Million Dollar Update

Undeterred by hobgoblins, 146 Toronto homes changed hands last month for more than $1 million each. That's 17% below the September total of 175.

Near the top of the heap was a York Mills/Bayview two-storey on a one-acre lot on Wilket Rd. It was on the market for a mere 6 days before selling for $4,150,000, 3.5% below its $4,300,000 list price.

Here's the Meat. You got the Bread? And $36,000+ a year in property taxes.
Co-Listed by Re/Max Realtron and Forest Hill Real Estate


Price includes a wine cellar. Didn't expect less, did you?

Photos: TREB

Auto Auction Action

Fall's here: snow is sneaking in with the rain and hail and swirling leaves.

For old car buffs in northern climes, it's time to call the insurer and pull the liability coverage, fuel it up and tuck in their spoiled babes for their wintertime hibernation.

But you can still dream about next year's ride.

Keeping that thought alive, last weekend I took in the Toronto International Fall Classic Car Auction at the International Convention Centre near Pearson International Airport. This was one of 13 auctions Chatham, Ontario-based RM Restorations and Classic Cars is holding across Canada and the US this year.


1970 Charger R/T $125,000 high bid, no sale

The show attracted several thousand visitors. Some bidders. But mostly just dreamers and metaphorical tire kickers. Altogether, more than 400 vehicles were on the block--from a clunker '86 Audi 100LS that had to be pushed up the ramp, but still sold for $1,512, to fully-restored '57 Chevies. At the top of the heap sat a Ferrari 360 Modena F1 on which the seller turned down $150,000. The top price actually accepted was $152,280 for a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster.

"Give me fifty, fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty one here, fifty one here! fifty one here! "

The auctioneers are as fast and furious and you'd expect. Three at a time, with action constantly shifting,one to another. At least three spotters. Add a couple of dozen roadies, gloved and sturdy, pushing the cars towards the auctioneer's ramp and sometimes up to the display when balky engines refuse to fire. Near the auctioneers are several roving agents, communicating with their principal car collectors by cell phone.

1937 Supercharged Cord Sold for $149,040

Two huge screens on either side display the vehicle's year and model and the rising price increments in both Canadian and US dollars. (All figures here are C$.) The display: "SOLD" Or more often, blank, indicating "no sale".



'65 Mustang GT 350 clone. Sold, $28,890

As in any auction, vehicles are sold "reserve" or "without reserve". Reserve simply means sellers set a price below which they won't go, no matter what the "bid." Naturally, the reserve is a secret between seller and the auctioneers. "Without reserve" means the seller has to take the best price, regardless. It's a game of chicken. Who's going to give in first? When the bidding gets close to the hidden reserve price, the sellers often signal "without reserve" , hoping for a burst of bidding to sweeten their pot. As each vehicle slowly rolls down the stand, the auctioneers keep the patter up: "This is a car that you're not going to have to do anything with. It was completely restored last year. In Montreal, we'd have sold it for $100,000 easily. Last chance to own this one of a kind...."

Sometimes it works and bids start rolling in, especially if the magic words "Without Reserve" start flashing. An immaculate black 1970 Dodge Charger RT 383 was snapped up on the roll off the ramp. Sold! $48,600 Later, we learned that the seller had dropped the reserve to $39,000 during the bidding and was tickled to get the $9,600 bonus.


1954 Corvette Roadster Sold $89,100

Sold vehicles are parked again in the exhibit area till their new owners remove them. Those not sold remain, usually with an asking price on the windshield. Often, the neatly printed price is scratched out and a scribbled lower one chopping off $5,000-$10,00 takes its place.

Whatever the selling price, RM makes money coming and going. Seller's pay a 5% premium and buyer's 8%. This is on top of any applicable taxes. As well, RM charges to register each vehicle and a further approximately $300 for behind the chains treatment. (In practice, the chains are soon on the floor and the hoi polloi are wandering around everywhere.) The exception: one-on-one chain surround. A concours quality 1951 black Mercury was afforded this star treatment, complete with a serious-looking leatherclad 6'6" minder. The Merc's windshield said $115,000, well above the best bid of $94,000.


