Richard Silver

Archive for July, 2010

Toronto Area REALTORS® Report Mid-Month Resale Housing Figures

TORONTO, JULY 19, 2010 ‐ Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 2,790 sales through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) during the first two weeks of July 2010. This represented a 37 per cent decrease compared to the 4,437 sales recorded during the same period in 2009. New listings decreased by eight per cent  annually to 5,184. “Last summer existing home sales spiked well above the expected long-term trend. Sales were also unseasonably high during the first four months of this year,” said Toronto...Continue Reading...

The Cabbagetown Forsythia Festival….

It has been such a crazy time the past few months that I finally went in to my Vado HD Video Camera and realized that I had taken these videos of the Cabbagetown Forsythia Festival. This is a great event in early May in Downtown Toronto and one of my favourite times to see the kids and their parents emerging from their warm winter accomodations and start to deal with the first signs of Spring. However this year, the Forsythia were...Continue Reading...

Last week at REBarCamp San Francisco.

Last Monday at the 3rd REBarCamp San Francisco there was a heated discussion generated by Joel Burslem's recent blog called "The Death of the Real Estate Blog" for 1000 Watt Consulting . I don't think that I have ever been in a room so filled with the movers and shakers of Real Estate Blogging...the Big Kahunas were there: Jay Thompson , Bill Lublin , Rob Hahn , Heather Elias , Derek Overby , Dale Chumbley , Todd Carpenter , Maya Paveza , Andy Kaufman , Mike Mueller , Ginger Wilcox , Kelly...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate Board Housing Market Charts for June 2010.

Here are the Market Charts for June from the Toronto Real Estate Board. It helps put the market in mperspective as it relates to the past three years. Toronto Real Estate Board: June 2010 View more presentations from Richard Silver.Continue Reading...

Toronto Area REALTORS® Report June Resale Housing Figures

TORONTO, JULY 6, 2010 ‐ Greater Toronto REALTORS®  reported 8,442 sales through the Multiple Listing Service®  (MLS®) in June. This represented a 23 per cent decrease compared to the record 10,955 sales reported in June 2009. Sales for the second quarter of 2010 amounted to 28,810 – up one per cent annually. Year-to-date sales through June were up 23 per cent to 50,455 compared to the first six months of 2009. “We experienced a record number of existing home sales during the...Continue Reading...

Toronto Neighborhoods: Liberty Village

One of the coolest areas for urban exploration these days is Liberty Village  (southeast of King and Dufferin). Its host of Victorian factories used to turn out everything from toys and billiard tables to bowling alley floors. The neighbourhood’s slow but steady development is getting ready to burst at the seams with new residential projects, restaurants and shops. Townhouses, lofts and apartments abound, but the community would not make it without the great watering holes and meeting places like The Academy...Continue Reading...

Downtown Toronto Neighborhoods: Leslieville

Years ago I lived south of Queen Street East .  Nights were noisy with police and fire trucks responding to parties or family squabbles gone wrong... but we were braving new worlds. Then Realtors began speaking of a hot new area they liked to call “Cabbagetown II ,” with Victorian homes in poor repair being gentrified. If you could not afford the real thing, then number two was not too bad. (more...)Continue Reading...

Toronto Neighborhoods: Kensington Market

To my mind the "Kings and Queens" of Kensington have got it all: Living in the centre of the city in Victorian houses, lofts and laneway housing. They can go from the AGO  to Chinatown , shop for bagels, thousands of vegetables and cheeses, run home and then head off to the Theatre district  in 30 minutes. Tour the alleys,dim sum restaurants and the incredible cultural diversity that has existed in Kensington Market  for years. You cannot beat the prices for clothes, food and...Continue Reading...

Get Ready for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.

Whew! Last weekend's G20  is over, this weekend's Toronto PRIDE  Festivities will rock the Downtown but the weekend after that July 9, 10 and 11, 2010, Torontonians will be able to Celebrate the Arts at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition . Long a big favourite of mine, Toronto City Hall's Nathan Phillips Square  will be rocking with a group of new talented artists who have been passed by a jury of their peers to display their work. My friend Diana Menzies ,...Continue Reading...