The Cabbagetown Preservation Association’s 6th annual Hidden Gardens and Private Spaces Tour.

Location: Cabbagetown, Toronto (Carlton & Parliament Streets)

This tour is self-guided via a map provided in the ticket. The cherished gardens of this Heritage ConservationDistrict reveal the creativity of inner-city gardeners and their original approaches to small-space gardening. A stroll through the back lanes of Cabbagetown brings visions of the many delivery services that used the lanes to leave bread, milk, coal or ice, at the turn of the last century!

Tickets cost $15.00, on sale in late April.

Tickets are also available directly right up until tour day at these locations:

Bill’s Garden and Design, 903 Pape Avenue, 416-466-8283
Mi Casa, 238 Carlton Street, 416-929-1913
JAY’s Garden Centre, 360 Gerrard Street, 416-927-9949
Fairway Variety, 520 Parliament Street, 416-921-0624
Sheridan Nurseries, 2827 Yonge Street North location only, 416-481-6429
Kendall & CO Interior Design, 227 Carlton Street, 416-363-9914
Cabbagetown BIA, 237 Carlton Street, 416-921-0857
Ringe & Associates (Florist) 4 King West, in the heart of the business district, 416-927-8742

Last year’s tour sold out early! A limited number of tickets may be available on the day of the tour at the CPA tent or at each of the featured gardens but we can make no guarantees.

This year, the Organizing committee for the tour will set up tent headquarters in the driveway of 89 Winchester Street where there will be lots of information for visitors, a plant seller, and the opportunity to buy a “Garden Friends” tea towel. A limited number of tea towels will be available at $16.00 each. To reserve your tea towel, you may pre-purchase it but only through PayPal. Those who pre-pay will be guaranteed to receive the tea towel. The pre-paid towels will be available for pick up at the the tent at 89 Winchester Street.

They’ve got a dunk tank, bouncy slide, bouncy castle, rope walk, face painting, kids’ yoga, lots of wonderful food and more.

Come and support the best of the Cabbagetown Community! The School and the parents and students who support it have made a huge difference to the Community in which we live and work and need you support!

Here is a quick update of the Canadian Real Estate Market:

We have had a very different experience than the one here in the United States.

In March, the average sale price of a home in Canada was 75 per cent higher than in the United States. Please keep in mind that the cost of building is also higher due to weather
issues.

Through the first four months of 2012, housing starts have been trending at levels not experienced during the same period since 2008. In urban areas, approximately two-thirds of new home starts have been multiple family units, including condominium apartments.

There is a condominium building boom in large centres like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. As a matter of fact, in the Greater Toronto Area there were 181 high-rise projects under construction in April. Put another way, this amounted to 49,822 units.

There is a shortage of listings of single-family homes in major centres, leading to bidding wars and talk of a bubble.

Canadian housing topped the Economist’s global list showing an increase of 7 per cent. It stated that Canadian homes are 54 per cent overvalued relative to an undervaluation in the United States of 19 per cent.

So what is driving Canada’s market and what differentiates us?

Canada does not allow deductibility of mortgage interest and there is no Capital Gains Tax on personal residences.

Canadians cannot walk away from their mortgages without major financial repercussions that affects their personal covenant. According to the most recent statistics, slightly more than one-third of one per cent of mortgages is in default in Canada.

Mortgage rules at Canadian banks are much more conservative, generally allowing a Gross Debt Service Ratio of not more than 35 per cent. Even with today’s lower interest rates, applicants can only be approved when they also qualify at higher rates as well.

Major centres are experiencing condo booms but are they really based on demographics? Baby boomers are migrating to condos from larger single-family homes. First-time buyers and young families are moving to the condo market to be centrally located, as well as new Canadians and investors.

Seventy per cent of new immigrants are moving to Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal and they want to be close to their jobs, their communities and resources. Whether true or not, there is a perception amongst immigrants that immigration to Canada is easier to achieve than immigration to the United States.

Offshore Investors:

Toronto and Vancouver have become the centres that offshore investors are flocking to in order to establish financial footholds. They are schooling their children and moving assets offshore to Canadian centres. They are not always looking for the same metrics that North American investors will look for and are not always renting out their purchases, instead leaving them empty while paying taxes and maintenance fees. Many of these offshore buyers come from countries without the strong property rights that we have in North America. How much of the market they comprise is only a guess as there is no means of monitoring them.

This conundrum in the Canadian real estate market has led to pundits on either side making claims of a bubble. My guess: the market will go up and the market will go down…when and why is purely speculation.

Thank you.

“Interest in single-detached homes has been very high, both in the City of Toronto and surrounding regions. Growth in single-detached listings has not kept up with demand, which means competition between buyers in this market segment increased. With this in mind, it was no surprise that the strongest annual price increase was also experienced in the single-detached segment,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President, Richard Silver.

The average price for April 2012 transactions was $517,556 – up 8.5 per cent compared to April 2011. While price growth was strongest for single-detached homes, the better-supplied condominium apartment segment experienced a more moderate annual rate of price growth, at four per cent.

“Monthly mortgage payments remain affordable for home buyers in the Greater Toronto Area. While interest rates are generally expected to increase over the next two years, the extent and timing of rate hikes has been thrown into question by slower than expected economic growth in the first quarter of this year. On net, borrowing costs are expected to remain a positive factor influencing home sales through 2012,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

For more information visit http://www.torontorealestateboard.com

Despite inclement weather, I was touched to see close to 100 people including sponsors, local politicians and sponsor families at the ceremony, which took place at the development site located at 4572 Kingston Road near Morningside Avenue.

Not only did REALTORS® financially help sponsor the home through the REALTORS Care Foundation, TREB REALTOR® Members took part in the project’s construction in November and December of last year. Thanks to their efforts, the Matin family are now the proud owners of one of the 29 town home units built as part of the development.

I was so very proud to see what team work did to help bring the Matin family’s dream of homeownership to fruition, and I shared this with Habitat for Humanity Toronto Chief Executive Officer Neil Hetherington, who was also on hand at the dedication ceremony to thank the development’s sponsors and congratulate the sponsor families.

In exchange, the families contribute 500 volunteer hours to Habitat for Humanity Toronto and repay a zero-down payment, interest free mortgage over an average of 25 years.

Habitat for Humanity Toronto has constructed more than 225 affordable homes with partner families throughout the city, and has set a goal to build 50 new homes each year by 2015.

While the home marked TREB’s fourth Habitat for Humanity title sponsorship, Greater Toronto REALTORS® have since sponsored a fifth Habitat for Humanity home located in the Danforth Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue area.

I share with you a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that captures the true meaning behind these build projects.

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”

I encourage everyone to ask if there is anything you can do to bring others joy and happiness, and then go out and do it! Even if you can only help affect the life of one, it will be worth it!

For more information visit http://www.Torontorealestateboard.com

Now the Toronto Transit Commission tells Torontonians that they are either going to build Subways or LRT and they have set an aggressive schedule over the next few years. Please excuse me if I don’t give that or any other TTC/City of Toronto project a lot of credibility. I remember the years that it took to build the St. Clair street car line only to have it torn apart a couple of times during construction because the City and Toronto Hydro had not coordinated it properly. Then there was the Bloor and Yonge Street madness…

Whether Subway or LRT does anyone really think that this work can be accomplished in time and on budget by the TTC?