A Windsor city councillor takes some exception to comments made by the head of the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors that sales and prices downtown aren't keeping up with the rest of the city.
Earlier this week, Norm Langlois told BlackburnNews.com, "We have a core which is sitting, very dead, and the prices there haven't risen very much."
While there were 121 listings downtown in May, the most across the city, there were only 58 sales. In the rest of the city, sales continue to rise, up another 17% last month over May 2015.
Councillor Rino Bortolin admits the core has it's challenges.
"The property standards and the quality of the housing stock diminishes when you're talking about absentee landlords who are not taking care of their properties."
He says he'd love to work with Langlois on a strategy. The city already offers breaks on development charges. Also, a downtown planning study is looking at ways the city can encourage development including pinpointing areas ripe for it.
He also wonders if realtors shouldn't have the option of a contract in the core, similar to what they may enjoy with new developments in the suburbs.
However, Bortolin says it doesn't help that potential buyers are being encouraged to stay away from downtown.
" I have people who are moving here from Toronto, from out west, and they'll ask to go to the downtown core and they'll be told by realtors 'That's not a good neighbourhood. You don't want to buy a house there.'"
He says sales and prices may not have climbed as fast as other parts of Windsor, but they are up. Bortolin says it would be a different story if they were flat or in decline.
