Warning,.... another "long and senseless post" ;p
And over time as these visible minorities increase their wealth and were ready to move up, many like the area so they just move out of the residential condo units into the nearby single residential houses
I doubt that's as common as you're suggesting. The single residential houses in the area are ridiculously expensive - they're literally just worth the value of the land underneath them. The most expensive apartments are Emerald Park are in the 650,000 - 700,000 range, while the least expensive post-WW2 bungalows in the area are $1.5 million.
You might have found the deal of the century,.... or a bungalow on small lot but most likely it's just a low set asking price with the purpose of generating buyer interest and a bidding war, in which case you should expect the final price to be about $250,000 more. The final price of an old post war bungalow on the standard 50'X130' lot was about $2.1million this past summer - it's all land value as it's mainly builders that's buying to build new McMansions.
For the past 25 years, I live in the single residential house area directly southwest of EmeraldPark, and I'm quite chatty (shocking!) with most of my neighbours and have found that just as many of my neighbours had moved in from the high-density condos/townhouses in NorthYorkCentre area as from all the other parts of GTA combined. Why? As within the usual Canadian-ethnic dream for later generations (most are 2nd generation from P.E.Trudeau's open immigration policy),... A large segment of NorthYorkCentre condo residents are young university educated professionals, some live as single and some as couples and tend to be upwardly mobile in their career and earning potential. Many as they start families move into houses in the neighbourhood since they're already familiar with the area and like the current ethnic vibrancy of Yonge Street.
Your assertion that all condo residents of NorthYorkCentre only live in condos (price typically from $350k-550k and at most $700k) because they can't afford houses in the area is faulty. When you see an expensive new exotic sports car on Yonge Street in NorthYorkCentre (mostly driven by Asian teenagers or 20-something!), you're more likely to see it turn into a condo tower VS onto a street for the single residential house. Some of the EmeraldPark residential condo dwellers can afford more expensive cars than those living in the area's $3.5million McMansions,... and they can even afford to forget about their brand new expensive Mercedes CLS63 AMG and just let it rot!
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...-rosario-varacalli.4829/page-119#post-1106360
Your faulty assertion shows you're really not familiar with this area. You see, Canada's immigration policy has changed dramatically since our parent's, grandparent's, great-grandparent's generation where poor immigrants came here with just the clothes on their back to scrape for a living. Canada's immigration policy is now so selective that most of us who are already in Canada wouldn't even qualify! It's now a point system based on the applicant's education level, professional skill set, income-potential, wealth, age, etc,... For the most part, Canada is now basically only letting in the best of the best from the rest of the world.
And many of these wealthy, well-educated and skillful new immigrants settle in multi-culturally diverse Toronto,... but where in Toronto? Many new immigrants especially Korean, Persian and Chinese will live in the residential condos of NorthYorkCentre first as a temporary home since many come from urban centres and are used to living in condos, it's near ethnic businesses along Yonge Street providing food and product they're familiar with, large number of financial institutions especially ethnic ones in the area, the area is close to highway and transit they'll rely on until they get Ontario drivers license, and as they try to establish and settle themselves here in Toronto,.... it's best to just rent or buy a residential condo as a temporary home,.... and once they know they know they want to stay longer term, they'll start shopping for a real house or just order a custom built McMansion (pretty much like I order a McHappy meal!),... and since they're now familiar with NorthYorkCentre, often they'll just move from rented $500k condo into a newly built $3-4milliion McMansion in NorthYorkCentre!
Some of the locals have been referring to the condos of NorthYorkCentre as "the NEW Spadina",.... since the Old Spadina was famous as being the first landing strip for new immigrants into Canada.
Another large segment are international students renting or buying condos especially in EmeraldPark where 70% of units are rental,... they're paying about $40-50K per year in tuition alone,... but often they'll just choose to rent a $500,000 condo because it's less hassle than living in a house,.... but once they graduate, if they decide to stay here and like the area,... they'll likely buy a McMansion in NorthYorkCentre. But some of the McMansions already resemble Asian frat houses with expensive cars.
When I moved into the area about 25 years ago, about 5% of the single residential households were visible minorities, now it's closer to 40%,... mainly Korean, Persian and Chinese,....