The crack in the dam, the GoTrain to Toronto will become a flood when all day service to and from Hogtown becomes a new reality. The LRT, the other future reality that is helping all of us discover this summer, through closed roads and other detours, parts of town we did not know existed; the LRT will make us fabulous. I wish I could live to be 200 and watch and witness what we are on the verge of becoming.
The Region of Waterloo is on the verge of exploding. With Google, Desire to Learn, many of our other big and smaller tech firms and startups, not to mention all of those software and other computer geeks and nerds who primarily work from home – many are here already, but many more are coming.
The price of housing in Etobicoke, and North York is astronomical. The price of housing in Whitby, Richmond Hill and Mississauga is sky high. Milton is nutty. Oakville, forget about it. It is now the outer ring of Hamilton, Barrie and Kitchener-Waterloo that are the most affordable markets for Torontonians to buy. We are the frontier. And they are the settlers. It’s manifest destiny one more time again.
There’s more. Companies like Manulife, with their work from home programs mean that you can work for the corporate office in Toronto, but stay home, safe and sound and stress-free in the region four days a week or maybe 19 days a month. The other days, you can get up early and catch the GoTrain to THE BIG T.O.
Ground Zero
King and Victoria, the place where there used to be a boot factory, a doughnut shop and beer store, an empty lot and a small strip plaza, is ground zero. Besides the intermodal transportation hub, within a short walk you will find the Tannery, the School of Pharmacy and the new Google building – Google’s biggest office in Canada.
Since people like to live near work and like to walk home from that GoTrain, today’s question is:
What does it cost to buy a home within a twenty minute walk to King and Victoria?
To answer this question, I looked at the past 12 months of sales data from the Kitchener Waterloo Association of Realtors, the back end of the local MLS. Here is what I found.
There were 239 places sold within the 1.5 Kilometre radius.
The cheapest, was a one bedroom, one bathroom condo at 64 Benton Street, like this one. It sold for $103,000.
The most expensive was a brand new, luxury semi-detached, three bedroom, two bathroom place just off Park Street close to Belmont Village. It sold for just under $560,000.
From $103,000 to $560,000 that’s a big range. The median price was $252,000.
What does it cost to buy a single family home within a 20 minutes walk to the GoTrain?
In the past 12 months, there were 128 single family homes sold.
The cheapest, a three bedroom, two bathroom, 100 year old house near Peter Street sold for $160,000
The most expensive, a three bedroom, three bathroom 100 year old home near the library sold for just under $475,000.
There were 11 homes that sold for $400,000 and above
27 homes sold between $300,000 and $400,000
81 homes sold between $200,000 and $300,000
9 homes sold for less than $200,000
What does it cost to buy a condo?
There were 98 condo units sold.
The cheapest, a one bedroom, 600 square foot unit sold for $103,000
The most expensive, at 539 Belmont Ave West sold for just under $431,000. It had over 1300 square feet of living space, brand new with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The median sale price of condos sold was $190,000.
The condo buildings with the most units sold are located at: 539 Belmont, 64 Benton, 112 Benton (Arrow), 81 Church, 165 Duke, 10 & 20 Ellen, 404 & 410 King (Kaufman), 150 Queen, and 29 West.
44 units sold had one bedroom
40 had two
14 had three
Condo units in One Victoria, 100 Victoria, City Centre Condos and Victoria Common are not included in MLS data so they aren’t included here.
