Here Comes Santa! With this year's theme "Adventures of the North Pole" of the Richmond Hill Santa Claus Parade is sure to be a memorable event for everyone. The parade will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the intersection of Yonge Street and Industrial Road, proceed south on Yonge Street and conclude at Hillcrest Mall. If you want to be on Santa's good list don't forget:

• Food items for the Richmond Hill Food Bank will be collected along the parade route by representatives of The Liberal newspaper and York Regional Towing Ltd.
• Letters to Santa will be collected along the parade route by representatives of Canada Post. Kids, address your letters to:
  Santa
  North Pole, H0H 0H0
  Canada

Richmond Hill Santa Claus Parade 2011 - Frequently Asked Questions

The 43rd annual Richmond Hill Winter Carnival will be an event filled weekend of games, entertainment and outdoor displays for the whole family. Best of all... it's free! Activities take place around Mill Pond Park (Trench and Mill Streets, just north of York Central Hospital) on Friday, February 4 from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday, February 5 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, February 6 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Richmond Hill Carnival 2011 Events

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The 11th annual Richmond Hill Mill Pond Splash environmental eco-festival is free family-focused street party is held annually at the Mill Pond Park. The Mill Pond Park is home to a variety of plant and wildlife species and is part of a greenway system that houses native Southern Ontario trees. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has been working for several years with Town of Richmond Hill and the Don Watershed Regeneration Council to protect and restore local habitat in the park. Join us in Richmond Hill and help celebrate the headwaters of the Don River! This is a Free Family-Focused Street Party, featuring a range of activities for the whole family.

This Year's Lineup Includes

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A healthy lawn will out-compete weeds, be less susceptible to insect problems and shouldn’t need pesticides. To help you get started, York Region Environmental Alliance and Town of Richmond Hill Pesticide Reduction Strategy Initiatives organize a workshop called “Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap & Lazy” at Elgin West Community Centre. Please call (905) 771-5509 to register as space is limited.

Tips for Growing Healthy Lawns without Pesticides

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Richmond Hill Concerts at Mill Pond Park

The Town of Richmond Hill Free Summer Concert Series will soon be coming to end, but we still have several wonderful concerts to catch until August 28. Gather your friends & family, bring your lawn chair or blanket and come out and enjoy the sounds of summer at the beautiful Mill Pond Park, for these concerts:

• August 14 – Lenny Graf: Sing, dance and laugh with Treehouse TV star Lenny Graf. It’s sure to be a night of great music and entertainment for everyone!
• August 21 - The Good Brothers: Celebrate an evening of high energy country rock by Canada's acclaimed multiple Juno Award winners The Good Brothers. They stared their journey in Richmond Hill, Ontario in 1969! The Goods, known for their boisterous live performances, moved from Toronto-area bars and high schools to a national concert circuit that included, in the late 1970s, Massey Hall, the NAC, and Hamilton Place. For the most part, however, they have performed in clubs and community centres, and at festivals and fairs, across Canada, averaging 150 dates a year. The brothers appeared at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1976, toured in the USA ca 1980 with Gordon Lightfoot, and returned thereafter for occasional appearances in New York (eg, at the Lone Star Café, in the early 1980s) and Nashville. They performed in 1985 in Czechoslovakia and had made four other tours in Europe by 1991, enjoying particular success in Holland.
• August 28 – Guess Who Tribute - GuessWhomania: Rock out at this final Thursday night concert to hits like “American Woman”, “These Eyes” and “No Sugar Tonight”, made famous by one of Canada’s premier rock and roll bands!

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Past weeks were unbelievably busy for me and I didn't have time to post some great news about Richmond Hill Real Estate Market and just released Scotiabank Real Estate Forecast for Canada:

(1) Real Estate Outlook: No Major Correction in Canada's Housing Market

The latest Real Estate Trends Report issued by The Bank of Nova Scotia explains why the market has a more stable base than it did prior to the crashes of the 70s and 80s. Adrienne Warren, senior economist at Scotiabank, said there are a variety of reasons for confidence in the continued health of the housing market:

1. Unlike in the US, home prices in Canada are not substantially overvalued
2. Speculative home buying is not widespread
3. The real estate market is not overbuilt
4. Households are not over-leveraged and
5. Overall mortgage quality is still sound.

Still, the 10 per cent average annual increase in home prices over the past half decade was unsustainable, and a return to more historical norms is a welcome development, she said. "We predict a soft landing for the Canadian housing market, with somewhat lower sales and construction, and a period of relatively flat inflation-adjusted home prices... We expect overall sales volumes in 2008 to total about 15% below last year’s record levels, and home prices to increase on average by about 5%," Ms. Warren said.

The past decade has been one of the best on record for residential real estate in the Toronto area. Housing boom is ending, but there is no bubble to burst in The Greater Toronto Area real estate market.

(2) Toronto Real Estate Board: GTA Resale Housing Market Highlights

Greater Toronto Area neighbourhoods that experienced heightened activity during the first half of May are:

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It seems each month has been a record breaker for the real estate industry in York Region and across the GTA. Central Richmond Hill N04 district led the way in January with a 59 per cent overall increase in sales compared to mid-January 2007, mainly as a result of attached/row house transactions.

Across the Greater Toronto Area there were 1,776 transactions, an increase of 11 per cent increase over the same timeframe a year ago, announced Toronto Real Estate Board President Maureen O’Neill. The average time a property is currently on the market is 41 days, down 13 per cent as compared to a year ago. The average price also increased considerably compared to the first half of January 2007. It currently stands at $367,574 an eight per cent increase over the $340,793 recorded at mid-January a year ago.

Strong Activity in other areas of the Greater Toronto Market

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