Toronto is changing
There is no doubt Toronto is a city that has grown at a rapid and consistent rate since the early 1900’s, and recently there has been an influx of new immigrants and people moving from other Canadian cities, pushing housing prices up and increasing the demand on city services.
I’ve recently been trying to buy a house, no simple task in Toronto. While I’m unqualified to predict the future growth of the city, I had been trying to get some insight to ensure I made a solid investment. We all know the line “past performance does not predict future returns”, but I still felt I needed some data or anything I did would just be a relying on pure luck.
While there is a lot of data available, it’s very hard to interpret. Real estate agents will give you past listing and their selling prices, information about what others are saying and some gut instinct type info that might be as harmful helpful as it is helpful.
There is also no doubt that if you buy now, you’re buying on a high market. It’s easy to get discouraged into thinking doing nothing is a good move. I struggled with this a lot, but a house is a long term investment. Buying on a high should be fine as long as you can ride any potential lows.
Amongst all the sources of information, I personally found photos to be the most telling indicator of positive changes. Starting with pictures of the city from the sky, ranging 1930–2014, I thought I would share what I came across during my countless nights spent Googling for some clue into what the future might hold.
When I came across a house that was built in 2007, I was excited to hunt it down on Google maps street view and see what the area looked like in 2007 compare to what it looks like today.
This turned out to be the place we would buy.
After seeing this transformation, I thought I would check out some other areas of the city to see what has changed. I’ve picked out a few of my favourites, hopefully you enjoy studying these pictures as much as I enjoyed finding them.
Adelaide street (Greenpark condo site), facing north-west.
King East, today this is Rooster coffee (south side).
The city facing west going along Eastern ave, crossing the DVP.
King street east, facing north.
King east, facing east.
Liberty Village (Stratchan ave), facing south-west.
Front street east (Canary Village area), facing south.
Eastern Ave, facing east.
Gardiner Expressway, heading west.
Gardiner Expressway, heading east.
It’s worth saying that it is not just the downtown core that is growing. Brampton (Approx. 45km north-west) is also going through significant growth.
Maybe there is a housing bubble (as discussed regularly by the media), but I often find myself wondering if we’re just being tricked. Perhaps we’ve just seen massive growth and been sold the story of “things are not going so well” to keep us all working hard. Only time will tell, in the meanwhile, good luck out there! It’s tough.
