The dollar value of homes sold this week in the east, west and north are up approximately 3%. The dollar value of homes sold in the central area is up 5% for week ending May 7. The average price of all homes has increased approximately 3%.

The numbers of homes sold have increased however. East up 6%, West up 2%, Central up 15% and North up 10%. The increase in total is up 7%.

NOTE: Please note these are preliminary figures. Minor adjustments may be required at month's end.

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I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Toronto Neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.

Whether you're buying or selling and looking for a Toronto Realtor or feel free to e-mail or phone us and we will be happy to guide you through your real estate experience.

Casa Loma

Casa Loma is Toronto's most prominent historic residence, built from 1911 to 1914. Casa Loma is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens.

Diane Plant, Broker
Forest Hill Real Estate, Brokerage
(416) 488-2875
Visit MY Website

BUYERS IN TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOODS

SELLERS IN TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOODS

FREE REPORTS

Metrolinx is planning to run more than 350 diesel trains every day on the Union Station to Georgetown rail corridor without fully considering the people who will be affected the most. These diesel trains will be spewing fumes and dividing our neighbourhoods.

Clean Transit is Possible

Our city deserves a clean, effective and modern transportation system. Now is the time to build a transit solution that will benefit all of us and serve our region for decades to come. The solution should:

Use clean-running, quiet and light weight electric trains

Eliminate the harmful effects of diesel pollution

Maintain and enhance neighbourhood connections

Prevent the division and isolation of communities along the corridor

Create accessible and affordable transit for everyone

Ensure this public infrastructure project provides a lasting benefit to us all

What can YOU do?

Are you concerned about the harmful environmental, social and economic
effects of the proposed plan? We need your help to ensure that this transportation project is a clean and healthy solution for the GTA.

Join the Clean Train Coalition in its first campaign and make sure the province hears your voice on the Georgetown South Service Expansion and Union- Pearson Rail Link.

Our goal is to send 5,000 letters. Be a part of our movement and help us prove that clean transit is possible.

Please visit this website to GET INVOLVED

http://cleantrain.ca/may4th.php

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I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Toronto Neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.

Whether you're buying or selling and looking for a Toronto Realtor or feel free to e-mail or phone us and we will be happy to guide you through your real estate experience.

I love Chines food! I have travelled through many great cities in the USA and have visited Chinatown in those cities. I really don't want to brag-but I must. Toronto's Chinatown is filled GREAT restaurants (better than PF Chang), with such cultural history,  shops and people. Right now every US $ gives you 1.16 Canadian Dollars. Many visitors and locals head here for the fine restaurants, which serve everything from dim sum to amazing multi-course dinners that compete with those of the finest restaurants in the city. You’ll also enjoy the amazing array of shops peddling silk kimonos, Chinese herbs, porcelain, jewelry, and even kitschy souvenirs. If you’re lucky, you’ll land in Chinatown during one of their many festivals, including – of course – Chinese New Year. Weekends can be wild here also, with huge crowds of visitors and lots of outdoor markets to browse.

Toronto's Chinatown Chinese is an ethnic enclave in Downtown Toronto with a high concentration of ethnic Chinese residents and businesses, extending along Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue. First developed in the late 19th century, it is now one of the largest Chinatowns in North America and one of several major Chinese-Canadian communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

The earliest record Toronto's Chinese community is traced to Sam Ching, who owned a hand laundry business on Adelaide Street in 1878. Chinatown took shape over the next two decades along Bay Street and Elizabeth Street, as hundreds of Chinese men settled in Toronto from western Canada after helping to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. By 1910, the Chinese population in Toronto numbered over one thousand. Hundreds of Chinese-owned businesses had developed, comprised mainly of restaurants, grocery stores and hand laundries. By the 1930s, Chinatown was a firmly established and well-defined community that extended along Bay Street between Dundas Street and Queen Street. Chinatown suffered a severe downturn in the Great Depression, with the closing of more than 116 hand laundries and hundreds of other businesses. The community began to recover after World War II as Canada's general economic fortunes improved. The Chinese population greatly increased between 1947 and 1960, as students and skilled workers arrived from Hong Kong.Guangdong and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the West Indies.