1956 Chevrolet Belair, sold $102,600 '57s no longer rule the roost

Admission was $20 for adults, children under 12 free. The Toronto auction recorded over $3,000,000 in sales. But this is mere beer money compared to some of the high-stakes auctions RM runs. Consider its Monterey, California auction in August, where the top ten priced cars reaped more than US$18.5 million dollars for their owners. Admission to the bidding alone was only by catalogue purchase of $80.

Photos: Goldie-Anne Weiss

Here a Million, There a Million

So you think you got a million dollar home in Toronto? You're not alone.

As of October 5, there were 1,223 properties in the TREB MLS system listed for more than $1 million. That's 6.3% of the total estimated listings of 19,000. (Toronto MLScovers an area from Orangeville and Oakville in the west through Durham Region in the east.)

But listing and selling prices are two different things. In hot markets, or for hot properties, buyers gladly sign full-price and overprice offers. Conversely, homes can languish on the market for months or even years as sellers resist cutting prices when markets slow.

Still, last month, 175 properties were sold for $1 million or more. Not a bad sales-to-listing ratio. So far this month (through 7 October) 21 homes have changed hands for $1 million and more.


Million Dollar Digs in Midtown

Updated two-storey on a 50'-125' lot on St. Clements Ave., 5 br, 2 baths, annual taxes of $9,422. Listed at $929,000, sold 3 October for $1,092,000. On market for one week. Listing agent: Re/Max Ultimate Realty. Photo: TREB

Which means that:

1) A million dollar price tag on a resale home isn't the barrier it once was. Say, when a "luxury" car was $4,000-$5,000;

2) The price threshold of "luxury" should be notched upwards, perhaps to $1.4-$1.5 million. With a definition tied to the magic 7 figures, thousands of "luxury" homes are sold every year. That just doesn't sound very exclusive. When you've seen the extraordinary ordinariness of some of these million dollar babies--'60s tract bungalows, for instance--the appellation stretches credulity;

3) If "luxury" home sales are often the canary of the real estate market, we may not yet be facing the American-style collapsing bubble.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Few Million?

The high-end housing market in parts of Toronto is certainly under siege.

The Toronto Real Estate Board division C-12 (bounded by Leslie, 401, Yonge and Lawrence) usually leads the list for the highest average monthly prices. It continues to do so, but listings are rising while sales dwindle.

MLS listings over $1 million have reached 127, with 96 of those listings exceeding $1.5 million. Monthly sales, which averaged 30-40 the first half of the year, were 21 in July, hit rock bottom in August of just 15, and moved up to 22 for September, including 15 over $1 million. So far this month: nada.


photo: TREB
What They Got For C$3,780,000
This brand new 6,500 sf 8 bath home on a 110x150ft. lot on Daleberry Place, southeast of Bayview Ave. & York Mills Rd., originally listed for C$3,980,000. Builder is Noik Homes

What's unique in C12 is that the supply of high-end homes is overwhelmingly new construction--completed in the last year or two and often occupied by the builders or under construction or finished and vacant. The supply will continue to swell through spring, as homes now under construction reach completion. (On one small Don Mills crescent alone there are six new homes under way or just listed, with only one a pre-sale.)
***
I wonder if retired Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi's gated mansion at 11 Oxbow will sport a "For Sale" sign soon. His wife, Leanne, in whose name title is held, has filed for divorce, citing Tie's relationship with Belinda Stronach as the cause.

***
And, just to put it all in perspective, Forbes has published its annual list of the most expensive homes now listed for sale in the United States. Topping the list was the Florida mansion of Mr. Chutzpah himself, Donald Trump, bearing a price tag of US$125 million. Trump, Forbes notes, picked up the property for only US$41.25 million in a bankruptcy sale; he's since had it painted or goldplated, or something in the taste fit for a Saudi prince.

Keep Your Mould to Yourself

In my TARION-registered builder hat, I was recently asked this question:

"In the process of finishing my basement a little at a time as the money tree grows new leaves. What's the best way to do it?"

