Real estate is always a hot topic, and consumer interest in the Toronto market shifted, sometimes significantly, between 2018 and 2017.
For example, REW’s data analysts found that in 2018, the Danforth, a well-established, highly walkable neighborhood that provides quick, easy access to the city’s downtown was the city’s most popular neighbourhood. Along the Danforth, also known as Greektown thanks to the Greek immigrants that once dominated this neighbourhood, residents are just minutes away from an extraordinary range of dining, shopping and leisure options.
However, back in 2017, consumers were taking a good look at homes in Humber Heights, a neighbourhood just north of Eglinton Avenue and bordered by the Humber River to the east and Royal York Road to the west. Both neighbourhoods offer a variety of single-family homes, detached as well as semis, which include everything from the original homes to extensively renovated houses with some new builds.
Meanwhile, Newtonbrook East, around Finch and Yonge St. in the city’s north end, showed 153% growth based on the median list price increase. Older detached and semi-detached homes have been demolished and replaced with townhouse complexes, custom-built homes and condos. Chinese and Korean are the most spoken languages after English and the area also has a significant Russian, Jewish and Iranian population.
Across Toronto, consumers searched for three-bedroom homes, for which they were willing to pay $1.25 to $1.5 million. Not surprisingly, the median list price for detached homes rose 10% year over year to $1.1 million, the average price per sq. ft. rose 11.5% to $605 and the average days on REW dropped to 33 days in 2018 from 34 in 2017.
In 2018, the median list price for Toronto condos was up 9% year over year to $545,000, while the average price per sq. ft. was $662, up 10% year over year. The average number of days on REW was 29 days in 2018, down from 30 in 2017.
