The Times Advocate, 2005-03-23, Page 5Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Exeter Times -Advocate
5
Opinion Forum News
ROSS
HAUGH
BACK IN TIME
10 YEARS AGO
March 22, 1995 - Joe Fulop of
Exeter and the Varna crokinole
club claimed the grand champi-
onship at the St. Jacobs crokinole
tournament on Saturday for the
second straight year.
Seip's valumart of Exeter has
struck gold in Toronto. The local
store was one of the award recipi-
ents at the Foodland Ontario
Retailer Award ceremony.
20YEARS AGO
March 23, 1985 - It was agricultural history in the
making last week in Las Vegas when Case IH dealers
from around the country joined forces for the first
time. Bill Becker represented V.L. Becker and Sons
Ltd. of Dashwood in a formal kickoff of the expanded
JI Case equipment operation.
25 YEARS AGO
March 16, 1980 - A break-in occurred Saturday
night at the Exeter District Co -Operative store where
thieves made off with over $6,000 worth of store
items.
Business is booming at Bell Aerospace at Grand
Bend with an order from the U.S. Army for four more
air cushion vehicles.
An Exeter resident, Betty DeBlock of Sherwood
Crescent was recently successful in landing a 50
pound sailfish while fishing out of Miami Beach.
The new Temple of Lebanon Forest Masonic Lodge
located at the north end of Exeter was dedicated
Saturday afternoon by Deputy District Grand Master
Charles Corbett of Lucan, Grand Master Richard
Richards and Doug Parker, Worshipful Master of
Lebanon Lodge.
35 YEARS AGO
March 12, 1970 - Glenn Kells, a native of Mitchell
with experience with the Ontario Department of
Highways has been named Exeter's works superin-
tendent. Kells succeeds Jim Paisley who has taken a
similar position in Wallaceburg.
Huron barbers announced this week that the price
of hair cuts will be increased by 25 cents beginning
April 1. Men will start paying $1.75 while children
will be assessed $1.50 during the week. On Saturdays
children will pay the same as adults. The last increase
was October of 1967.
40YEARS AGO
March 21, 1965 - One of the featured performers in
the figure skating carnival scheduled for the Exeter
arena Saturday is Cathy Corbett, 16 -year-old daugh-
ter of Dr. and Mrs. J.W. Corbett.
45 YEARS AGO
March 22, 1960 - Rev. S.E. Lewis has been named
president of the Exeter and District Film Council.
Vice-president is Rev. A.M. Schlenker, Crediton; trea-
surer -librarian Mrs. Hilton Laing; secretary Mrs. J.M.
Southcott and directors K.J. Lampman, A.B. Idle,
Robert Millard, Mrs. R.S. Hiltz, Mrs. Edwin Miler and
Rev. A.E. Holley.
50YEARS AGO
March 25, 1955 - Lucan Irish retained the WOAA
Intermediate "C" championship by shellacking
Mildmay 13-10 in the fifth game of the best -of -seven
finals
55 YEARS AGO
March 24, 1950 - Exeter District High School bas-
ketball teams swept through a field of WOSSA Senior
"B" contenders to capture two titles in London
Saturday.
Mr. W.G. Medd, who, for many years has operated
the Exeter and Winchelsea Creameries has sold out to
Canada Packers.
60 YEARS AGO
March 22, 1945 - A deputation of three car -loads of
prominent citizens from Mildmay visited Exeter
Thursday to look over the Exeter arena in view of
constructing a similar building in Mildmay as an
after -war project. With the deputation were Barry
and Bob Wenger, former Exeter residents now oper-
ating the Mildmay Gazette.
85 YEARS AGO
March 24, 1920 - The T. Eaton Co. of Toronto
shipped last week to Mr. McKellar, the Seaforth local
express agent 247 sacks containing seven tons of
their catalogues. The express charges on the ship-
ment were $155. They went to Seaforth for delivery
throughout Huron county. Postage on the catalogues
amounted to another $500.
Thomas Ryan is the new president of the Usborne
Hibbert Mutual Fire Insurance Company with head-
quarters in Farquhar. Agents are John Essery and
Oliver Harris.
Campanologists,
carillon thrilling
Dear Editor:
I must tell you how much I appreciate and enjoy the
offerings of Exeter's capable campanologists.
Every Saturday afternoon at five, and at random
times in between, I thrill to the joyous, exuberant
sounds of the bells of Trivitt Memorial Anglican
Church.
A few summers ago I was fortunate to hear and see a
group of English bell ringers give an impressive perfor-
mance of change ringing. These professionals spoke
highly of the quality of the Exeter bells. Personally I
feel that they are undervalued by Exeter's citizenry,
and that they should be "played up!"
Exeter should be known for more than its white
squirrels.
I sincerely hope that motivated and committed people
will continue to keep alive the age-old custom of ring-
ing the bells and playing the carillon.
AL DE HAAN
Exeter, ON
Daffodil Day April 1
Dear Editor:
We began selling daffodils in Exeter for the Cancer
Society in 1975 and are still doing it today. In 1975, we
sold 250 bunches and donated $314 to the Cancer
Society.
Today, 30 years later, we sell approximately 1100
bunches and donate $5,000 annually. Over this period
of time we have donated between $80,000 to $85,000
to the Canadian Cancer Society. We are proud of our
accomplishments and proud of Exeter for supporting
us.
We are hoping that a cure will soon be found.
