While some people buy homes that are convenient for work or have a high walkability score, others choose their desired neighbourhoods depending on the school district’s rating. Many parents purposefully choose homes that allow their children to live inside the postal code of specific schools to ensure their children receive a good education.

There are a lot of top-rated primary and secondary schools in Toronto. The Fraser Institute routinely publishes Canadian elementary and secondary schools’ ratings and report cards. Different pin colours are used to show their ratings and positions on the map.

For example, red indicates a score between 0 and 4; green indicates a score between 7.6 and 10; and so on.

So, which Toronto neighbourhoods are considered to have some of the most outstanding school districts? The following are some of the best Toronto neighbourhoods for schools:

High Park

Thanks to its proximity to the city centre, a gorgeous park that hosts the yearly cherry blossom festival, and upscale homes and condominiums, High Park is a highly sought-after Toronto neighbourhood. Most of the High Park neighbourhood homes are located near the intersection of Bloor St. West and Runnymede Road.

The schools in the High Park neighbourhood are another selling point. The Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) top-rated secondary institution is Ursula Franklin Academy, ranked fourth in all of Ontario. Runnymede Junior and Senior Public School does well as an elementary school, ranked 7th in the TDSB.

Bayview Village

Hollywood Public School, the top primary school in the TDSB, is located in North York’s Bayview Village. This school is tied for first place with three other schools. In terms of its Fraser Institute score, it outperformed 3,064 other elementary schools. Students at Hollywood Public School in grade 6 received perfect scores in reading, and in the high 90 percentile in math and writing. Bayview Village also offers a variety of housing alternatives, including detached and semi-detached homes, bungalows, and high-rise condominiums.

Bloor West

It’s no secret that Toronto’s west end is flourishing, and Bloor West Village is no exception. It’s one of the ideal neighbourhoods for families to live in, with lovely tree-lined residential streets, excellent public transportation, fantastic coffee shops, and some of the best-specialized food shopping in the city.

The second-best secondary school in the TDSB is Bloor Collegiate Institute. The Bloor West Lofts and Upside-Down Condos, two upscale condominiums, are close to this school.

In addition to all those beautiful advantages, owning real estate in Bloor West Village puts you within walking distance of some of Toronto’s premier west-end schools. There are numerous top-tier west-end schools to select from, whether closer to the bustling stretch of Bloor Street West or further north in more peaceful neighbourhoods.

Bathurst Manor

The Bathurst Manor neighbourhood is home to Avondale Elementary School and Avondale Secondary School. According to the EQAO (a standardized test that evaluates reading, writing, and math skills), Avondale receives the highest rating (perfect score of 10). William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, the third-ranked high school in the TDSB, is also located in this neighbourhood.

Hillcrest Village

Hillcrest Village is an underappreciated neighbourhood in north Toronto. It not only has some of the greatest schools in the city nearby, but the real estate prices are far lower than in the rest of Toronto. Many people are unaware that three highly rated public elementary schools are located here. The Fraser Institute rates Hillmount, Arbor Glen, and Seneca Hill above 9 out of 10.

Arbor Glen is a unique school, due to the fact it is an open concept school with no barriers, is not overcrowded, and has a higher teacher-to-student ratio. This educational centre emphasizes hands-on learning.

Leaside

Leaside is located in the city’s heart, although it has the sense of a village. The neighbourhood was named after William Lea and the Lea family, who lived there in the early 19th century.

Leaside has grown into a retail magnet with stores and eateries lining Bayview Avenue. The Leaside neighbourhood is primarily made up of single-family homes that house upper-middle-class families. Bennington Heights is the southernmost point of the neighbourhood.

Your children will receive an excellent education in this neighbourhood with 14 public schools, six Catholic schools, and two private schools. Northlea Elementary and Middle Schools offer French Immersion, while North Toronto Collegiate is ranked sixth in the TDSB for secondary schools.

All in all, Leaside makes a great neighbourhood for the future young professionals in your family.

