The great Toronto rebuild

Less than 10 months ago, the house at 145 Galley Ave. was uninhabitable. Now, it is unrecognizable.

The Roncesvalles home was so dilapidated when its elderly owner put it on the market for $649,900 last January, the MLS listing warned open-house enthusiasts to leave the kids at home: Not for the faint of heart.

The furnace hadnt worked in years. The walls were grey from the soot kicked out by kerosene heaters. Windows were missing. The roof was a sieve.

Still, more than 30 folks bid on the house. It sold for $803,649 more than $150,000 over the asking price.

Its up for sale again for $1.5 million.

This is just in keeping with whats been happening in the area, says contractor Michael DeSimone as workers applied the finishing touches, aiming to have it ready for visitors by Dec. 1.

Ten years ago, this Roncesvalles/Parkdale area was in need of revitalization. These things help in that, he says, glancing at the stunning transformation.

An unprecedented renovation/restoration/rejuvenation binge is sweeping the streets of the old City of Toronto and having a significant impact on overall house prices, which were yet again up, this time almost nine per cent, across the GTA in October, year over year.

Last April, for instance, a surge of new infill homes in the 416 region was enough to briefly skew the average mid-month sale price of detached homes in the City of Toronto to an unprecedented $1 million. That average has since settled back down to $950,000.

This renovation and rebuilding boom is fuelled by what James McKellar, director of the real estate and infrastructure program at York Universitys Schulich School of Business, calls a major structural shift in the consumer market for housing.

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The great Toronto rebuild