May 2014 was a best GTA May on record

May 2014 was the best May on record for home sales in the Toronto area with 11,079 homes trading hands during the month. This represented an increase of over 11% from May of 2013.

Tight market conditions also prompted a strong 8.3% increase in the average sale price year-over-year in the month. When you drill down into the average price, it is interesting to note that the average price for a detached home in the City of Toronto was $943,055 whereas the average price for a condominium apartment in the City of Toronto was $401,809. The average price for detached homes and condominium apartments in areas of the GTA outside of the City of Toronto was $648,439 and $307,307 respectively.

How the Toronto Market Has Changed Over the Years – Condominium Sales

I am often asked about the condominium market in the GTA. There are really two condo markets in the GTA: those sales that are in new developments and those that are in the resale market.

What I always find incredible is that almost one in every three sales now in the GTA resale market are condominium sales (about 28% of all sales in the GTA in 2013 were of condominiums.).

Half of All Sales are now Condominiums

When I take a closer look at the City of Toronto itself (the 416 generally), the breakdown in sales between condominium and freehold homes is now about 50/50 – so half of all resale home sales in the City of Toronto in 2013 were condominiums. We are not yet Manhattan, but a condominium lifestyle is becoming more and more the norm for many families in our City.

Please call me if you are interested in learning more about the condominium market in the GTA for either investment purposes or as an option for your home.

I hope you have a wonderful June and let me know if I can be of assistance to anyone in your circle of family and or friends - I am never too busy for your referrals.

Your friends in real estate.

Steven

The Shop

The Shop is a community-based maker space located in Brockton Village. The creative facility, based on the ground floor of a converted loft building at 1139 College St., presents a solution to the workspace woes of Toronto's space-skint DIY-ers. The facility is part of MakeWorks, a coworking space for tech startups, designers and other creators.
The Shop's founders, Marissa Maislin and Michelle Organ, opened the doors to the space just last month, but the project has been in the planning stages for nearly a year. The childhood friends and art-school grads wanted to create an inclusive environment for members to work on their projects, or, as Maislin puts it, "somewhere that any person can go, at any skill level and realize their creativity".

The spacious workshop located at 1139 College St. is fully equipped with everything you might need for a small to medium sized project, including four massive work surfaces and wall mounted benches that surround the room. They're fully stocked with new power and hand tools, drill presses - even a kiln. A fully-functioning metal shop is in the planning stages and is expected within a few weeks.
The Shop seems to be aiming for clients with lighter grade projects (you probably wouldn't exactly find full-sized MIG welders anyhow, based on the space's ventilation and code requirements). Maislin and Organ's background in fine arts lends a multidisciplinary approach to their plans, incorporating ceramic, metal and woodworking facilities under one roof - something Organ claims is unique among Toronto's maker spaces.
Access to The Shop is membership-based, set at $95 per month, with the option of a day pass for $25. The pitch: They provide the tools, tables, equipment and wi-fi, and members provide their own ideas and materials.
This rate is generally comparable, if slightly cheaper, than other maker spaces available in the city, but is optimized to appeal to those who might feel a bit intimidated in a workshop setting.
Workshop tutorials have been a popular option for new makers, with diverse subjects taught throughout the spring. May is well-stocked with classes including wood letter cutting, linocut, and screen printing tutorials - an interesting combination of trades and arty handcraft. You don't have to be a member to join a workshop; they're quite inexpensive, and it's a great way to survey the space and its services.
Eventually, the two founders hope to develop 'Shop The Shop,' a retail space that sells only handmade goods created by its members - like a kind of real-time Etsy.
The real dream, though, is to foster an interactive community of collaboration within The Shop, where members of all skill sets support each others projects from conception to sale, in an inclusive and fun environment.
http://www.theshoptoronto.ca/
http://www.blogto.com/design/the-shop-toronto