About Essex County, ON

For the 92,999 cars and 22,300 trucks that cross the US-Canadian border each day, crossing the border will be more difficult once the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative takes effect in June, 2009. A response to homeland security concerns, the US is installing scanners and radio frequency identification cards at each customs lane at the 39 ports of entry. These units will be operational by December, 2008 at most ports and by April at Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie.

Those travelers who have NEXUS cards or enhanced driver's licenses embedded with a radio-frequency chip will present the card for scanning and the customs inspectors will know the citizenship, residency, biographical information, and photo of the driver before he reaches the booth. Other citizens will need to provide passports.

Customs inspectors will warn those without the proper documents of what to bring in the future. The border checks aim to detect security risks, but also facilitate legitimate travel. As Chief Ron Smith, head of boarder protection, Detroit field office of the Department of Homeland Security, put it "If we said ‘Your don't have this so you have to go home,' the border would shut down and we'd be hurting the economy." Those without the proper documents will be quizzed by customer officials to see if residency and citizenship can be determined and warned to bring the right documents the next time; if not, they will be turned away.

Currently, the states of Michigan, New York, Washington, Vermont, and Texas either offer enhanced driver's licenses or are preparing to. In Ontario, the issue is still under discussion in the legislation, but licenses and photo id's for non-drivers are expected to be available before spring.

For information about great places to live in Windsor, call your Prudential Select Real Estate Agent Mark Tesolin at (519) 972-5505 or visit http://marktesolin.com

Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit organization that offers handmade items from artisan co-operatives in developing countries, has a great store in Windsor, right at 3225 Sandwich Street. In addition to handicrafts, the selection also includes Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate, dried fruit, and sugar, and have recently added jams and preserves from Swaziland in South Africa.

The concept behind the project developed in 1946 when a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker Edna Ruth Byler brought home some beautiful embroidery from Puerto Rica. The pieces were made in sewing classes by women who helped to learn a trade to bring their families out of poverty. Byler found the pieces so popular among friends and neighbors that she sought items and agricultural products from other developing countries to sell. For 25 years, this effort was managed from Byler's basement before the MCC took it over and named it Selfhelp Crafts, By 1996, the project had attracted many customers, supporters, and volunteers and became known as 10,000 villages.

The organization strives to help workers around the world become self sufficient through their labor. Its goods are sold at Fair Trade prices so that the artisans receive the decent wages for their labor. When items are ordered from artisan groups, a price is set and the artisan receives half of the money upfront so that they have money for supplies. The balance is paid before the items are ready to be shipped. Teen Thousand Villages is a member to the International Fair Trade Association, a worldwide network committed to social justice and the well-being of disadvantaged producers.

Ten Thousand Villages has 49 stores throughout Canada, including there one in Windsor. almost entirely staffed by volunteers The Windsor store is a project of the Global Resource Centre, which is a lending library with educational materials on the developing world, the environment, labor, and such issues as women, poverty, globalization, etc. It also has a computer with a Jaws program, which is available for use by the visually impaired and the blind.

In addition to the stores, 10,000 Villages holds festivals in different areas to promote the products and culture of the 36 countries of origin.

You can find out more about them or order online at www.tenthousandvillages.com.

For information about great places to live in Windsor, call your Prudential Select Real Estate Agent Mark Tesolin at (519) 972-5505 or visit http://marktesolin.com

The housing inflation that has characterized the housing market in the United States has drifted northward, it seems, according to a report by Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. In a study of nine Canadian cities, seven of them have housing stock that is overvalued by $32,000-87,000. Housing prices were compared to what they would be in a market where home prices and rents would be in balance. Other factors taken into account include mortgage rates, costs of home ownership, and long term price appreciation.

While Toronto prices are in balance and those in Edmonton below by 8%, prices in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Regina, and Winnipeg are at least 20% too high. The housing prices in these cities rose 87% between 1997-2006. During the same time period, housing in the Unites States rose 132%.

