What $1 million will get you in Toronto today
What $1 million will get you in Toronto today
By Toronto Life | July 21, 2014
By Toronto Life | 07/21/2014
Want one of these ho-hum houses? You’ll need seven figures and a stiff drink
Photographs by Daniel Neuhaus
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In mid-April, for the first time ever, the average selling price for a detached home in Toronto nudged, just briefly, over the million-dollar mark—a surge of 19 per cent over last year. You might argue that the number is an arbitrary data point on a line graph sloping skyward. It’s not. To hopeful house hunters, seven figures is a chasmic mental leap and a devastating reminder of the near impossibility of owning four unshared walls in this city. Just a few years ago, the mid- to low-$800s were territory for the excessively affluent or certifiable; today that’s considered a steal. The $900s, given a long amortization and a diet of rice and lemon water, have become tolerable, too. Welcome to the millies, the new new stratum of absurdity.
282964 11 Olsen Drive, near York Mills and Don Mills (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-01-e1405704273802-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-01.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-01.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-01/ million-dollar-milestone-01 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282965 15 Talwood Drive, near Leslie and Lawrence (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-02-e1405704285640-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-02.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-02.jpg 416 624 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-02/ million-dollar-milestone-02 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282966 48 Hurlingham Crescent, near Leslie and York Mills (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-03-e1405704296472-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-03.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-03.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-03/ million-dollar-milestone-03 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282967 89 Kingsdale Avenue, near Yonge and Sheppard (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-04-e1405704307255-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-04.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-04.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-04/ million-dollar-milestone-04 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282968 114 Haddington Avenue, near Avenue and Wilson (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-05-e1405704318917-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-05.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-05.jpg 416 624 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-05/ million-dollar-milestone-05 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282969 151 Sweeney Drive, near Victoria Park and Lawrence (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-06-e1405704333170-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-06.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-06.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-06/ million-dollar-milestone-06 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282970 238 Newton Drive, near Bayview and Cummer (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-07-e1405704344155-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-07.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-07.jpg 416 624 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-07/ million-dollar-milestone-07 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282971 257 Humbercrest Boulevard, near Jane and Dundas (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-08-e1405704356114-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-08.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-08.jpg 416 624 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-08/ million-dollar-milestone-08 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
282972 670 Balliol Street, near Bayview and Davisville (Image: Daniel Neuhaus) What $1 million will get you in Toronto today What $1 million will get you in Toronto today https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-09-e1405704368359-200x200.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-09.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/million-dollar-milestone-09.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/what-one-million-will-get-you-in-toronto-today/slide/million-dollar-milestone-09/ million-dollar-milestone-09 0 0
(Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
And that´s exactly what´s wrong with Toronto today. Most of young generation won´t be able to buy a house at all with these prices artificially increased by foreign capital. On the other side, it created a group of owners who easily multiplied their investment over the years. Well, good for them. I already gave up my dream on buying a property in the city and moved to the countryside.
seriously? Wow…
“artificially increased” … these prices are real … the price is what the market will pay.
foreign investors are ruining our chances of ever owning in large urban centers. How is it that the average house hold income (2 incomes) in toronto is below $80G yet people can own million dollar bungalow’s? Foreign investment and our conservative government needs to do more to track and cap that. Why should I be beat out of Canadian soil when I am a Canadian to a foreign investor who summers in Toronto…
I guess you’re just going to look right past rock bottom lending rates having anything to do with it? “Cheap money” as it were…?
This ignores that there are by far more semi’s than detached homes in Toronto. It’s not like nobody can buy a house at all– it’s that they can’t buy a fully detached one. I don’t get this fetishization of making sure that one of your walls isn’t, god forbid, attached to the wall of a neighbour’s house. Everyone I know who is a successful professional and owns their own home owns a semi and we’re all living in pefectly respectable middle or upper middle class neighbourhoods. My back yard is bigger than yards I’ve seen in the 905, but oh no, my house is a semi for shame!
Semi = calling the cops every Saturday night and hearing every damn marital fight. I don’t know how people can stand it.
Here is a shocker. The average home price in Los Angeles, California and its surrounding towns that are usually considered part of that city’s metro area is $690,000. The Canadian dollar and American dollar are almost identical in value. Source of this info is Quick Data a San Diego company that compiles the sales data monthly.
Uh, I’m not talking about Regent park or TCH stock here. The quality of neighbours is not as you describe when you’ve got yuppies paying $700K for a semi. Of course some Toronto Life readers really do live in the rareified enclaves and don’t know any better. I forgot, this isn’t Spacing is it…
And it seems in most cases you’re just paying for the land – the houses are probably considered ‘tear downs’ by builders.
I’m an expatriate Canadian who emigrated to Florida…had no choice in the matter. Now I wish to return to my hometown but will never be able to afford it.
What the hell, I’m just going to reply to my reply in hopes that some Toronto Life editor will (they already know but truly) admit that most of their actual “City of” residents don’t live in fully-detached homes. It’s time for TL to do an article NOT ABOUT NOISY NEIGHBOURS AND WIFE BEATERS but about how most of your subscribers (what’s left of them) live in semis. Oh- and I don’t mean how most of your subscribers live in condos OR in the 905 (I’d love to know, I bet you those two groups make up the vast bulk of subscribers), but you need to focus on your “home-owning” downtown subscribers who own their own semis. And it better not be some “we’re trying to fluff it like it’s cool, really semi’s aren’t bad” piece. Do a real piece on how most real homeowners are yuppies in semis. Jesus. Okay why do I even care about this lol, I’m ornery and making a point.
Its no different then most of Europe. You grow up knowing you will always rent.
We are just catching up.
Soundproof drywall fixes that problem.
Idk about that, maybe in the biggest european cities..I live in Europe (Prague) myself and can easily afford paying mortgage instead of rent etc. But in Toronto, I won´t be able to even pay for a downpayment..