East-end real estate out-performing rest of Toronto
It’s the “million-dollar question,” realtor Mike Clarke says.
Will the great demand seen during the hot spring real estate market continue over the usually slower summer and into the strong fall market?
He was commenting after recently released figures showed the east end outperforming most of the rest of Toronto, especially for detached homes.
The report from the Toronto Real Estate Board on June 4 indicated the Toronto-wide slide in housing prices since their peak a year ago has halted over the past month, with May figures flat compared to April.
In the east end neighbourhoods, however, May was an even better month for house sales, leaving home values better than where they stood a year ago.
In the area designated E01, which includes Riverdale and Leslieville, the benchmark price for all homes in May has risen 4.4 per cent over a year ago, with detached homes rising 1.7 percent to about $1.166 million. This compares to a year-over-year decrease of about 8.6 percent for detached homes in Toronto.
In the E02 area, including the Beach, the benchmark price for detached homes is up by 0.6 per cent to $1.146 million.
In E03, encompassing most of East York, detached homes are down 1.5 per cent over a year ago, though still up from the previous month and much better than in Toronto as a whole.
Clarke, a sales representative with Keller Williams Advantage Realty, said the persisting attractiveness of the east end is that it one of the most affordable areas of the city among buyers who demand transit and easy access to the downtown core.
“It’s the price point that young couples are looking for,” he said, with average prices hovering around $1 million.
If that sounds like a lot, bear in mind that most other areas close to downtown are much higher priced. In the C11 area including Leaside, the benchmark price for detached homes is more than $1.4 million. In the C09 area of Rosedale and Moore Park area, the benchmark is more than $1.8 million and in the C02 area — including the Annex, Yorkville and Summerhill — it reaches nearly $1.9 million.
The highest priced area in midtown Toronto is C12 — including such neighbourhoods as Lawrence Park, Bridle Path and York Mills — at more than $2.1 million for detached homes.
However attractive the east end is, though, it is still a sellers’ market with not enough houses available to meet the demand, Clarke noted.
Still, his advice to buyers is to buy now in what remains of this spring market.
“This is the time to get into it because you can probably get a better price than you will in the fall,” he said, as he sees demand and interest rates growing by then.
