Another Monmouth Road home sells for just below $180,000.00. A skillful blend of timing and patience along with the seller's unyielding sense of true value for Monmouth Road snags a good sale.
Don't ever think these homes are not worth it and don't ever let a Real Estate Agent tell you otherwise. The thing with Real Estate agents is that most of them do not understand this street. They simply don't get it. People purchase on this street for a completely different set of reasons than they would anywhere else. For one thing...A Real Estate Agent can only go by what he sees on the radar. In other words, he can only see what's actually sold through MLS. Over 60 percent of all homes on this block sell privately so they never show up on the rolls. Because of this, agents often undervalue homes. Bad advice begets bad results.
Any home priced in the $200,000.00 range is an incredible value these days. More and more $300,000.00 homes are hitting the market in this uncertain economy and business climate. People are trying to cover their debts by moving into more affordable and often more realistic housing choices. That puts Monmouth Road homes on a very attractive perch.
So the next time someone asks where you live tell them Monmouth Road. Read the envy.
Here is some water for your thoughts. Read the following links about bottled water and consider how much you are doling out for nothing more than bottled tap water:
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/126829/1/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumertips/index.html
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/bottledwater/index.html
This writer recently purchased an under sink water filter (like the one pictured above) from Home Depot. The selling price is only $130.00 and it installed in about half an hour with regular house tools. Remarkably, the water tastes better than tap or bottled water. Here's the math: Over a full year this great tasting filtered water cost 47 cents per day for an unlimited supply. If you buy two bottles of Dasani (Pure municiple tap water from Brantford) a day for a full year you will pay $1095.00. Tim Horton's ain't got nothing on these guys. For that same amount of money you could buy 50 litres of gasoline twenty times. That's twenty fill ups or even more if you drive a sexy Honda Civic! (almost half a year!). So if you wish to worship the advertising and marketing gods keep buying the likes of Dasani. If you want to outsmart em all, buy a good water filter and drink excellent tasting water till the cows come home.
Community is a really, really big thing. In fact, "community" is one of those words - like God, love, being or consciousness that's too large to submit to any one, simple definition. It's parts definately sum up it's whole and yet they wouldn't exist without the veil of the whole. A dynamic slurry of people, institutions and events bound together by threads of communication, history, trust, time and place. A community also has to be about something. It has to have authenticity. It needs focus and it's members must feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
So where does community not happen? Look around. Pick any suburb, of any class or structure and analyse. People are so civilized, self dependant and absorbed that they do not need their closest neighbours. Interaction of any kind is becoming very rare. In a typical suburban environment concrete guides people right to their front doors, and neighbours have been conditioned to "mind their own business". It seems like the more cement the less merry. To test this theory visit Young Street in Toronto and make a point of saying "hello" to passers by. Their reactions are almost always nonexistant. Extended family or community is definately corroding.
Is Monmouth Road a community? You bet it is. In fact it probably keeps the company of less than a handful of others in all of Windsor. It's attributes are certain. The street has a rich history which we are all highly aware of. It's members are about something which is the maintenance and preservation of this unique place. We collectively care about what role this street has to play in the future. Where it is going. We are also aware that we too are involved in it's history. Communication has always been key in this neighbourhood. We are spontaneous and not afraid to connect with our neighbours. Where else can a wine and cheese party evolve on any given front lawn from a mere and singular act of washing a car. Something happens because something happens because something happens. As we all know, these opportunities are never rare. We even fight gracefully. Resolve almost always comes from mutual respect.
In truth, our Monmouth Road community is all of the above but what really sets it apart from any other is that we have each others back. Something worth coming home to every day.
