One thing I have said is 2 bedroom condo market is HOT! I don't know if it has to do with the low inventory or just all the people who can't afford houses are jumping in on 2 bed condos. Example: 1 2 bed condo in an older building in distillery came on the market on Wednesday. It was sold by Thursday, most likely for list. Another open house I was at in the King/Sherbourne area had an open house today...property will sell for well over list. Which IMO is too much. But when demand exceeds inventory, people do silly things.
Ever since I joined this forum, I have been making the case for family-sized condos.I think King East is correct. Our very centrally-located building, older, solid with only 2 and 3-BR suites of decent size, walkable, bike-able, a TTC dream AND in one of the best school districts in town, has started to attract young families who would love to buy houses in the hood but can't lay out the $900K+ for one. Last year, of the six units that flipped, five were bought by families with 1-2 children under the age of 10. At Halloween we had a little party for them all because we didn't want them knocking on doors. There was a dozen -- and I hear two more are moving in Feb. 1. When we moved in here 3 years ago, there were only 2 families with one child apiece) and then one family moved out when the mother became pregnant with a second and they bought a house.
What I am curious about is how this will affect our market values which have been, relative to the rest of city, pretty stagnant. I think that's because most of the suites that have turned over were not renovated as many of the owners either passed on or relocated to nursing homes. Virtually all of them were the original residents. The well-renovated suites did great price-wise, as in sold for $680+ per sf.
Note that this isn't a building that will attract the shiny fairy magic stainless laminate floor staging crowd -- our floors are beautiful parquet (and many of us have stained them dark), we do not have large "spa-like" bathrooms with double vanities (what a waste), and are kitchens are eat-in, although many people have knocked down walls to open them up.
I bet that, by the end of 2015, the number of children here will double.
I find this all very interesting but I am starting to have that "kids get off my lawn!" feeling.