Rosedale

Given that Rosedale is one of Toronto’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, it’s no wonder it’s home to some of the city’s best schools. Rosedale Heights, for example, has been dubbed one of Canada’s greatest schools. Rosedale has a 98.6% grade for education from Toronto Life. Rosedale Heights School of Arts provides specialized instruction in various art disciplines such as dance, theatre, and music. Rosedale Junior Public School provides unequalled educational options for parents with younger children.

Lawrence Park

Lawrence Park Neighbourhood is well-known for its primary and secondary schools in Toronto. As a result, inhabitants of this neighbourhood will have no trouble selecting a suitable school for their children.

One of the most notable qualities of this Toronto neighbourhood is the presence of numerous outstanding elementary and high schools.

As a result, many families select this area for their children in order to avoid the hassle of choosing a suitable school.

Some of the greatest elementary and secondary schools in the TDSB are Blythwood Junior School and Lawrence Park Collegiate. Furthermore, Lawrence Park evokes images of lush flora, thanks to its ravine system, which makes it suitable for outdoor activities for your kids and family, such as urban hiking!

Article By: Harvey Kalles

Taking on the role of landlord is a huge undertaking. You have renters to find (and trustworthy ones at that), a property to look after, and being the go-between for the many different people involved in this process. Follow these tips to ensure that being a landlord is rewarding, rather than being a headache-inducing responsibility.

Screen tenants properly

Too often, landlords don’t screen potential tenants as thoroughly as they should, often causing mishaps further down the line. Don’t get so bogged down by other responsibilities that you forget to screen the people who will be living in your property. Look at credit scores, references, and if they have adequate employment before moving forward with an application.

Don’t short yourself

Your profit is coming from the rent, so make sure you’re charging the right amount to maximize your revenue. Look at the comps in the area, as well as accounting for any renovations you made to the space, and set the amount accordingly. You don’t want to short-change yourself, especially after the contract is signed and rent is locked into place.

Be as organized as possible

When it comes to managing a property and the tenants who live there, spreadsheets are your best friend. Keep track of important documents, make copies of everything, and stay on track with the various transactions and events that pop up throughout this process. You don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute if anything were to come up.

Make your guidelines clear

All of your rules and regulations should be outlined in the lease, but remember to reiterate in person. This is especially important concerning any pet restrictions, what day of the month rent is due, and what (or if) interior changes can be made to the space. Having these guidelines in writing is important, but it’s even more crucial to emphasize in person before the lease is signed.

Being a landlord can be a breeze if you follow these simple tips!

Selling a house is a big task. You need a strategy for nearly every step of the process from setting a listing price to styling your interior.

Thankfully, you don’t need to come up with these strategies on your own. We rounded up the hottest tips for selling a home to help you pull off a successful sale.

1. Price your home with precision

Listing price is one of the most influential factors dictating how fast your home sells and for how much money. Ideally, you should list your home at or slightly below fair market value — the price a buyer and seller would agree upon if the property sold on the open market.

If you price your home too far below market value, you could leave money on the table. And if you list too high above market value, you might miss out on offers from market-savvy buyers who know your home is overpriced.

In our Top Agents Insights Report, 70% of real estate agents agree that overpricing is the number one mistake sellers make during their home sale. If your home’s price is too high, your property may not show up in the correct price brackets when buyers apply pricing filters on listing websites while searching for homes. And even if buyers do come across your listing, they’re less likely to schedule a showing or make an offer if it’s priced significantly higher than similar homes.

“The longer a house is on the market, typically speaking, the less money you are going to receive and the lower the offers are going to be,” D’Annunzio warns. “I always tell every seller that days on market are their enemy.”

So how do you determine your home’s fair market value? Your real estate agent will conduct a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to see how your home stacks up against recently sold properties and, in some cases, homes in escrow in your market. Based on their findings, they’ll adjust your home’s value based on differences and ultimately suggest a competitive listing price.

2. Market your home with a virtual reality

According to the National Association of Realtors, 44% of buyers looked for properties online before any other step in the homebuying process. Take advantage of the latest digital marketing tactics to attract buyers browsing homes online.

3D dollhouse

Matterport is the leader in 3D dollhouse and virtual tour technology in real estate. D’Annunzio details how the technology works:

“We have a camera that does a virtual scan of the house and not only does it allow you to walk through the entire house, it also allows you to measure any part of the house and give you accurate measurements of any piece of furniture you want, the floors, and the height from the floor to the ceiling.”

