Sale of the Week: the $1.7-million Yonge and Eglinton home that shows the power of a good school district
(Image: William Kwok/WillTour360)
Address: 697 Oriole Parkway
Neighbourhood: Yonge and Eglinton
Agent: Sue Mills and the Mills Team, Royal LePage Signature Realty, Brokerage
The Property: This two-storey home’s polished concrete and wood finishes make for a modern, loft-like interior. The home is in the vicinity of some of Toronto’s best private and public schools, and the patio overlooks Eglinton Park.
The History: This house was built in 2008 on a lot that used to be occupied by a bungalow. A family snapped it up shortly thereafter. They were specifically seeking a home within the Allenby Junior Public School district.
The Fate: The new buyers are moving from Aurora to be closer to their friends and midtown’s school districts. Their investment could turn out to be a very good one, in part because the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail line, set for completion in 2020, will dramatically improve the house’s access to public transit.
The Sale: The buyers swooped in with a firm offer on the first day the property was listed. The sellers, however, weren’t prepared to let the home go until they’d secured a nearby house within the same school district. Their longtime agent pulled through, and the deal for 697 Oriole Parkway was finalized within two days.
By the Numbers:
• $1,690,000
• 2,247 square feet above grade, approximately
• 99 per cent of list price
• 14 nearby schools
• 4 bedrooms
• 4 washrooms
• 1-car built-in garage
• 1 day on the market
306219 The original owner razed a bungalow and built this two-storey house in its place. (Image: William Kwok/WillTour360) https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-1-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-1.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-1/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-1 0 0
(Image: William Kwok/WillTour360)
306220 Here's the foyer. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-2-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-2.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-2/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-2 0 0
306221 The living room has its own little Juliet balcony facing the street, which must be nice when there isn't a foot of snow on the ground. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-3-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-3.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-3/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-3 0 0
306222 The dining space is continuous with the living area. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-4-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-4.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-4/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-4 0 0
306223 And this little office is tucked into a corner behind the dining area. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-5-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-5.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-5/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-5 0 0
306224 The family room is at the back of the house. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-6-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-6.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-6.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-6/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-6 0 0
306225 And right next to the family room is the kitchen. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-7-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-7.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-7.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-7/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-7 0 0
306226 The main-floor powder room. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-8-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-8.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-8.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-8/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-8 0 0
306227 There are four bedrooms on the second floor of the house. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-9-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-9.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-9.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-9/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-9 0 0
306228 The previous owners were evidently really big on wall typography. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-10-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-10.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-10.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-10/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-10 0 0
306229 Wall typography shows you care. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-11-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-11.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-11.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-11/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-11 0 0
306230 And here's the last of the kids' rooms. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-12-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-12.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-12.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-12/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-12 0 0
306231 This is the main second-floor washroom. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-13-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-13.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-13.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-13/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-13 0 0
306232 And here's the master bedroom. It has a Juliet balcony, a fireplace and a walk-in closet. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-14-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-14.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-14.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-14/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-14 0 0
306233 The master bedroom's en suite washroom. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-15-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-15.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-15.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-15/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-15 0 0
306234 And there's also a basement rec room. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-16-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-16.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-16.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-16/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-16 0 0
306235 Here's the view from the back. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-17-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-17.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-17.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-17/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-17 0 0
306236 A huge selling point: the house has Eglinton Park in its backyard. https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-18-150x150.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-18.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-18.jpg 1200 800 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway/slide/toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-18/ toronto-sale-of-the-week-697-oriole-parkway-18 0 0
Can someone please explain what the significance of the school district is? Even though my mother is a teacher (ranked in the top three of Ontario in 2014), and I’m a former real estate agent, I still don’t understand why being in a certain school district can suddenly make a property worth so much more.
When it comes to the initial prestige, I get that there’s a certain perceived higher quality of education at one school versus another. As in, I get that the perception itself exists, but I don’t understand the reasoning behind it. The curriculum is exactly the same at all of the schools. They teach exactly the same things. Perhaps EQAO test scores come into play here as an evaluator of a given school’s competency… but let’s be realistic here. Everybody knows EQAO is a total joke – the tests are optional, students who cannot take the test due to a disability get counted as a “zero” (which artificially toys with the averages), and teachers have been known to falsify EQAO results on numerous occasions, which blurs the accuracy of the scores at hand.
I’m aware that this opens up a whole other debate of the utility of standardized testing. But isn’t selecting a house based on the ranking of the school in that district basically saying “I’m going to spend $xxx,xxx more on a house because a test with only marginal credibility says the school that this house is zoned for is better”? I don’t see the logic behind that.
