When it comes to living in Toronto, there's no denying that there are some pockets in the city that are more affordable than others. However, due to the extraordinary growth in home prices over the past few years, Canada's largest city has now been recognized as one of the most expensive cities in the world.
That being said, there are, of course, some pockets in the city that are more expensive than others, and as you can imagine, the cost of homes varies immensely from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
If you're curious which of Toronto's 144 neighbourhoods are the most expensive, Toronto realtor and chartered accountant Scott Ingram has done some digging and found out where exactly these pricey pockets are by looking at average detached home prices by neighbourhood for all of 2020.
Ingram said there are 15 neighbourhoods with the highest average sold price in 2020, with central zones dominating the list.
READ: If You Thought Housing in Toronto Was Already Expensive, Just Wait: CIBC
New to this year's list are Kingsway South, Banbury-Don Mills, and Yonge-Eglinton, while Trinity-Bellwoods, Playter Estates-Danforth, and Edenbridge-Humber Valley have been bumped from the top 15.
In the case of Trinity-Bellwoods and Playter Estates-Danforth, Ingram says those are low detached transaction places, so it's likely a few expensive transactions brought them up last year.
"Of the 136 neighbourhoods with at least one detached sale in 2020, 107 of them now have an average price of over $1 million," said Ingram, adding, "or if you prefer, there are only 29 neighbourhoods left under $1 million."
These are the 15 most expensive neighbourhoods in Toronto:
- Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills
- Forest Hill South
- Rosedale-Moore Park
- Casa Loma
- St. Andrew-Windfields
- Yonge-St. Clair
- Annex
- Lawrence Park South
- Bedford Park-Nortown
- Forest Hill North
- Kingsway South
- Leaside
- Willowdale East
- Banbury-Don Mills
- Yonge-Eglinton
For 2020, Toronto's prestigious Bridle Path retained its 'Most Expensive Neighbourhood' crown. Ingram says for each year he's made this list (since 2016), this neighbourhood has always ranked at the top, with Forest Hill South coming in second.
Ingram says the average price in Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills(BPSYM) reached the $5 million mark again, as it did in 2017. It had four of the 12 sales in the city last year that were above $10 million and also recorded the most expensive sale at $23 million.
Because of this, you can see how those sales would bring up the average. The median detached sold price was "only" $4,345,000 (up from a median of $4.3M in 2019).
Blue is central, red is west/Scott Ingram
As for the average price of a detached home in BPSYM in 2020, Ingram said a 2+2 bedroom and 4-bathroom house on an 80' x 130' lot sold for within $20,000 of the area's $5,104,000 average price.
The listing touts it as an "Architecturally Stunning Custom Home" with "Top Quality & Utmost Attention To Detail." It was built in 2010. It's situated on a corner lot.
Image courtesy of Scott Ingram
If you're curious what the least expensive neighbourhoods are, Ingram said Mount Dennis topped the list.
"It's interesting to look back and see as recently as 2015 the number of neighbourhoods with detached houses averaging $750K or less (54) was about the same as the number of million-dollar neighbourhoods (52). Now with Mount Dennis jumping from $653K to $780K in the last year, there are no neighbourhoods under $750K," said Ingram.
That being said, there are now more neighbourhoods over $2 million (32) than there are left under $1 million (29).
Scott Ingram
Given that home prices in the Toronto area are expected to increase 11% to $1,035,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021, it'll be interesting to see how this brings up the average price in Toronto's different neighbourhoods, and perhaps, we will see a new area make it on to Ingram's list in 2021.
