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Allenby
This neighbourhood is comfortably nestled between North Toronto and Forest Hill, an ideal place for families with children – and with money – in close proximity to many green areas in particular the Beltline Trail and North Toronto Memorial Community Recreation Centre.
Allenby’s homes were primarily built in the 1930s and 1940s, often in Tudor style, featuring larger than average lots. Renovations have been popular in recent years, with many homeowners maintaining pieces of the original woodwork and ornamental accents, retaining an old world charm.
Map of the Allenby neighbourhood
Shopping along its southern border on Eglinton Avenue is bountiful with gourmet food shops, an array of clothing stores, restaurants, art galleries and facilities that cater to the needs of young families. Allenby is mainly a residential area with many traffic calming zones creating a peaceful and safe environment for family living.
The North Toronto Memorial Community Recreation Centre features both indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, walking track, aerobic and weight rooms and two artificial ice rinks that are used as tennis courts during summer months. Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy the nearby Beltline trail.
Along with the public and private schools, the neighbourhood is also home to the well reputed Allenby Public School with a French Immersion program for elementary school aged children. Frequent buses connect commuters with the Eglinton subway station, and both the 401 and downtown Toronto can be reached by car in approximately 15 minutes.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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Condominium builders battle for the middle ground
High-rise projects sandwiched between downtown and the suburbs have to offer more to compete effectively
By Derek Raymaker – The Globe and Mail
The vast choice in new high-rise condominium suites in central Toronto has wedged prices and demand in a nice equilibrium, if temporarily.
At an average price of $331 a square foot across Greater Toronto, condominium prices are not spiralling out of control in the same way as new detached homes, even though four high-profile super-luxury projects, including one under the Ritz-Carlton banner, have been launched, driving up the average price.
And Torontonians should be surprised and satisfied to know that condo prices here are in line with most other Canadian cities, and actually a bargain compared with Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary.
When you pull yourself away from the economic analysis (which shouldn’t be too hard) and visit the sales centres of new downtown projects, you’ll find finely tuned marketing machines aiming directly at the lifestyle-oriented instincts of buyers looking for convenience and trendy design.
But it’s location that will always trump these other factors, and a hot corner can be worth all the granite countertops in the world. There are over two dozen condo sales centres currently open in central Toronto, and there would seem to be something for everyone .
The new projects competing with them in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough need to offer more.
Developers in this grey area of the high-rise market — not quite downtown, not quite suburban — have also gravitated to particular locations featuring either scenery or convenient transportation.
In Etobicoke, the western lakeshore straddling the mouth of the Humber River continues to hit the right notes with buyers. The subway — and subway extensions — have guided North York’s high-rise development. And the Scarborough Town Centre transit and highway corridor is the site of pretty much all of the high-rise projects in that former borough. Of course, these all come with the discount you’d expect for being out of the trendy loop that exists south of Eglinton Avenue.
None of this is rocket science to any savvy marketing team. But there is one key advantage these traditional low-rise neighbourhoods have over the trendy downtown projects that bodes well for future high-rise development. That is the prevalence of tens of thousands of older couples who want to sell their large maintenance-intensive houses, but not leave their neighbourhoods.
There’s also the added bonus that many of these older buyers are able to buy a high-end two-bedroom suite priced at $500,000 or so with no mortgage after they sell their family house for $750,000 in pockets like Lawrence Park or The Kingsway.
Bayview Avenue has been a particularly popular spot for new empty-nester buyers looking for a well-appointed suite with larger square footages than you’d find in downtown Toronto‘s shoeboxes in the sky to handle all the family heirlooms.
Daniels Corporation’s Kilgour Estates, just south of Lawrence Avenue, has been a huge hit with homeowners from the immediate area, with prices starting at $474,000 and going up to $1,586,000 for between 1,072 and 2,293 square feet.
Further north on Sheppard Avenue is Shane Baghai’s St. Gabriel Village, on a site to be shared with a church and to feature an emphasis on energy conservation. It has been on the market for a year with prices at $479 a square foot.
The overall price picture outside of downtown features many projects with fairly expensive suites like those mentioned above, and loads of traditional high-rise condos catering to the first-time buyer on a budget, but not much in between.
The early data for 2006 indicates it’s been a soft market overall in these areas, with a lot of building going on but not much buying.
In west North York, the average high-rise suite price reported for February was $269 a square foot, up a modest 3.8% from February, 2005, according to data compiled by RealNet Canada. The North Yonge Street corridor reports a price of $316 a square foot, up 1.6% from February, 2005, while Scarborough was at $276 a square foot, up 6.1% from February, 2005.
Etobicoke average suite prices are actually above the Greater Toronto average at $359 a square foot in February, up 3.1% from $348 in February, 2005.
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First Time Buyers Are Opting For Condominiums
First-time buyers will increasingly favour condominiums with the rate of condo purchases projected to double among this group in the next three years. Of those who bought their first property in the past five years, 10% bought condominiums, while 21% of potential buyers intend to purchase one. Detached homes are expected to account for a smaller proportion of sales among potential buyers than they have in the past five years.
According to Scotiabank, who participated in the report, strong economic fundamentals, low interest rates and flexible finance programs have made home ownership an attractive prospect for a diverse group of entry-level buyers. First-time buyers tend to be well informed on most aspects of buying a home, however the survey found that they demonstrated a need to focus more on long term planning.
New homebuyers and potential buyers were asked: “If you have a $150,000 mortgage and the interest rate increases from 5% to 6%, approximately how much more would you pay over the next ten years?” The majority of respondents (39%) said they did not know how much they would pay. Only 18% of respondents estimated correctly ($10,000 to $15,000).
Today’s first-time buyers have a large volume of information and educational tools available to them. They are an incredibly savvy demographic when it comes to using the internet to research the real estate market, neighborhoods and properties. While they are more knowledgeable than first- time buyers in previous years, they are still largely inexperienced in the complexities of a real estate transaction.
First-time buyers are well aware of the possibility of interest rate increases and factor them into their decision to buy, but their awareness on how an interest rate increase could affect their future finances is surprisingly low. We encourage first-time buyers to take both current and future financial needs into account.
“Despite the steady rise in home and condo prices in recent years, Canadians’ mortgage servicing costs have remained close to record low levels – thanks to low interest rates and healthy income gains,” said Charles Lambert, Managing Director, Mortgages at Scotiabank. “Nonetheless, with interest rates expected to drift modestly higher over the coming year, it’s important that first-time homebuyers have a strategy in place to properly structure their borrowing.”
Lambert advises potential homeowners to “do your homework – crunch some numbers and know what you can afford when you go out shopping for that house or condominium.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
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