ELAINE BOGART
Beta Alpha Master Chapter
Exeter, ON
Panther Profile
EXETER — March was a busy month for the Music
Department at South Huron!
Both the Intermediate and Senior Concert Bands
competed in Musicfest Regionals in
London. Both bands have been
practising their songs since October.
The Intermediate band played first,
performing their three numbers
"Old Dominion March," "Aspen
Overture" and "Fanfare Ode and
Festival." The Intermediate band
played the best they ever have, and
received a well deserved silver.
Intermediate band is made up of
mostly grade tens and elevens, but
this year many grade nines were in
Intermediate, and grade nines have
only been playing their instruments since
September, so a silver with such a young band is a
huge accomplishment!
The Senior band played after the Intermediate
band, performing their three numbers "Royal Air
Force March Past," "Incantations" and "Inversia."
The Senior Band played, for the most part, their
absolute best, especially since South Huron is now
semestered and the majority of the band isn't in
class anymore. The Senior Band ... are you ready
for this ... got gold! It was a very satisfactory day
for both bands.
The Black Jazz band, however, had their hopes for
gold dashed when the competition day for the Black
Jazz band was a snow day.
Now let's look at the coming week at South Huron!
Ring Days will be held this week, and students can
place orders for class rings on Wednesday and
Thursday in the main foyer.
Thurs., March 24
•Community Forum in the small gym, 7 p.m.,
Internet Issues
• Badminton team to St. Mike's
•Second Semester interim reports go home
Fri., March 25
• Good Friday!
Mon., March 28
•Easter Monday!
Also, just a reminder that the 30 -Hour Famine is
April 1-2. Registration forms were to be in March
11. That's right, March 11 is past. Those of you reg-
istered, keep getting sponsors! Also, April 11 will be
an Early Dismissal Day.
AMANDA
ZEHR
PANTHER
PROFILE
The Turner Report
COULDYOUR HOUSE PULL A
NORTEL'?
His name is John, he's a real estate agent, and
the guy tells me he has not had a listing in the past
year for more than five days. Every time a house
comes into his hands, it sells in a couple of days, or
a few hours.
And the price doesn't matter, he says, with mort-
gage rates at 3 per cent, there are always buyers.
Indeed. A recent Royal Bank survey of home buy-
ing intentions found that one in eight Canadians
plan on purchasing a house within the next year.
Another poll found that over 80 per cent of people
think real estate is a good invest-
ment right now, despite the fact
prices have never been higher
and affording a piece of it means
taking on a honking big pile of
mortgage debt.
In fact, numbers from across the
western world show just about
exactly the same thing—real
estate is right now the investment
asset of choice everywhere from
Halifax to Washington to Toronto
to Paris and London. Average folks
are still suspicious of equity mar-
kets, down on mutual funds and
mistrustful of anything they can't throw a little dry-
wall on.
And, hey, it's hard to argue the point, really. A
house bought five years ago in a demand Toronto
area like the one John works in has doubled in
value in that time. The million -dollar threshold has
been broken street after street after street in
Canada's major urban markets. Along the
American eastern seaboard you can drop $10 mil-
lion U.S. on a reasonably nice country estate.
Martha Stewart paid $16 million for hers.
Prices keep going up, of course, because the cost
of money is no longer an impediment to buying.
You can now rent $1 million for $5,300 a month.
You can buy a house with no money down. If you
have a pulse—congratulations!—you qualify for
financing.
With the prime rate at 4.25 per cent, and variable
rate mortgages available in the three per cent
range, houses remain affordable even as prices
rise, and borrowers qualify for mortgage amounts
that would have been just impossible a decade ago.
Added to this heady mix is a war for market share
among lenders who are more accommodating than
ever. Because mortgages are considered 'relation-
ship' products by the big banks—leading to car
loans, RESPs, GICs and RRSPs—margins are sliced
razor thin just to gain new customers.
Now, along come some party -pooping economists
who are layering some respectability on a theory as
yet unproven—that real estate values are probably
unsustainable. One of them is Merrill Lynch's David
Rosenberg, who has applied the same kind of yard-
stick commonly used to evaluate stock prices to
house prices. The price of a piece of real estate is
compared to the cash it could generate if rented, or
what you could save in rent by owning that house.
The bad news is that, by this measure, house
prices have hit an all-time high. The really bad
news is that they are at about the same level the
stock market achieved in 2000—yeah, before it col-
lapsed Think houses, Rosenberg is suggesting, and
think dot-com.
In fact, there is a valid point here—financial
assets (which include real estate) have a certain
value because of their ability to generate a certain
level of income. The price you pay for a neighbour-
hood plaza, for example, is directly related to the
income it produces and the net return you'll get on
your money. So, Rosenberg's calculation is that the
cost of a house in North Vancouver, for example,
should bear some relationship to what that house
would rent for.
But, it doesn't. Investors everywhere are finding
that real estate today is getting more expensive
while rental accommodations are getting cheaper.
While renters flock to become owners, landlords
are cutting rents to cope with soaring vacancy
rates. Just as a lot of Internet companies had sky-
high stock prices, and yet no reasonable expecta-
tion of an operating profit, so today house prices—
some economists warn—are out of whack with
reality.
Therefore, if you buy a home, make sure you like
it and intend to live there for a number of years. If
this is not the peak of the market, then it's just a
click or two away.
GARTH
TURNER
THE TURNER
REPORT