Until bad, old Mr. COVID-19 began taking over the media some weeks ago, reports concerning real estate transactions were among the most commonly featured stories with wild increases in both housing and condominium prices stoking those stories.
So in keeping with the times it would be natural, from a historical perspective at least, which is after all the mandate of my column, for me to write about previous epidemics that have rattled our community.
Epidemics such as that posed by the influx of cholera in 1833 and again in 1834, the arrival of the so-called Spanish influenza at the end of the Great War and two events I remember, the polio epidemics that struck in 1953 (when I was in public school) and again in 1959 (when I was in high school).
But, I’m not going to further upset you with stories that are real downers. I’ll revert instead to offer the story I had already planned to do, one that would feature a look at the anniversary of an important real estate activity that took place in our city exactly 168 years ago on Thursday.
It was on March 19, 1852 that one of our city’s earliest settlers, William Cawthra, and a man who would go on to be described as the “John Jacob Astor of Upper Canada” (after 1867 Ontario) signed the required papers giving him the ownership of the plot of land at the northeast corner of today’s King and Bay Sts. that measured 52 feet along the north side of King and 146 feet along the east side of Bay.
William Cawthra (1801 — 1880), Toronto business and civic leader and philanthropist. (City of Toronto Archives)
The seller was Samuel Rogers, the price £1,300. This property actually started off as a Crown grant awarded to one Captain Daniel Cozens, who was born in Philadelphia and fought in the American Revolution, eventually moving north of the border and settling in York (Toronto).
Soon after the real estate deal was concluded, Cawthra, who by now was acknowledged as the most successful merchant in the city as well as one of the richest men in the country, arranged for prominent local architect and fellow Yorkshireman Joseph Sheard to design and build for him a new residence on the property he had just purchased from Captain Cozens.
To be known as Cawthra House upon completion, it was regarded as the finest residence in the province. William Cawthra died in 1880 and his abandoned house was subsequently used for a variety of purposes.
In 1911, an attempt was made to move the house to save it from demolition. Some suggested it could be the Toronto museum. In 1946 the Bank of Nova Scotia announced it would build a skyscraper on the northeast corner of King and Bay and the Cawthra House would be demolished.
Again, attempts were made to save the historic building but again to no avail. The new $17 million, 25-story Bank of Nova Scotia was officially opened On Sept. 25, 1951.
When the new Bank of Nova Scotia opened in 1951 at King and Bay Sts., it completed the intersection’s title as the city’s MINT corner — for the banks on the four corners; Montreal, Imperial, Nova Scotia and Toronto.(MF Collection)
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Readers who are familiar with Cawthra Rd. in Mississauga may be interested in learning that the name of their street has a direct connection with William Cawthra, the subject of this column.
Among his descendants was Henry Cawthra who died in 1904. One of Henry’s children was Grace who acquired Lot 10, which was part of the 200-acre Crown grant awarded to Joseph, the first of the Cawthras to settle in Upper Canada. He was a United Empire Loyalist, William’s father and as it would turn out Grace’s grandfather.
This grant ran north from Lake Ontario in what is now known as the Region of Peel. In 1926, Grace and her husband Harry McIntyre Elliot built a new house on the inherited property and moved into it from her former residence, Yeadon Hall on College St. west of University Ave.
Eventually, the road that led past their house became known as the Cawthra Rd. And there’s the Cawthra House-Cawthra Rd. connection.
Grace died in 1974 and what had become known as Cawthra-Elliot Estate was taken over by the City of Mississauga.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says construction of new homes in Canada’s six largest cities rose four per cent year-over-year during the first half of 2024, but housing starts were still not enough to meet growing demand.
The agency says growth in housing starts was driven by significant gains in Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal.
A total of 68,639 units began construction, the second strongest figure since 1990, however the rate of housing starts per capita meant activity was around the historical average and not enough “to reduce the existing supply gap and improve affordability for Canadians.”
The report says new home construction trends varied significantly across the markets studied, as Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa saw declines ranging from 10 to 20 per cent from the same period last year.
Apartment starts in the six regions increased slightly, driven by construction of new units for rent, as nearly half of the apartments started in the first half of 2024 were purpose-built rentals.
But condominium apartment starts fell in the first six months of the year in most cities, a trend which the agency predicts will continue amid soft demand as developers struggle to reach minimum pre-construction sales required.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