I could give you the stock answer--dampproof the interior foundation wall, build a stud wall, add fibreglass batts and a vapour barrier as per the Ontario Building Code, and most other Building Codes.

But the fact is that Building Codes are woefully behind
building science research into the best ways to ensure healthy, energy efficient basement living space.

In a cold climate, the best retrofit basement insulation system in a recent house is
to fix board-type insulation rated at least RSI18 against the walls, eg., Styrofoam SM, with either the appropriate adhesive or concrete fasteners and fender washers, seal the joints with air-barrier tape (red and very sticky); then in the spaces between the joists at the top, cut to fit foil-faced isocyanurate board, caulk and seal the joints with metal tape.

Next, build a stud wall, preferably of light gauge steel, add batts if you want to superinsulate or just drywall without a vapour barrier. (This is the way I did our custom home last year--though unfortunately, the inspector insisted on the vapour barrier.) And it's the way I intend to finish a custom home I am doing for a client starting next January.


Styrofoam insulation in Basement Wall attached with furring strips
photo: Dow Corp.

A cheaper way of finishing the walls would be to fix furring strips to the foundation wall through the insulation and use these to affix the wallboard. But this precludes electrical receptacles etc. on your exterior walls.

Whatever way you choose, be sure to provide dehumidfication during the summer months.

Rolling Property

Lately, I've gotten the bug to buy a modest collectible vehicle.

I'm thumbing through issues of Hemmings with the avidity of a skunk rooting for grubs in my front lawn.

And I've attended nearly all the local cruises, especially the wonderful ones held weekly by the Thornhill Cruisers.


Thornhill Cruiser

The most recent one was spectacular, with probably two dozen concourse quality '40s--60s vehicles; and dozens of "very good" ones. It also was open to Corvettes of all ages. I never knew there were so many older Corvettes with Z06 motor transplants prowling our roads.

The array of chromed, chopped and channelled rods was amazing. I loved it when the participants left along the one lane parking lot--all those rumbling modified and crate 350s and 454s, 502s, strokers, supercharged and double turbo-charged Mustangs, '70's Chevelles, Chargers and Challengers.


Deep Purple

American Graffiti before your eyes. Only the greying ponytails, white sideburns and grandmotherly-looking chicks gave away the passage of time.

I bring my daughter to every show. She's partial to the 'Vettes, especially when she saw one of the Z06 transplants was driven by a woman. That, and a "sleeper" modified Supra with a claimed dyno rating of 640hp at the rear wheels, double the stock ponies. I'd peg the meticulously manicured, well-spoken owner as a senior business executive.

Men (and women) and their toys.

photos: Goldie-Anne Weiss

Purple Prince Sent Packing

News is that Manuela Testolini has filed for divorce from singer Prince (Rogers Nelson) in Minnesota on May 24th. Toronto native Testolini and, very occasionally, Prince, shared a mansion at 61 The Bridle Path, an estate in the toniest of Toronto suburban neighbourhoods with the same name.

Testolini bought the mansion under the corporate name Gamilah Holdings in October 2002 for C$5.5 million, and subsequently added a tennis court, pool and elaborate steel and frosted glass gates. (Gamilah is the title of one of Princes's songs.)

Testolini, an obsessive Prince fan for years before she knew him, sought and obtained a job at Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis and eventually married him. Once he divorced his previous wife, that is.

Should the split be finalized, and Testolini end up with the mansion--it is in her company's name, after all--it will be a quick rise from her humble beginnings in her parent's crowded two-bedroom Don Mills Road apartment five minutes away.

But don't count on it. The property was purchased with a C$4.6 million mortgage, which we can presume has not been paid by Gamilah Holdings without a little help from the Purple Prince, who may now have a change of tune.

Atlas Shakes His Head

Every morning I turn to my daily news sources for the latest take on how life would become better in dozens of ways if only some new law, regulation or sweeping "tough" measures were enacted by some level of government; and if only people and businesses weren't so "greedy" in fulfilling their needs in "bad" ways and just followed "expert" government advice, how much we would all benefit; if only we'd surrender away that last 40% of our income not taken in taxes how much Mother Earth would love us.

"I'm tryin' [to understand] Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard."