Real Estate Guide › West

New Toronto

Average 2008 sale price:

$363,508

Property crime:

high

Crime against people:

low

Neighbourhood map:

See map

Once the poor sister of the lakeside ’hoods, New Toronto has shed its working-class image (although you can still smell the Campbell’s Soup plant on a hot day). A new hockey arena is going up on Kipling, there’s a Catholic high school near the lake, and Humber College’s collection of late Victorian buildings is one of the loveliest pieces of academic real estate west of U of T. Gay couples and young professionals are moving in fast, drawn by the waterfront, relatively cheap prices and untouched housing stock. The Lake Shore Boulevard strip, known as Lakeshore Village, is still scruffy, but newer storefronts suggest an upswing.

HOUSING STOCK: Small, detached homes from the 1920s through ’40s have porches and tiny front lawns, including cottages from the area’s bygone era as vacation country.

BARGAIN ZONES: A fixer-upper can be found for $300,000 north of Lake Shore Boulevard, where the lots are small, the awnings aluminum and the cottages clapboard, but you’re talking $400,000 south of Lake Shore, $1 million close to the lake and $1.5 million in the small community of Nautical Lane, where the houses have rights to the waterfront.

THE VERDICT: It’s the Beach without the smugness. It still has an intimate, small-town feel, especially south of Lake Shore Boulevard, where Lake Shore Drive twists through an almost bohemian landscape of small cottages and retro apartment buildings.

NEIGHBOURHOOD HOT SPOTS:
Bombay on the Lake Stop in for hearty Indian food—the usual curries and chewy naan—served up by amiable, laid-back staff. 3007 Lake Shore Blvd. W., 416-850-3721.
Lakeshore Village Flowers This 89-year-old flower shop does wedding bouquets and gift baskets. 2999 Lake Shore Blvd. W., 416-251-2287.

Today in Toronto: February 9, 2010

• Hub 14: The postage stamp measurements of the Hub 14 space will ensure close encounters with the performers taking part in the new series Under a Paper Moon
• More things to do tonight
• Something to do this weekend

Today in Toronto on Twitter  |  RSS