Sunday 21 October 2012

News Update Apsley ON October 21, 2012

Yesterday and today are mostly overcast, but really very warm for this time of year.  Both days have been quite windy which is quickly bringing down what is left of the leaves in the trees.

Chandos Lake looks cold and winter like, when viewing it towards the north from our place on Antelope Trail.  What a difference a couple of weeks make at this time of the year.  Now that most of the leaves are down it seems that winter is just right around the corner.

Plans are being made for the Cottage Life show in the spring of 2013 where I will be attending in a booth representing North Kawartha Cottages and our area Cottage Real Estate.

If you are considering selling I would be pleased to provide you with my thoughts and an opinion of value at absolutely no cost to you.  Please feel free to contact me at my direct line 705-656-1044 at any time.  It would be great to hear from you and I will be happy to help in anyway that I can.

Friday 19 October 2012

Chandos Lake History

The first settler to Chandos Lake was Cornelius Maher.  He arrived in 1862 and owned several thousand feet of shoreline along the north shore of West Bay.

In the mid 1920's many young men residing in Chandos Township at the time were attracted to western Canada as they saw little hope of prosperity at home.  Many of the young men saw no value in the Chandos properties that they owned and left the area without even bothering to sell their land.
Once the properties were put up for Tax Sale an entrepreneurial Toronto Coal Dealer purchased several hundred acres of land.  He subsequently went on to divide and sell them at a handsome profit primarily to Americans seeking summer properties at Chandos Lake.

Some of the earliest summer hotels were established in West Bay as well.  Over the course of the 1920's waterfront properties were sold to other Americans such as Dan and Theresa Galbraith of Rochester NY.  Dan and Theresa purchased Ramona Lodge from Arthur Hall in the spring of 1925.  The following year Dan began to sell off some of his waterfront lots.  The first was sold to Rochester merchant Herbert Johnston and his wife Gertrude in 1926.  This property was subsequently purchased by Roy Parsons of Peterborough in 1934.  In 1927 and 1928 two other Rochester residents David Morrison and Dr. Rosco Wilcox purchased properties.  Then in 1933 two Peterborough residents, Norman Paterson and Allan MacNab purchased property from Galbraith and built cottages beside each other along the same shore.


Sunday 14 October 2012

MPAC Information and How it Works With Cottage Properties

MPAC, established by the Ontario provincial government in 1998, is a non-profit corporation charged with putting a value on each of more than four million properties in the province, based on a current value assessment (CVA). Each municipality sets its budget and then determines the tax rate.  This tax rate is then applied it to that assessed property value to come up with the property tax amount. So if MPAC assesses your property value at $300,000 and your municipality sets its tax rate at one per cent, your taxes will be 300,000 x .01, or $3,000.

How does MPAC really know what a cottage property is worth when each is unique and there are few comparables?  Some are critical of the system in place, which requires MPAC to put a value on these difficult-to-assess properties using limited data; however, Larry Hummel, chief assessor at MPAC, explains that the corporation assesses all properties by applying variables from a list of more than 200 possibilities.  It’s more complicated to figure out the value of a waterfront property than, say, a house in an inland suburb because there are more variables involved.  They include, for instance, the quality of the shoreline: Is it rocky, weedy, gently sloped, steep?

Still, 85 per cent of the value of any property is typically found in just five key variables: location (which includes the lake the property is on), size of lot (which includes water frontage), size of cottage, age of cottage, and quality of construction. Hummel is confident that MPAC gets it right most of the time.  He says the question to ask yourself when you scrutinize your cottage property assessment this fall is: “Could I have sold my property for that price on January 1, 2012 (the current assessment date for all Ontario properties?)”  If the answer is yes, then MPAC did its job.  If the answer is no then an appeal of the assessment should be filed.

If you disagree with your assessment you can find and request more information at www.mpac.ca where you can view your own and neighbours’ assessments in detail and you can appeal your assessment.  Details of the appeal process are on the MPAC website.

Saturday 13 October 2012

First Frost of the Fall 2012 on Chandos Lake

This morning the temperature feel as low as -5 degrees Celsius at Chandos Lake resulting in the first frost at the lake so far this Fall season.

There has been a heavy frost in the town of Apsley ON the past two mornings.

Certainly there will be more to come as we head towards the month of November.  However, there will be a reprieve over the next 24 to 48 hours as rain and much warmer temperatures are forecast for our part of the world. 

Thursday 11 October 2012

News Update October 11, 2012

Wednesday sure was a strange weather day in the Apsley ON area.  One minute it was pouring rain with strong wind gusts and the next minute the sun was shining and you could see a rainbow in the distance.

The strong winds and rain have taken down at least half of the leaves already.

Part of the day was spent on a trip up to Eels Lake to view two cottage properties.  The lake level was very low after such a long dry summer drought.  The much needed rain we have had so far this fall will help.  Hopefully, we will see snow this winter to help raise the lake levels in the spring.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Fall Leaves Falling Quickly in Apsley ON

It is Wednesday October 10, 2012 and the fall leaves are quickly coming off the trees in the Apsley ON area.

After one of the best fall coloor displays in years the rain and wind forecast for the next few days will likely take down a great deal of the leaves still remaining in the trees.  Then begins the task of clearing the leaves from those cottage driveways that will be used year round.

The contruction crews are completing the resurfacing of Hwy 620 as you leave town.  They should be done by Friday October 12 weather permitting.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

North Kawartha, ON 2012 Fall Colours

The Fall colours around the lakes of Apsley, ON are absolutely stunning this year.  So much for the weatherman saying that as a result of the summer drought we would not see much of a show this year.

Not sure what the reason for the vibrant colours is, but perhaps all of the rain we had in September helped them to come out.

I have been out to a number of cottage properties on Chandos Lake and Jack Lake over the past few days and the show of colour around both lakes is just outstanding.

Barring any severe inclement weather over the next few days those planning on spending the Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend in North Kawartha, ON and more particularly on the lakes around Apsley, ON are in for a great treat this weekend!

Reservoir Lake Concerns

Reservoir lakes are any lakes connected to a watershed used to provide water in order to support waterways within that watershed.

There are many reservoir lakes in southern Ontario that are used to provide and maintain appropriate water levels for the Trent Severn Waterway.

With the drought we have experienced in Southern Ontario in the summer of 2012 many lakes in water sheds connected to the Trent Severn Waterway have experienced extremely low water levels.  This has been caused by the drought and then exaggerated by the need to use these reservoir lakes to support the Trent Canal.

Many of these reservoir lakes are located in the Haliburton area as well as other areas across southern Ontario..

Chandos Lake in North Kawartha is not a reservoir lake.  It does not drain to the south and is not impacted by supporting the Trent Canal.

For anyone interested in purchasing a waterfront recreational property there should be an investigation into whether the lake is a reservoir lake or not.  If it is then time should be spent checking out the impact on the lake levels as well as water quality before any purchase is made.