Whether prices fall in Canada depends on the supply of available unsold homes or discrepancies between the number of available units vs. the number of people ready to occupy them. Because Canadian lending policies have been more conservative than in the Unites States, there is more equity in homes which may allow the market to regulate itself in time. Only in Vancouver are prices expected to decline.

For information about great places to live in Windsor, call your Prudential Select Real Estate Agent Mark Tesolin at (519) 972-5505 or visit http://marktesolin.com

While it is not official yet, all signs are pointing toward Windsor as the location for Nissan's next improvement. Nissan and Chrysler have recently announced an assembly partnership that involves each company doing what they do best. Nissan will be building the Dodge Hornet for Chrysler and Chrysler has agreed to build the 2011 Titan pickup truck for Nissan. This expansion seems to pave the way for Chrysler to build the 2010 Nissan Quest or its replacement at the Windsor Assembly Plant.

This would be a win-win situation for all involved, especially the 4,600 members of the CAW Local 444 at the Windsor plant. Due to the decline in sales of minivans, there has been a worry that the plant would lose its third shift and along with it hundreds of jobs, but if Chrysler takes on the Nissan minivan it will mean a thriving assembly plant.

Nissan has not had a good record with its minivan, whereas Chrysler has been setting the bar for the minivan industry for decades. The success of the Dodge Grand Caravan and the Chrysler Town and Country have also enticed Volkswagen to have its 2009 Routan minivan built in the Windsor assembly plant. Sources at the Windsor Assembly plant and the Windsor-Detroit auto industry say the Nissan deal has been in the works for months and they expect it to be announced within the next few weeks.

For information about great places to live in Windsor, call your Prudential Select Real Estate Agent Mark Tesolin at (519) 972-5505 or visit http://marktesolin.com

Windsor is home to Coulter's, "Ontario's largest furniture store" which boasts 80,000 square feet of showroom, a quality stock of North America's best furniture manufacturers, and a colorful history.

Coulter's started as a family business in Essex in1863, when James Coulter started a lumber business and then, after relocating to Windsor, a coal business in hopes of supplying entrepreneurs in Detroit. Later generations of Coulters replaced coal sales with fuel deliveries to business and residential customers in the 1950's when the demand for coal dropped. Always ahead of marketing trends, Coulter used its location on Windsor Avenue, a block east of Windsor's main thoroughfare Quinlette St,. to open a small retail outlet that sold custom fireplaces, equipment, and screens to the public. By 1958, Coulter's opened a small showroom of colonial furniture. The endeavor was so prosperous that Coulter's sold its fuel business and fleet of trucks to Texaco in 1969 - in anticipation that natural gas would overtake the demand for home heating oil.

Coulter's soon expanded their offering beyond colonial furniture but maintained their commitment to only offer the finest brands. They saw their market as both Canada and nearby Michigan. As Craig Coulter put it in 2005 "We are able to undercut U.S. prices while offering excellent value. Also, there is no duty, no U.S. tax, no Canadian GST (goods and services tax) nor PST (provincial services tax), so our American customers can buy as much as they want of well-designed, high-quality home furnishings. I sincerely hope the Canadian dollar drops again; a lower dollar is much better for our manufacturing exporters, too. We have delivery trucks in Michigan every day now. We also occasionally export to Europe; we have local customers who have relatives there."

The business includes two locations, both open seven days, and offers design services. The store guarantees quality, selection, and best prices - a winning combination.

For more of the fascinating Coulter story, visit their website at www.coulters.com and check out http://www.furninfo.com/absolutenm/templates/Article_Retailing.asp?articleid=5164&zoneid=5 .

Need a house in Windsor to showcase your Coulter bargains? For information about great places to live in Windsor, call your Prudential Select Real Estate Agent Mark Tesolin at (519) 972-5505 or visit http://marktesolin.com.