Virtual staging

If you’re selling an unfurnished property, consider harnessing virtual staging to help buyers envision living in your home. Over 41% of top real estate agents believe that vacant homes benefit the most from home staging, which brings personality and life to an empty property.

“If a buyer wants to get a feel for the space, we can take the 3D scan we took, and our Photoshop specialist can put whatever furniture they are thinking about inside the room,” says D’Annunzio. “They may stand in a room thinking it’s small but are surprised at how much it can actually fit with this tool.”

Virtual home tours

Virtual tours, open houses, and showings are a must, especially if your market attracts buyers from out of the area who can’t easily drop by the property. With help from your agent leading the tour, buyers can experience a property fully — from the views outside your window to the insides of your closets.

Hosting the tour on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Zoom, your agent can shoot the live stream with a professional camera or with their smartphone using a gimbal to stabilize the footage. Depending on your agent’s preference, they can run the virtual tour solo or with a partner for production support.

3. “Wow” buyers in the first 30 seconds

DelBoccio says you have 30 seconds to impress a potential buyer when they walk into your house.

“Clients are used to seeing these move-in ready homes on HGTV, and sometimes they feel deflated when they walk in,” she says. “Even if it’s just adding a wreath to the front door and putting planters, a little goes a long way.”

Follow these steps to make a great first impression with buyers:

• Deep clean the entire house, paying close attention to the porch and entryway as these are the first areas buyers see.
• Stage your interior to give it a contemporary look.
• Place a vase of fresh-cut flowers on the entry table.
• Bake cookies for the showings to create a welcoming atmosphere.
• Remove window treatments like curtains and heavy blinds for enhanced natural lighting.
• The good news is getting your home ready to list doesn’t require a lot of time or money. For instance, decluttering and cleaning cost around $650 and add nearly $4,000 to a seller’s bottom line on average, according to our Top Agent Insights Survey.

4. Repaint your interior a neutral color

In our Top Agent Insights Report, 57.83% of surveyed real estate agents advise sellers to paint their interior before listing. Painting your home’s interior is one of the quickest and most cost-effective DIY projects you can take on when selling.

According to Consumer Reports, the potential return on investment of painting individual rooms is 1% to 3%, while enhancing the home’s exterior can return 2% to 5% of your investment. A study by Home Gain estimates that painting your interior can add $2,001 or more to your home’s value.

“If you have a dominant color — like everything is red when you walk into the house — you should consider updating it,” DelBoccio comments.

On average, painting a 2,300 square foot home costs between $1,900 and $7,800, depending on where you live, what paints you choose, and how tall your walls are. However, you can save between $2 and $6 per square foot by doing the work yourself instead of hiring a painter.

If you’re going to go through the time and expense to paint your home, you want to make sure you choose the right color. “If you have travertine tiles, which are typically more brown, or if you have white subway tile, or if you have a carpeting or a mix of both tile and carpeting, you’re going to want to choose a paint that works well with that,” DelBoccio notes.

As a general rule of thumb, go for gray if your flooring and features lean cooler. If these elements are a warm brown, a shade of beige may be a better match. When in doubt, ask your real estate agent for guidance.

5. Mercilessly declutter your entire home (closets too!)

Declutter, declutter, declutter. The less decor, personal items, and unnecessary furniture in your home, the better. Decluttering and depersonalizing your interior makes it look larger and more attractive to buyers.

Start decluttering early

Decluttering can take weeks, especially if you’ve lived in your home for many years. Jump on the task as soon as you decide to sell. Start with easy rooms that contain items with little emotional value, such as linen cabinets and bonus rooms. Don’t forget to declutter closets and storage spaces — the less items in these areas, the more spacious they’ll appear to buyers.

Pack your belongings into the garage

When decluttering, pack any items you plan to take to your new home into moving boxes and stack them in the garage. Buyers won’t mind seeing neatly organized boxes in this spa — if anything, it signals to them that you’re motivated to sell.

