Where have all the houses gone? There is talk of a turnaround as Elliot Lake realtors sell houses faster and more often.

Elliot Lake Mayor George Farkouh has done a lot of work in the past couple of decades to keep his city from disappearing.

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The veteran chairman of the committee of the whole has given presentations on how Elliot Lake defied the odds at the request of government and other officials in Miramichi, New Brunwick, Chicago, Boston, Cincinnati, and Lethbridge and Drummondville, Alberta.

He has also addressed United Nations officials in New York, and travelled to Sweden to speak to an assembly of the Canadian Swedish Business Association in May.

When he goes, he talks about diversification, armed with statistics illustrating the bust that began with the closure of the mines at the start of the 1990s. He talks about the balancing out of the economy since, precipitated by the raging success of the retirement living initiative.

This story is not a new one, but what has happened to the real estate market since October 2003 is.

Farkouh may have to add a few paragraphs to the script if it keeps up.

City Councillor and Re/Max broker Clarence Baarda came to the city in 1996.

He describes the real estate market then as not completely stagnant, but flat and stale.

He has no facts or figures to explain why the market has turned around since fall 2003, but it doesn't take a master's thesis to dissect what is going on.

Whether the turnaround has anything to do with the success of the cottage lots pilot program (the city was able to get permission from the province to sell off some nearby waterfront lots on Crown land for cottage development) is anyone's guess, but the timing is impeccable.

The cottage lots program launched a few months prior, in early summer. On the first day tenders were opened, city officials had stacks of printed e-mails expressing interest half a foot high.

But as far as Baarda can tell, the majority of property buyers coming to the city are still retirees looking for an alternative to the rat race and urban sprawl that is southern Ontario.

A combination of marketing and word-of-mouth promotion has kept the influx of seniors steady.

But anyone looking for a house in Elliot Lake has a lot fewer choices today than they would have two years ago.

"We used to carry between 250 and 300 listings," Baarda illustrates. "Now, we have 30 to 40 listings at the most at any given time."

Houses are being sold in two weeks or less, he says, adding the cash value of sales in 2004 was 13 per cent higher than in 2003, and 2005 is proving to be a better year again.

"We don't have any percentages yet, but we're well ahead of 2004 (year-to-date) in 2005. It's a seller's market for a change."

The total value of building permits in the city has more than tripled in the last year, from $2.6 million to $6.68 million, and the number issued has increased by about 25 per cent, from 280 residential permits, for example, to 387.

Even the sleepy retirement community has been touched by the metals price race driven by the rapidly emerging free markets in India and China. There has been something of a staking rush around the area's remaining uranium deposits, but Farkouh cautions against straying from the plan.

"The strategy remains to continue to focus on classic economic development," he says. "We're using small building blocks to create a healthy economy."

www.cityofelliotlake.com

By CRAIG GILBERT

Northern Ontario Business