A million-dollar neighbourhood? This Crawford Street home is one of five Toronto Community Housing Homes expected to list on the street. It’s on the market for $995,000 and drawing crowds of would-be buyers.
ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR
Leslie Wallace found an anxious crowd waiting yesterday as he arrived at a dilapidated Crawford St. house for one of the shortest open houses in real estate history — half an hour.
More than two dozen potential buyers lined the walkway and spilled onto the street in front of the well-worn Toronto Community Housing property, a detached, three-storey brick home listed for almost $1 million.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Wallace, who’s been selling real estate in central Toronto for 28 years. “The amount of interest in these properties is overwhelming.”
The city is hoping to sell off close to 700 stand-alone houses scattered from Scarborough to Etobicoke to free up cash for much-needed repairs to its decades-old stock of multi-unit assisted housing. And the race is on.
With interest rates at historic lows and a drastically short supply of homes for sale across Toronto, buyers are clearly banking on deals —and a rare chance to live on some of the most desirable streets in the city.
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So far city council has approved a sell-off of 27 homes, 10 of which still need approval from the province. Five have sold so far, in the east-end Beach neighbourhood and the city pocketed $3.28 million.
The city has set a Jan. 30 deadline for offers on the three homes Wallace now has listed on Crawford, an eclectic, family friendly street near Christie that stretches south of Queen St. to north of Bloor St.
Two others will hit MLS in the next few weeks.
The properties are being listed in a slow and staggered fashion to not flood the market. And while the properties all need tens of thousands in work, realtors are predicting intense bidding wars.
When it comes to Crawford, it’s clearly not about the house so much as location, location, location.
All three properties back onto major parks — either Christie Pits or Trinity Bellwoods.
In fact, one home — a battered, boarded-up brick semi that’s listed for $495,000 — is tucked so tightly up against sprawling Christie Pits Park that kids could almost jump into the pool from the second-storey bedroom window.
Just a handful of houses to the north is another brick semi that, apart from the serious mould problem in its one bathroom, is remarkably well kept. More stunning is the land it sits on — a 43.6 by 110 foot lot with a private drive big enough to fit a small house.
All three homes are just steps from shopping and the Queen or Bloor Sts. transit lines.
The biggest, the three-storey detached that has drawn so much interest, is crying out for a gutting and is listed at a relatively steep $995,000. It sits on an overgrown 33 by 118 foot lot and can only be shown for half an hour a few times each week so as not to disrupt the three generations of one family who still call it home.
But at Thursday’s supposedly brief showing there was such a rush of interest, Wallace was still struggling to lock the door after an hour. He was just stepping across the hardwood flooring to the foyer when a High Park couple — their teenage daughter in tow — walked in the house and headed up the stairs.
“Even though they all need renovations, people can see that this is a really hot area,” says Wallace, urging the family to be quick. “You’re steps from Ossington, Little Italy, Queen St. West and close to the downtown.
“I’ve had clients says they would just paint and live here — that they don’t need granite countertops because it’s a big house and they like parks.”
The High Park family says otherwise.
“You’d need about 20 (reno) containers and you could easily sink $300,000 to $400,000 into this house,” says the experienced renovator as he, his wife and teenaged daughter give the house a final once-over from the sidewalk.
“Who knows what’s going to happen to the Toronto market,” he says, sizing up the cluttered porch and worn windows. “I prefer High Park, but my kids really want to live here because it’s close to everything.”
Their daughter’s glee is palpable, as is the pain on her parents’ face.
The three head home to crunch some numbers — and talk about booking a return visit for Sunday.