When plans emerged in the late 1950s to construct the new Toronto City Hall at the intersection of Queens Street and Bay Street, it became clear that most of Chinatown would be displaced by the project. As Chinese businesses began to relocate, some stores were taken over by other developers, and most stores that occupied the project site were cleared through expropriation. Construction on City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square began in 1961. The Chinese community migrated westward to Chinatown's current location along Spadina Avenue, although a handful of Chinese businesses still remain around Bay and Dundas.

Economy

Toronto's Chinatown is one of the largest in North America. It is centred on the intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, and extends outward from this point along both streets. With the population changes of recent decades, it has come to reflect a diverse set of East Asian cultures through its shops and restaurants, including Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai. The major Chinese malls in the area are Dragon City and Chinatown Centre.

Since the 1990s, Chinatown has been struggling to redefine itself in the face of an ageing Chinese population and the declining number of tourists visiting the enclave. As the ageing population shrank, revenues of businesses in the neighbourhood also decreased. While the majority of the grocery stores and shops remain, most of the  once-famed restaurants on Dundas, especially the barbecue shops located below grade, have closed since 2000.

Competition from commercial developments in suburban Chinese communities also drew wealth and professional immigrants away from downtown. Unlike those newer developments in the suburbs, Chinatown's economy relies heavily on tourism and Chinese seniors. As many of the younger, higher-income immigrants settled elsewhere in the city, those left in the district are typically from older generations who depend on downtown's dense concentration of services and accessibility to public transportation. Ethnic Chinese from Vietnam are now the faces of old Chinatown Toronto and turning some parts into Little Saigon. Also Latin American immigrants are also moving into old Toronto Chinatown.

In the 2000s, downtown neighbourhoods became more attractive to urban professionals and young people who work in the Financial District, leading to the gentrification of surrounding areas and potentially changing the face of old Chinatown.

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I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Toronto Neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.

Whether you're buying or selling and looking for a Toronto Realtor or feel free to e-mail or phone us and we will be happy to guide you through your real estate experience.

The dollar value of homes sold this week in the east, west and north are down down approximately 2%. The dollar value of homes sold in the central area is up 2% from week endin April 16. The average price of all homes has decreased approximately 1/2%.

The numbers of homes sold have increased however. East up 36%, West up 24%, Central up 35% and North up 36%. The increase in total is up 31%.

NOTE: Please note these are preliminary figures. Minor adjustments may be required at month's end.

**********************************************************************************

I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Toronto Neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.

Whether you're buying or selling and looking for a Toronto Realtor or feel free to e-mail or phone us and we will be happy to guide you through your real estate experience.

Casa Loma

Casa Loma is Toronto's most prominent historic residence, built from 1911 to 1914. Casa Loma is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens.

Diane Plant, Broker
Forest Hill Real Estate, Brokerage
(416) 488-2875
Visit MY Website

BUYERS IN TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOODS

SELLERS IN TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOODS

FREE REPORTS

Bank of Canada reduced the overnight rate to 0.25%, therefore Banks are lowering  Prime rate to 2.25%.  The change will be seen in line of credit lending rates as of April 22nd, and will be reflected in variable rate mortgages as of May 1st, 2009. The Bank of Canada's next scheduled overnight rate announcement is June 4th, 2009.

This Bank of Canada reduction by a quarter of a point today is at the lowest level ever.  In its announcement the Bank of Canada also stated that it expects to hold this policy rate at its current level until the end of the second quarter of 2010, conditional on the outlook for inflation. 

While rates for variable rate mortgages are typically impacted by Bank of Canada policy rate changes, what's interesting is that rates for popular five-year fixed rate mortgages have been declining significantly in recent months.  The reason behind this drop is an abundant supply of money being put into circulation, as well as guarantees of government agencies to purchase mortgage investments.

A comparison of fixed rates today versus six months ago shows a noticeable improvement in purchasing power. 

Six months ago, a competitive rate on a five-year fixed mortgage was 5.75 per cent.  At this rate, the monthly payment on a $250,000 mortgage with a 25-year amortization was $1,563.  With the five-year rate of 3.95 per cent available today, the monthly payment falls to $1,308, which adds up to a savings of $15,300 in payments over the five year term. 

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I proudly server buyers and sellers in the Toronto Neighbourhoods of: Forest Hill, Cedarvale, North York, North Toronto, Summit Heights, Wilson Height, Bathurst Manor, Leaside, Bayview, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and all surrounding areas.

Whether you're buying or selling and looking for a Toronto Realtor or feel free to e-mail or phone us and we will be happy to guide you through your real estate experience.