reasons. There is only so much prime waterfront land within easy reach of the cities, where property prices have been rising too (though they are now peaking). Ageing baby-boomers are choosing to retire to what were once summer-only residences. To live comfortably through the icy blast of a Canadian winter, they build basements, install furnaces, and upgrade kitchens and bathrooms. In the face of new demands for year-round rubbish collection and snow removal, local governments have done their bit to make cottage ownership more expensive by raising taxes. Affluent young couples, not keen to rough it like trappers in the wilderness, want all the comforts of home, especially internet access so that they can read their e-mails while sitting on the dock drinking beer. “They want to hear the loons and look at an unspoiled view, but then they want to retreat and watch a high-definition movie on a large-screen television,” says Phil Soper of Royal LePage, an estate agent that tracks holiday property. Log cabins have come full circle, says Greg Halseth, a geographer at the University of Northern British Columbia who has studied second-home ownership. Before postwar economic expansion boosted incomes and brought both rural property and car ownership within the reach of the middle class, it was only the wealthy who could afford a country retreat. Now that is again becoming true. Is the simple cabin by the lake gone for ever? You can still find them at an affordable price, says Pauline Aunger, an estate agent in the Rideau Lakes area south of Ottawa, but “just not in proximity to major cities, or any community.” The Arctic beckons.

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (37629)	8/14/2008 9:04:07 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220190

Canadians in for a cheap cottage as "country may lose some of its other American part-time residents." Preliminary reports out of cottage country in Canada's most-populated province show a huge uptick in cottages for sale and fewer U. S. buyers ready to take the plunge. While there are no hard data, real estate brokers report they are not seeing the same type of activity from American buyers as they have over the past 10 years, thanks to a rising loonie, a sluggish U. S. economy and out-of-control gas prices. U. S. citizens have been flocking to buy in Ontario since the province eliminated in the mid-1990s a special 20% land transfer tax that applied only to non-Canadians. John O'Rourke, president of Royal LePage Lakes of Muskoka, confirms gas prices alone are not reason enough for people to sell their cottages. He doesn't see a panic. "We went through an episode like this with the tax and nobody sold," says Mr. O'Rourke, referring to when the 20% tax was implemented. "There are some U. S. citizens trying to sell, but it's not a large number. But the supply has gone up. It's a buyer's market." The real problem is the lack of American buyers. "The dollar is almost on par. We're not getting too many calls. When the dollar was 60¢, 70¢ [compared to the U. S. dollar], the advantage was huge," says the broker. The Muskokas have long been an attractive summer home for Americans, but when Goldie Hawn and her husband, Kurt Russell, moved in and celebrity citings became common, the lake region north of Toronto took off. It didn't hurt that the greenback's strength compared with the loonie gave U. S. citizens a powerful incentive to buy. Susan Pryke, the Mayor of the Township of Muskoka Lakes for the past eight years, says Ontario cottage country has always been popular with Americans as a getaway and she doesn't believe that will change. "Muskoka is easy to get to from New York and Pennsylvania. Even in the early days, there were trains that came up here and then you got on a steamboat. It was a natural fit. The early cottagers were Americans and supported the hotels that started here," says Ms. Pryke. Even today, the Muskoka area has a corner called "Little Pittsburgh," which was set up by cottagers escaping Steeltown. Their descendants still summer there and Ms. Pryke doesn't expect them to be leaving because of their long-established roots in the community. But she does admit there are signs the U. S. presence has died down. "I don't hear the American accents as much around town," says the Mayor. Judging by the fact he's not getting many calls from Americans these days, Muskoka lawyer Bill Grimmett says volume is definitely down. "There are just not as many people buying," says Mr. Grimmett. About 90% of the business out of his Port Carling, Ont., office is real estate. But he doesn't believe the sellers today are Americans taking profits from cottages that have appreciated in value. U. S. citizens who owned cottages have also made a healthy profit from the rise in the loonie, he notes. "The American family compounds stay in the family forever," says Mr. Grimmett. He agrees that the problem in cottage country is that there are no new American buyers. Even hockey players, who get paid in U. S. funds, are reconsidering major cottage purchases. "The hockey players are much more price-conscious than they used to be," says Mr. Grimmett. gmarr@nationalpost.com