J.R.R. Tolkien fans don’t need to journey to Middle-earth to visit the Shire, thanks to a creative Calgary family who had a vision for their vacation home.
They only need to know where to look in the Alberta foothills.
An earthen home built into the hillside near Millarville, Alta., by Calgarians Rodney and Ouida Touche in 1971 is on the market for the first time since its construction.
It was designed by Bill Milne, the architect behind the Calgary Tower and the city’s pathway system.
And if you ask many of the Millarville locals about a striking piece of real estate — the home with rounded walls and windows, hidden by its partially bermed construction — they will likely recognize the property they call the “Hobbit house.”
The living room fireplace pivots from the living room to the master bedroom with the flick of a switch. (Michael Kingston/CIR Realty)
As a child who spent summers there with her parents and siblings, Karen Lightstone did not understand the nickname.
As an adult who decided with her family to sell the house, it finally clicked.
“I have a copy of The Hobbit, and I pulled it out when we were to put it on the market,” Lightstone said.
“And the whole opening paragraph of Chapter 1 talks about the round door opening to a long, tube-shaped hallway. The best rooms are on the left because that’s where all the windows were. And I was like, ‘Oh my Lord, this is exactly what they built.'”
Home hidden to keep from being ‘eyesore’ in landscape
The house was built by carving away half of a hill, Lightstone said, and pouring concrete between domes made of mesh and rebar.
Because the home is partially bermed, it’s hard to see — a conscious decision, made to keep the home from ruining the sweeping landscape.
“My parents were trying to figure out where a good spot would be. They really didn’t want it visible on the ridge. They didn’t want any of the neighbours to be able to just see this house, because to them, that would be a bit of an eyesore,” Lightstone said.
“I don’t know how they came to decide exactly how it was going to be. But I do know — from doing some trips with my dad and from conversations he had — they were always interested in something unique like that.”
The view of the mountains from the house. (Michael Kingston/CIR Realty)
Maintaining the appearance of the Foothills was not all that mattered to Rodney and Ouida Touche. The property also has a Nature Conservancy of Canada easement attached to it, in order to ensure that the land is kept safe.
“They’re not trying to prohibit people from doing things, they’re trying to preserve and save the land,” Lightstone said.
“So a developer … couldn’t buy it and put up a bunch of houses. The nature conservancy would be there in a heartbeat.”
‘Someone else should really be enjoying this’
The inside of the house is as unique as the exterior, Lightstone said.
Lights and bunk beds are built into the walls, the tiles in the kitchen floor are slightly curved so that they don’t hurt bare feet and a fireplace can pivot from the living room to the master bedroom with the flick of a switch.
All in all, it can sleep eight — enough for big family gatherings.
These bunk beds are built into the walls and allow the home to sleep eight. (Michael Kingston/CIR Realty)
But Lightstone’s family is elsewhere now. She, herself, lives in New Brunswick.
And so, she said, they decided to let the property go. After nearly 50 years, someone else should get to experience the charms of the Hobbit house.
“We all love Alberta, but nobody is anywhere close,” Lightstone said.
“We were talking about it, and the grandchildren are all scattered all over the place, and it’s really not getting enough use. And so, we all decided that, you know what, someone else should really be enjoying this.”
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
