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Video (Courtesy of The Globe and Mail) Luxury homes in Montreal is up 300% Luxury Starter Home for Montreal estimated to be at $1.5 million.

Je vous conseille de lire l'histoire, très intéressante ! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3uKf5P1lFmg&refer=home Madoff Confessed $50 Billion Fraud Before FBI Arrest (Update1) By David Voreacos and David Glovin Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff confessed to employees this week that his investment advisory business was “a giant Ponzi scheme” that cost clients $50 billion before two FBI agents showed up yesterday morning at his Manhattan apartment. “We’re here to find out if there’s an innocent explanation,” Agent Theodore Cacioppi told Madoff, who founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and was the former head of the Securities Industry Association’s trading committee. “There is no innocent explanation,” Madoff, 70, told the agents, saying he traded and lost money for institutional clients. He said he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there” and expected to go to jail. With that, agents arrested Madoff, according to an FBI complaint. The 8:30 a.m. arrest capped the downfall of Madoff and businesses bearing his name that specialized in trading securities, making markets, and advising wealthy clients. Many questions remain unanswered, including whether Madoff’s clients actually lost $50 billion. The complaint and a civil lawsuit by regulators describe a man spinning out of control. Madoff appeared in federal court in Manhattan at 6 p.m., wearing a white-striped shirt and dark-colored pants. U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Eaton described the securities-fraud charge against him and set a $10 million bond at a hearing where Madoff said nothing. Madoff later posted the bond, secured by his apartment and guaranteed by his wife. Hedge Funds, Banks Madoff’s firm had about $17.1 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 17, according to NASD records. At least half of its clients were hedge funds, and others included banks and wealthy individuals, according to the records. The firm was the 23rd-largest market maker on Nasdaq in October, handling an average of about 50 million shares a day, exchange data show. It took orders from online brokers for some of the largest U.S. companies, including General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc. Prosecutors joined the Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a civil lawsuit, in scrambling to unravel the collapse of Madoff’s Investment Securities business. The broker-dealer and investment adviser was housed in a lipstick-shaped building at 885 Third Ave. A rapid series of events in early December preceded the firm’s demise, according to the arrest complaint and SEC lawsuit. In the first week of December, Madoff told a worker identified as Senior Employee No. 2 that clients had requested $7 billion in redemptions, he was struggling to find liquidity, and he thought he could do so, according to the FBI and SEC. ‘Under Great Stress’ Senior employees “previously understood” that the investment advisory business managed between $8 billion and $15 billion in assets, according to the documents. On Dec. 9, Madoff told a colleague identified as Senior Employee No. 1 that he wanted to pay bonuses in December, or two months earlier than usual. The next day, Madoff got a visit at his offices from the employees. They said he appeared “under great stress” in prior weeks, according to the documents. Madoff told the visitors that “he had recently made profits through business operations, and that now was a good time to distribute it,” according to the FBI complaint. When the workers challenged that explanation, Madoff said he “wasn’t sure he would be able to hold it together” at the office and preferred to meet at his apartment, Senior Employee No. 2 told investigators. He ran his investment advisory business from a separate floor of his firm’s offices, keeping financial statements “under lock and key,” prosecutors said. ‘One Big Lie’ At his apartment, Madoff told the employees that his investment advisory business was a “fraud” and he was “finished,” according to the FBI complaint. He said he had “absolutely nothing,” that “it’s all just one big lie,” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme,” Agent Cacioppi wrote in the complaint. The senior employees understood Madoff to be saying he had paid investors for years out of principal from other investors, the agent wrote. The business had been insolvent for years, said Madoff, who then estimated losses at more than $50 billion. Madoff said he had $200 million to $300 million left, and he planned to pay employees, family, and friends. Madoff, who had also confessed to a third senior employee, said he planned to surrender to authorities within a week, according to the complaint. Cacioppi and another agent beat Madoff to the punch. After saying he had no “innocent explanation,” Madoff confessed “it was all his fault,” Cacioppi wrote. ‘Broke,’ ‘Insolvent’ “Madoff also said that he was ‘broke’ and ‘insolvent’ and that he had decided that ‘it could not go on,’ and that he expected to go to jail,” the agent wrote. “Madoff also stated that he had recently admitted what he had done to Senior Employee Nos. 1, 2, and 3.” Madoff founded the firm in 1960 after leaving law school at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, according to the company’s Web site. His