Running the course

I recently expressed caution concerning the British Columbia real estate market. Comments from some brighter minds at last week’s meetings of the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties and the Urban Development Institute back up my assessment. An overview of both events appears elsewhere, so I’ll limit myself to noting that David Podmore, head of Vancouver-based Concert Properties Ltd., suggested the local condo market is running out of steam thanks to escalating development costs and the exhaustion of equity available to homebuyers. “We’re at a point where a large part of the community cannot afford the multifamily product being developed,” Podmore said.

A recent Google search brought forth a syllabus with my name on it! Quite the surprise. It seems an academic article I wrote during a summer spent researching the life of Robert Bayard (one of the many doctors in my family tree) is on this week’s reading list for history students at the University of Alberta, where I studied English lit.

My own week offers fare more mundane than academic: A profile of Kelowna's Summerhill winery, recent news on British Columbia property taxes and a column for Western Canada bar owners on patio management.