Best Window Cleaner
A little dab of this and that from your kitchen cupboard will provide you with the best window cleaner.
Around Earth Day 1990, every newspaper in the country (or so it seemed) offered recipes for non-toxic cleaning with the basics we all have in our kitchen cupboards, and the recipe for windows was invariably just plain vinegar and water with the option of drying the windows with old newspapers. People by the thousands tried this and swore off cleaning with homemade recipes for good because the formula left streaks on their windows.
Unfortunately, the commercial products they had used for so many years left a wax buildup and vinegar alone wouldn't do the job of removing the residue. Adding a dab of dish soap to the vinegar and water would have removed the buildup.
Recipe: Make a great all-purpose window cleaner by combining 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent, and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle. Combine in a spray bottle. Shake to blend.
Source: Care 2
Weather Impacts Ottawa Resale Market in March
The resale housing market was temporarily impacted in March by record snowfalls and challenging weather. Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB) sold 1086 residential units through the Board's Multiple Listing Service® during the month compared with 1303 sales in March 2007. Members sold 983 units in February 2008.
"The weather hindered sales last month. It's tough for people to get out and see houses when getting out of the driveway is a challenge," said OREB's president. "Even so, sales are up from February, and homes that sold last month were on the market for an average of just 34 days."
The average price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold on MLS® in March 2008 in the Ottawa area was $288,068, an increase of 5.1% over March 2007.
Source: Ottawa Real Estate Board
Property Tax Assessments Demystified
Assessing a property’s value for the purpose of calculating property tax is a complicated process involving many variables (and a lot of math). Fortunately, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has recently made some changes that can help homeowners gain a better understanding of how their property is assessed – and what that means for their tax bill.
A three-year freeze on property assessments ended on January 1 of this year, and MPAC staff is currently engaged in reassessing every property in Ontario. New assessments will be mailed to property owners in September, and will be effective for the 2009 through 2012 tax years. From now on, property values will be reassessed regularly every four years.
Assessments are intended to determine the "current value" of each property. Current value means the price a property might reasonably be expected to sell for, in its current condition, on the open market. The newly-redesigned MPAC web site (www.mpac.ca) contains a wealth of information about how properties are evaluated. According to MPAC, the 5 major factors that account for about 85 per cent of the value of any residential property are: (1) Age of the house; (2) Building area; (3) Location; (4) Lot dimensions; and (5) Quality of Construction.
Other features that may affect value include number of bathrooms, fireplaces, garages, pools, and whether the property has water frontage. All these features are analyzed with sales of comparable properties in the community to determine the current value assessment. That number is used by the City of Ottawa to calculate the owner’s property tax bills for the next 4 years. (If a property increases in value, the increase will be phased in over the 4 years; if it decreases, the entire decrease will come into effect immediately.) The city multiplies a home’s assessed value by the tax rates for each of the municipal and education portions of the bill, and adds the two numbers together to determine the amount an owner pays.
A section of MPAC’s web site called "About My Property" allows any property owner to review their assessment, along with those of up to twelve other properties of their choice, to compare assessment information for similar properties and help determine whether their property's assessed value is accurate.
What if an owner feels that his or her assessment is inaccurate? A brochure sent out with all assessment notices includes information about how to report inaccuracies and file a complaint or challenge. A page on MPAC’s web site called "Resolving Assessment Concerns" offers a direct link to the Request for Reconsideration form, as well as details on how an appeal to the Assessment Review Board (ARB) can be made.
In the case of an appeal, a REALTOR® member of the Ottawa Real Estate Board may be able to provide some assistance; as with any professional advice, there may be a cost for this service. Anyone, including a REALTOR®, may be called by an appellant to provide evidence at an ARB hearing. Whether they will be considered to have sufficient expertise to offer opinion evidence as an expert is up to the ARB.
Prepared by the Ottawa Real Estate Board. This article first appeared in the April 2008 issue of the EMC community newspapers.
The International ENERGY STAR® Symbol
The international ENERGY STAR symbol is a simple way for consumers to identify products that are among the most energy-efficient on the market. Only manufacturers and retailers whose products meet the ENERGY STAR criteria can label their products with this symbol. Choosing an ENERGY STAR-labelled product over a conventional model could save you hundreds of dollars in energy costs.
But there is more to ENERGY STAR than saving money. The use of energy-efficient products can also help save the environment. In many parts of Canada, fossil fuels are often burned to produce electricity. The burning of fossil fuels is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – a leading cause of climate change – and other pollutants that contribute to urban smog and acid rain. When you use less energy by selecting energy-efficient products, less electricity needs to be produced. Thus you are reducing GHG emissions and promoting cleaner air as well.
Home heating equipment such as furnaces or water heaters that burns fossil fuels directly will also produce less GHG emissions and other pollutants when they are more energy efficient, making for a cleaner, greener community.
For an energy-efficient household appliance, home heating or office equipment, consumer electronics or other products, look for the ENERGY STAR symbol.
Source: www.energystar.gc.ca
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