“If a listing has a one-car garage, I don’t recommend this, but if you have a two-car garage and you can still see the other side and the wall is visible, that can be efficient,” DelBoccio shares.

Rent a storage unit for the listing period

If you need to pack away more belongings than you have space to store, consider renting a storage unit for the listing period. Ask your agent how long they anticipate it will take your home to sell so you can estimate the overall cost. Even if the cost is on the higher side, remember that decluttering will likely help your home sell faster and for more money.

Trust your agent’s objective eye

Once you’ve decluttered, bring in your agent for a quality check. Are there any areas they believe look too busy or packed? If so, heed their advice and reduce clutter in these spaces.

“You should not have a million appliances on the countertops,” DelBoccio shares, as an example. “I tell owners to get a laundry basket and put those things in and put the basket away in a closet or in a storage room during a showing.”

6. Create a memorable calling card

You don’t need to do anything extravagant or expensive to your home to make it stand out from the rest — adding one memorable, unique element can go a long way.

“When I was flipping houses, I used to paint the front door a sunshine pattern,” says Reynolds. “People would walk up and remember that front door.” Painting a front door an eye-catching color only costs a couple of hundred dollars and can help buyers remember your home after a day of showings.

Another way to stand out is to add an interesting pendant light or chandelier above your dining room table. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea to go to a thrift shop and find a unique light fixture. It gets people thinking,” Reynolds comments, noting that these types of additions are inexpensive but eye-catching and can easily be swapped out if a buyer doesn’t like them.

Article By: Jenn Andrlik

TORONTO - The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) says August sales were down 34 per cent since last year, but up almost 15 per cent from July, as buyers returned to the market to take advantage of prices that eased from winter's elevated levels.

The board said Friday that sales for the month amounted to 5,627 compared to 8,549 last August and 4,900 in July 2022.

The 34 per cent year-over-year drop was a lower rate of decline than the previous four months, but BMO Capital Markets senior economist Robert Kavcic saw such figures as “a bit of a mixed picture.”

“We're still bouncing around levels that have only seen worse comparisons at the depth of the COVID shutdown and during the 2009 financial crisis,” he wrote in a note to investors.

The data comes at a time when the region's real estate market has cooled from the heated conditions seen as the year began.

Climbing interest and mortgage rates in recent months have put a damper on sales and started to weigh on prices, ending bidding wars and encouraging prospective buyers to sit on the sidelines and wait for greater price drops.

Terry Parkinson, an agent with Royal LePage Signature Realty in Toronto, found some buyers realized how much the market has cooled already and decided to make a purchase last month.

She heard of a property in Oakville fetching 16 offers, hearkening back to the heated winter market, and some Toronto condos receiving multiple offers, a departure from earlier in the summer.

Those that ventured into the market in recent weeks found the prices were below those seen in the frenzied winter months, but nonetheless higher than they had been a year and even a month ago.

On a year-over-year basis, the home price index was up by 8.9 per cent and the average selling price for all home types combined was up by 0.9 per cent to $1,079,500. However, the index was lower compared to July.

The seasonally adjusted average selling price was $1,130,463, up about two per cent month-over-month, but down about 12 per cent from $1,285,129, when the region experienced its highest average price in the last 12 months.

Monthly growth in the average price alongside a dip in the index suggests a greater share of more expensive home types sold in August, TRREB said.

New listings last month totalled 10,537, down less than one per cent from 10,615 last August.

“New listings are not rushing onto the market (lowest August since 2010) so, while the market balance is weak, it's not crumbling dramatically,” Kavcic said.

“But it's soft enough to keep prices under pressure.”

Parkinson noticed clients “becoming more comfortable with the new reality of the current cost of borrowing,” after the Bank of Canada hiked its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 2.5 per cent in July.

Others were frustrated with the hike eating away at their buying power.

“Either they've disappeared and they're just out of the market or they've calmed down,” she said.

Some were taking advantage of rate holds, Kavcic said, so the full impact of the rate increase might not be apparent in all the numbers yet.

“There is still a long way to go before this correction sorts itself out,” he said. “You'll know where this market is really settling by early next year.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2022.

Article By: Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press