But when it comes to the sellers wanting to “stay within the same school district”, I really start to wonder just how much parents know before making seven-figure decisions. If you’re worried about your kids having to switch schools, that doesn’t have to happen? Why? The school you start at becomes your “home school”, regardless of where you move to. I know this because I went to school in Scarborough for grade nine, and when I tried to switch to a school in my neighbourhood (as I was in the Scarborough school on optional attendance), I couldn’t, because the school in Scarborough had become my “home school”.
I’m aware that distance is a reasonable factor to take into account. But if you’re talking about being zoned for School A, versus School B, by a matter of a few blocks, what school your kids stay at isn’t going to change.
The merits of the neighbourhood, however, do warrant an asking price of over a million dollars. But I’d really like someone to fill me in on why houses will go for so much more simply because they’re in a certain school district.
I question that as well over the years when I saw all those little bungalows in Leaside being sold for well over a mil$ just cause of the school district, but as a former Realtor, I would assume you have the inside story as that is how realtors sell the house/area to grab that big $$ commission…
Well, you’re correct that it is, in fact, all about the commission. The best insider story I can give you is that it was a common tactic to really make a point of what school district a given house is in; since it’s a benefit that any house in a given region has, simply by virtue of existing. Whether you live in a $400,000 shack on a 15-foot-wide lot, or a $2MM mansion, you’re zoned for “that school”. In the same way that people will try to justify wacky clothing styles with what brand it is (we’ve all heard the label-boasters who go “oh, this is [insert designer name here]”), agents and sellers alike will use school districts to make an otherwise unappealing house look like the greatest thing. The house itself might be just okay… but it’s zoned for Allenby? John Wanless? You’re basically paying cottage money on top of city house money.
Even the ETFO (Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario) has alluded to the fact that the real estate industry is perhaps the only distinct benefactor of the test scores that determine these rankings. The agents and sellers alike just keep raking in the money, because as long as the illusion of this school being “the best school” can stay up, so will the asking prices. Just as a sweater will remain expensive if people think “it’s designer”, houses will remain expensive if people think “my offspring will receive a great education”.
Then, of course, the agent looks like the genius for selling the house for such a substantial sum, and at remarkable speed, all because of a school zoning they have nothing to do with.
The irony is that reality will set in later on – in that what school your kids went to did not affect what university (if any) they went on to attend, nor what job they landed themselves in. Naturally, this will only surface a matter of years later… once it’s too late to make an decision on where to live based on factors with a greater merit. Then, when it’s time to sell, what’s the key selling point? You guessed it. The school district!
I have to say thats a pretty ugly interior
How do you not get it? like a finished basement adds value to a property, a pool, granite counters, a better school district…. etc. What makes school district different is that a buyer can make the other things happen after they buy a house … but cannot upgrade their school district like a countertop. And what’s critical is that the school district isn’t as simple as test scores .. those scores reflect the teachers / school but also the community they serve and therefore the test results can be viewed as an indicator of family attitudes towards education and level of parental engagement in their childrens lives. So if those things are important to a homebuyer they will likely look to a community where their neighbours have shared values. And I’m certainly not saying all people in lower ranked school districts dont care about education or aren’t engaged in their children’s lives…. I’m just saying that the rankings are indicative of something… and i think it’s easiest to say that they’re indicative of both the school and the community it serves…. and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Mike, I really hope you’re not being serious. Do you actually think that EQAO scores reflect “family attitudes”, and “parental engagement”? Have you seen an EQAO test? I see where you’re coming from, theoretically, in that you presume there is somehow a correlation between better parenting and a child’s heightened academic ability. But in all seriousness, what do you base that assumption on?
One does not suddenly become smarter just because they attend a certain school. Nor do “family attitudes” and “parental engagement” change just because you live in a certain neighbourhood. Based on that, do you mind enlightening me as to what metrics EQAO would use to evaluate the attributes that you had mentioned? Mathematically, it’s impossible to determine, especially because there is no right/wrong answer to base a high or low index on.
The only way you can truly evaluate these things is to do your research. No, not going on Google and searching “what is the best neighbourhood in Toronto?”. I’m talking visiting the area. Sitting down for a coffee and watching what happens in the neighbourhood. Walking throughout the community to see what kind of vibe you pick up from it.
If qualitative, touchy-feely things like family attitudes and parental engagement matter to you, that’s how you find out about them. The school that your kids attend (along with the corresponding test ranking) is secondary, at best, in that equation. Because at the end of the day, you can buy your way into any neighbourhood or school district – but hard work and dedication to the right studies is how your kids will succeed academically. Just going to a “good school” will not assure that. But as long as everyone keeps believing that, houses in “good school areas” will keep on going for way more than they’re worth.
But then again, I’m just a high school dropout who happened to grow up in the Allenby neighbourhood. So I must not know much, right?