This year was a rollercoaster for real estate in the city. Prices reached unprecedented highs before giving way to hiked interest rates and a buyer’s market. The cost of everything forced renters and owners alike to get creative: hacking the game with savvy moves, building new stock in laneways and backyards, upgrading existing homes with stunning design.
Still, the housing crisis persists with no end in sight. Inflation, landlord-tenant feuds, renovictions, loose laws and developer impropriety have pushed many Torontonians to the edge.
It’s enough to make any rational person pack up and leave. And plenty did. But, for the devout Torontonians among us, not for long. Indeed, 2022 was the year of the great return, in which many pandemic nomads finally came back home. Even in the face of real-estate market insanity, they missed Toronto’s energy, culture and, above all, its people.
Here are Toronto Life’s most popular real estate stories from the past year.
Truro-born Wayne Burns faced an impossible task of transforming a doll-house-size unit into actual home. His strategy (with a little help from Mom): use clothing tubs, hang clothes in an exposed piping system and sell some records to buy a sleeper couch. | Iris Benaroia | February 10
Anjali Rego, Dickson D’Souza and their two daughters were sure they had found a great starter home by the Cooksville GO station—but it needed a lot of work. So, to save money, they did most of the reno work themselves on evenings and weekends. Here’s how that panned out. | Ali Amad | May 11
Models Daniel and Madison Liu wanted to work in Toronto but also own a spacious family home. That led them to buying a quaint fixer-upper church in the southwestern village of Paisley. Here’s what happened next. | Andrea Yu | February 17
The newly legalized construction of laneway suites has been touted by housing advocates as an essential tool to conquer the affordability crisis. Retired event planner Kasey Watson saw the shift as a way to take care of her brother. | Andrea Yu | April 29
As a working couple with three young children, Jessica and Phillip were desperate to find a family home. How about a three-bed, three-bath in Thunder Bay for $219,000? While tempting, it would mean leaving their friends and family in Toronto. | Andrea Yu | February 24
When planning retirement, many couples downsize to a condo or perhaps jettison to the suburbs. Karen Craine and Franz Hartmann instead chose a different route, building a completely new home in their backyard and renting it out as a pension. | Ethan Rotberg | January 27
Kathleen O’Connor grew up in Oshawa without much money, yet she and her family cherished vacations in nature. So, one day, she bought her grandfather’s old Algonquin cottage as a new destination for her young family. | Kathleen O’Connor | May 20
Joanne Sparrow had enough of commuting downtown from Oakville and being away from her daughter. Then she solved both problems by landing a new home in a small-town church. | Andrea Yu | January 21
They traded city life for more square footage elsewhere. Then what? In a nutshell, they hated it—and they’re moving back. Here are their stories. | October 25
What happens when you flee Toronto for Alberta and then realize that everything you love about your life didn’t move with you? You move back home, just as Jackie Thomas did in 2022. | Jackie Thomas | December 13
HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.
Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.
Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.
The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.
Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.
The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.
Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.
Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500
Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438
Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103
Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359
Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent
How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.
More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.
Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.
An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
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