Shortly before the stock market had a cow and the jobless rate shot higher on Friday, another place in my ‘hood was listed. Yup, one more north of $3 million.

There are now three of them at that nosebleed level, or higher, within a few hundred feet.

What does this tell us about Niagara-on-the-Lake? Is the property market reviving as the equity market plops? Do we inhabit a special dimension?

Nope. Listing a house and selling it are two different things. You can dump a bunch of RBC shares or a stock fund in seconds. Finding a buyer with a few million for your abode takes an eternity. Sometimes years. 

Time for an update. 

Not surprisingly, realtors say everything’s ducky.

“Inventory is still holding fairly high, but recent improvement could be a sign of a busier than normal end of year for Niagara,” claims the local board boss, Nathan Morissette.

We’ve had three rate cuts. Two more are coming in the next three months. Mortgages are a third cheaper than a year ago.

So listings are up as we head into the autumn market (by about a fifth over last year). The length of time it takes to sell is creeping higher. But August saw a giant hike in the number of NOTL properties changing hands — in fact, 69 per cent more (27 as opposed to 16 last year).

Why? Cheaper home loans, for sure. (“This gives buyers even more confidence needed to move ahead with the process and come off the sidelines,” says Morissette.)

But it also looks like valuations have cracked. The average selling price is now $97,600 less then 12 months ago, and has dipped below the million-dollar mark. This is a meaningful drop of 9 per cent. Moreover, it’s three times the rate of decline for Niagara Region as a whole.

Witness: A decent five-bedroom place near the golf course was just reduced — by $240,000. It’ll sell for hundreds of thousands less than the owners paid. Oops. 

But these are “one percenter” problems. Let’s keep stuff in perspective.

Have you been following the migrants-are-slaves story? Me, too. Apparently the UN has a person mandated to chase “contemporary forms of slavery.” In his crosshairs are migrant farm workers, as in NOTL.

“Canada should end labour migration arrangements that foster exploitation by creating dependency situations that tie workers to their employers,” the snowflake wrote.

“They institutionalize asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.”

There are some 1,500 workers around here. Most stay eight months. They do tasks Canadians reject. Our growers depend on them. To my eye, they also respect and help them.

The other night I walked into a church hall in the Old Town where volunteers feverishly prepared for a dinner migrant workers would enjoy.

Barbecuers cooked outside. The kitchen was buzzing. Tables had favours and flowers. Soon about 100 men from Mexico, Colombia and elsewhere feasted on burgers, dogs, greens and treats.

The hosts were from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Food came from the St. Davids Lions and the Peach Festival. The $900 tab was footed by private donations. This is a sliver of what folks here do.

The Gateway gang fixes and makes available bicycles. Farmers/employers provide shelter and transport. Volunteers stock refrigerators and wash bedding before the men arrive. Some of the workers return annually to the same farms, making wages critical for families they left.

Slaves they are not. Nor are they citizens. Temporary foreign workers have also become a flashpoint for xenophobic Canadians who think these guys are stealing jobs or jacking up house prices. In truth, they’re taking a toll. They make us stopping staring at our navels.