brother, Peter, joined the firm in 1970 after graduating from law school, it said. Madoff, who owned more than 75 percent of his firm, and his brother Peter, are the only two listed on regulatory records as “direct owners and executive officers.” Madoff was influential with the Nasdaq Stock Market, serving as chairman of the board of directors, according to the FBI complaint. He was chief of the Securities Industry Association’s trading committee in the 1990s and earlier this decade. He represented brokerages in talks with regulators about new stock-market rules as electronic-trading systems and networks grew. Madoff, who founded his firm in 1960, won an assignment to manage a $450,000 stock offering for A.L.S. Steel Corp. of Corona, New York, two years later, according to an SEC news digest. He was an early advocate for electronic trading, joining roundtable discussions with SEC regulators considering trading stocks in penny increments. His firm was among the first to make markets in New York Stock Exchange listed stocks outside of the Big Board, relying instead on Nasdaq. Madoff’s Web site advertises the “high ethical standards” of his firm. “In an era of faceless organizations owned by other equally faceless organizations, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC harks back to an earlier era in the financial world: The owner’s name is on the door. Clients know that Bernard Madoff has a personal interest in maintaining the unblemished record of value, fair-dealing, and high ethical standards that has always been the firm’s hallmark.” The case is U.S. v. Madoff, 08-MAG-02735, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Dans mes rêves, j'habite cette tour...elle est vraiment vraiment belle. Le projet prévoit l'ajout d'un 9e étage sur le dessus, qui sera le penthouse. Il y a présentement une grue sur le site. La construction est donc commencée. ---------------------------------------------------------- Projet : Europa Secteur : Vieux-Montréal Adresse : 750 Places d'Armes Prix : Plus que 3 unités... #31, 1942 pc., 799 000$ #81, 1920 pc., 799 000$ #90, 4000 pc., 2 000 000$ Nombre d'unité : 22 Chambre : 2 Salle de bains : 1+1 Garage : disponible Agent : Mickaël Chaput, agent immobilier affilié Montréal Téléphone : 514.502.7519 Site Web : www.projeteuropa.com ----------------------------------------------------------

Prix des maisons: le marché reste vigoureux à Montréal Photo archives La Presse Le mardi 15 janvier 2008 Stéphane Paquet La Presse Si votre beau-frère est agent immobilier, vous avez peut-être remarqué qu'il était tout sourire dans le temps des Fêtes. Et si tout se passe comme prévu, il pourrait bien avoir le même minois à Pâques. Après 2005 et 2006, voici que 2007 enregistre une autre année record dans le secteur immobilier de la très grande région montréalaise. De Lanaudière à la Montérégie en passant par Laval, les Laurentides et Montréal, jamais autant de maisons et de condos n'ont été vendus. Pour être plus précis, 55 776 résidences ont changé de mains à l'aide d'un agent, une croissance de 11% par rapport à l'année précédente. L'avantage est décidément resté aux mains des vendeurs, qui ont vu le prix de leur foyer augmenter entre 5% et 8%. Deux exceptionssignificatives: les condos des Laurentides qui s'échangent au même prix qu'en 2006 et les maisons unifamiliales de Lanaudière dont les prix ont progressé de 10%. Dans ce dernier cas, on note toutefois qu'elles s'échangent encore à la moitié du prix d'une maison dans l'île de Montréal. Le marché montréalais est donc bien loin de la crise immobilière américaine. «C'est toujours mieux d'avoir un rendement raisonnable qui dure longtemps plutôt que d'avoir un rendement exceptionnel suivi d'une perte exceptionnelle», souligne Michel Beauséjour, chef de la direction de la Chambre immobilière du Grand Montréal. La question de décembre Est-ce la météo difficile de décembre? Toujours est-il qu'il y a eu une légère baisse de l'activité en décembre -la première en 16 mois. Moins 3% dans l'ensemble du marché. Michel Jobin, qui est agent depuis 22 ans, a senti un léger ralentissement à l'automne. «J'ai de belles maisons actuellement, elles sont impeccables. Mais je n'ai pas eu de demandes. Ça veut dire quoi? Qu'elles sont trop chères», confie celui qui travaille dans Montréal-Nord et une partie d'Ahuntsic. Tableau: le prix des maisons dans la grande région de Montréal et ses environs Source: Chambre immobilière du Grand Montréal Même un agent comme André Bouchard, de Sutton Accès, qui trouve le marché hot, constate que certains condos se vendent moins bien. «Si vous avez un condo de 500 à 750 pieds carrés, ça ne se vend pas.» Ovina Horth, de La Capitale, indique aussi que les multiplex sont plus difficiles à vendre qu'avant, que le marché est généralement plus lent. Il montre du doigt les légères hausses de taux d'intérêt de l'année dernière. «Ce n'est pas tellement haut, mais ça affecte la capacité de payer des gens», dit l'agent qui a presque 30 ans d'expérience derrière la cravate. À la Chambre immobilière, Michel Beausoleil n'est pas inquiet face à ces données de décembre. «On ne peut pas dire que c'est une tendance», dit-il, même si le temps de vente a légèrement augmenté, passant de 73 à 76 jours. M. Beausoleil regarde tout de même les données du côté américain. «S'il y avait une récession majeure, c'est sûr qu'il y aurait un impact au Canada. Si c'est une petite récession, on aura une année semblable à 2007.» Constat semblable du côté de la Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement, où on fait toutefois une nuance dans cette flopée de chiffres records. «Avec des maisons plus chères, le marché est plus à l'avantage de l'acheteur», précise l'économiste Sandra Girard. Pour 2008, l'agence fédérale prévoit une hausse de prix de 5 ou 6% dans la région. Votre beau-frère pourrait continuer d'afficher son plus beau sourire. Cyberpresse http://montoit.cyberpresse.ca/habitation/articles/6764-Prix-des-maisons-le-marche-reste-vigoureux-a-Montreal.html

