Homes in Scarborough have appreciated more than three times the home value of their downtown counterparts, according to new research released this week by Properly.
Homes purchased in Scarborough six months prior to the start of COVID-19 have jumped by 25 percent in value to date, says the latest report by the brokerage. By comparison, properties purchased during the same period that were located in downtown Toronto have only appreciated by eight percent in value.
To determine the change in Toronto property values, Properly used its AI-powered home Instant Estimate calculator to compare the selling prices of homes bought in the six month period prior to the pandemic — between September 2019 to February 2020 — to current Instant Estimate values.
Although the conversations around the urban exodus trend have been largely focused on buyers flocking to outer suburban communities, the Properly report notes that a similar phenomenon has been occurring within Toronto too. As more downtown dwellers go looking for more space and affordability, homes in the outer parts of the city have reported the highest price appreciation.
“There has been increased conversation around the skyrocketing homes prices in Toronto,” said Anshul Ruparell, Co-founder and CEO of Properly, in the report. “But what’s happening is actually the reverse of what we usually assume: that people want to be close to downtown. Old Toronto is seeing the overall lowest appreciation within the City of Toronto.”
Of the 10 Toronto communities analyzed, Scarborough recorded the highest price appreciation. The median sold price of a property during the six-month pre-pandemic period was reported to be $710,000. Since then it’s increased by 25 percent to the Instant Estimate value of $915,008 as of May 2021. Scarborough Village was the top-performing neighbourhood in the area, with property values increasing by 31 percent.
York and Etobicoke showed similarly high levels of value appreciation between the two time periods analyzed in the report, increasing by 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Within these communities, home values in Keelesdale-Eglinton West and Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown appreciated by 28 percent and 34 percent, respectively.
As Ruparell alluded to, homes in Old Toronto — made up of the West End, East End, Downtown, Midtown and Uptown — appreciated by a less impressive eight percent overall between the six-month pre-pandemic period and May 2021.
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Near the bottom of the list, Downtown properties recorded only an eight percent value appreciation between the six-month time period and this month’s Instant Estimate price. Prior to the pandemic, the median sold price of a home in the city’s core was $680,000. It’s since climbed to $721,709 as of May 2021, according to the Instant Estimate. The Cabbagetown-South St. James Town neighbourhood posted the highest value appreciation in the Downtown area at 17 percent, while homes in the Waterfront Communities only gained 5 percent in value.
At the bottom of the list, homes in the city’s Uptown posted the lowest appreciation levels, only rising by five percent from the median sold price of $1,132,000 pre-pandemic to $1,229,273. Within the Uptown community, property values in Forest Hill North climbed the most at 11 percent while Yonge-Eglinton was the worst performer with just four percent value appreciation.
