How Three Families Are Each Raising Kids In Less Than 850 Square Feet
From Murphy beds to multifunctional tables, these parents have gotten creative with less space. Here, they share the challenges, how they’re making it work and why they’re staying put. Wendy Glauser, Today s Parent Updated
January 26, 2021 (Photo: Carmen Cheung)
In major Canadian cities, especially Toronto and Vancouver, families are increasingly living in tight quarters. Some parents are choosing to prioritize being able to walk to work, cafés, cultural centres and sports facilities perks that were especially enticing pre-pandemic. As Annely Zonena, a project manager in Strategic Initiatives in Toronto’s City Planning Division, describes it, “You get a pass to the Royal Ontario Museum and that can become a weekly excursion for your children. The richness that access to cultural facilities and great-quality parks provides families is something that people are often willing to trad
This house in downtown Toronto is selling for only $700K but there s a catch
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Demand for detached homes has skyrocketed in Toronto since the pandemic hit, driving prices up to an average of roughly $1.5 million in 2020 across the 416 region.
Semi-detached and townhouses have also increased in value over the past year, however, according to The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, by 11.6 and 8.7 per cent, respectively to reach around $1.2 million and $836,000.
Needless to say, the closer you get to the downtown core, the more expensive freestanding properties (read: homes that aren t condo units) become and that in some parts of the city, you d be hard-pressed to find anything going for less than seven figures.
In major Canadian cities, especially Toronto and Vancouver, families are increasingly
living in tight quarters. Some parents are choosing to prioritize being able to walk to work, cafés, cultural centres and sports facilities perks that were especially enticing pre-pandemic. As Annely Zonena, a project manager in Strategic Initiatives in Toronto’s City Planning Division, describes it, “You get a pass to the Royal Ontario Museum and that can become a weekly excursion for your children. The richness that access to cultural facilities and great-quality parks provides families is something that people are often willing to trade for a quieter life with a yard.”
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Are condominium apartment investors sniffing around for deals in Toronto’s downtown core?
Anecdotes abound, but the only positive data points are the relative bumps in sales that saw 1,551 condominium apartments sell in December across the city. According to data from the Toronto Region Real Estate Board, it wasn’t even the busiest month of the year (July saw 1,689 sales), but it was about the same level as September and August (1,549 and 1,536, respectively), which was welcome news to realtors who observed down months in October and November (1,438 and 1,375).
Condo sales in Toronto rise again thanks to people looking for bargain prices
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Condos were the only housing type in Toronto that didn t see major growth in both sales and prices over the course of 2020, a year when Toronto became even less affordable in the face of a global health crisis.
With restrictions on travel and short-term rentals, the city saw fewer tourists, immigrants and international students, which in part caused condo supply to increase and rent and purchase prices to fall pretty drastically.