Montreal gladly reclaims its 'Hollywood North' tag BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette Published: Thursday, May 10, 2007 It's amazing what a little labour peace can do for the film business. Only two months after a long, bitter dispute between two rival film technicians unions was finally resolved, local movie folks are positively euphoric as they gear up for their busiest period of Hollywood shooting in years. Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Evangeline Lilly and John Malkovich are all on their way to shoot in Montreal in the coming weeks, and Hans Fraikin - film commissioner at the Quebec Film and Television Council - said Hollywood filming in the city is definitely going to top last year's tally of $150 million. He thinks the total might actually inch toward the $200-million mark and he said the boom is directly tied to the resolution in late February of the feud between the Alliance quebecoise des techniciens de l'image et du son (AQTIS), the local film union, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), an American union. They were fighting over who should represent the province's film workers. Cate Blanchett: with Brad Pitt. "We were close to total industrial implosion at the beginning of the year," Fraikin said. "It was Armageddon. Now it's looking healthier than expected. But we worked hard on resolving the conflict and convincing people that Quebec was open for business again. And it's paying off." Local industry players got news this week that Death Race 3000 will be produced here. This is a remake of the 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000 that starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone in a story set in the future about a violent road race that takes place between New York and Los Angeles. The remake will star British actor Jason Statham and is being produced by Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner. The other recent addition to the local film-shoot lineup is Get Smart, the big-screen adaptation of the classic 1960s spy-spoof TV series. Carell will star as goofball secret agent Maxwell Smart, Hathaway will play sultry Agent 99, and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson will play Agent 23, a newly created character. The producers will shoot only a part of the film here, spending around 20 days in town next month. Pitt and Blanchett will be here for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a Paramount production directed by David Fincher and adapted from the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who begins to age backwards. That film has already wrapped several months of shooting in New Orleans, and the filmmakers will be here for just eight days at the end of month. They will be filming Old Montreal as Paris and Moscow in winter, which will entail importing huge amounts of artificial snow. Far and away the biggest shoot on the way is The Mummy 3. The crew is already in pre-production for the third instalment in the Mummy series, which begins filming here July 27 and is expected to occupy several sound stages at Mel's Cite du Cinema studio right through to the end of the year. It is estimated that the producers will hire between 800 and 900 local technicians to work on the Universal Pictures project. Brendan Fraser - who was here last summer shooting a new version of Journey to the Center of the Earth - reprises his role as adventurer Rick O'Connell, but Rachel Weisz, who played his wife, will not be on board this time. Action star Jet Li will play the mummy, Michelle Yeoh plays a wizard, and 26-year-old Australian thespian Luke Ford will join the series as O'Connell's son. Filming will continue in China after the Montreal shoot. Kate Beckinsale has been here for a few weeks shooting Whiteout, a thriller about a U.S. marshal hunting a killer in Antarctica, and production has been under way here since late March on the U.S.A. Network series The Dead Zone, which stars Anthony Michael Hall. Alberta-born Lost star Lilly and Malkovich are due here in early June for Afterwards, a Canada-France co-production that co-stars Moliere lead Romain Duris. Brian Baker, business agent at the Quebec branch of the Directors Guild of Canada, said that one reason filming is booming is because the Hollywood producers are ramping up production to stockpile films in case of labour unrest in Hollywood next year. There is widespread speculation that both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America could go on strike in 2008. "But that's not the whole story (behind the Montreal boom) because they're dying in Toronto," Baker said. Fraikin said the shoots are back in our city because the labour issues have been settled. "No producer is going to go anywhere near an unstable industrial environment," Fraikin said. "They can't take the risk." It also helped that two of the bigger hits of the first half of the year, 300 and Blades of Glory, were both shot at least in part here, reminding Hollywood producers that Montreal is a good location. bkelly@thegazette.canwest.com