Real Estate Outside Toronto (Keswick, Ontario)

[luxome]

Since the forum mostly talkes about condo and real estate development in Toront. I'm just wondering how far away from Toronto you guys would consider investing in.

For instance, Keswick is a place i've been looking at recently. Sometimes it makes me wonder why Lagoon City are predominately occupied by high-income groups while Keswick isn't (much closer to the city than Lagoon City or Orillia).

There are various developments going on right now (including condos too! e.g., Crates Landing). I'm sure things will pickup even more when the highway extension reaches Ravenshoe Road.


What are your opinions/thought? Good place to invest/consider or not?

 

[Yossi Kaplan MBA]

Keswick

Love Keswick!

a great mix of old money and Labatt 50 drinkers.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Love Keswick!

a great mix of old money and Labatt 50 drinkers.

We moved to Keswick from the city in 1977, I got the hell out in 1980! My family remains there and they all love it. The growth of Keswick in the past 15 years is astounding. From downtown to Keswick is generally only a 45-50 minute drive, not bad at all. If the 404 eventually continues from Green Lane to Ravenshoe Rd. that will cut the drive down by probably 15 minutes. Is there any word on 404 extensions to points north? The 404 was proposed to end at Ravenshoe dating back to the early 80's.

Homes in newer subdivisions with roughly 3 beds, 1500-2000 sq. ft. run anywhere from the low 300's to the high 400's. But plenty of deals can be found in older, smaller homes or converted cottages, some of which are fixer-uppers.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

If memory serves me correctly, the 404 is just going to Ravenshoe, but I don't have any documents handy. I suspect that Greenbelt considerations will preempt any extension north of Ravenshoe extension, say, to Sutton/48 as was planned years ago...for instance, Keswick was to have built a decent sized office/industrial park on the east side of Woodbine, around Glenwoods or so, requiring an interchange (when they may have just put one at Pollock), but I don't see that employment site going forward at all now.

In the 90s, Keswick began subdividing the Queensway/Glenwoods/Woodbine/Ravenshoe concession block but they're barely 1/4 done. Even with greenbelt restrictions, Keswick could pretty easily hit 50,000 people, which is slightly scary.

Love Keswick!

a great mix of old money and Labatt 50 drinkers.

Sorry to break the news to you, but the money's gone...virtually all of the cottages have been turned into year-round homes (accounting for about half of Keswick's recent growth). You need to go north of Keswick to find the remaining cottages and, therefore, the remaining money.

 

[Therion]

My wife-to-be works for the York Region Catholic School Board. She told me on many occasions that the worst posting you can have (after Woodbridge) is Keswick. It's like a little piece of hillbilly Appalachia transposed to Ontario.

 

[Observer Walt]

Out of curiosity, what's considered to be so bad about Woodbridge? It's McMansion heaven, but I would not have thought it would be a bad place to work.

 

[Therion]

Out of curiosity, what's considered to be so bad about Woodbridge? It's McMansion heaven, but I would not have thought it would be a bad place to work.

Teachers hate it. The culture of "my little Angelo is a precious snowflake, and how dare you give him a B" is so prevalent that teachers are routinely threatened, harassed and their lives generally made miserable by insane parents. It's a trend that is prevalent now in most upper-middle class areas, but Woodbridge is notorious for it.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Teachers hate it. The culture of "my little Angelo is a precious snowflake, and how dare you give him a B" is so prevalent that teachers are routinely threatened, harassed and their lives generally made miserable by insane parents. It's a trend that is prevalent now in most upper-middle class areas, but Woodbridge is notorious for it.

When I oversaw the operations of two (now gone) Drive In theatre complexes in Woodbridge the staff were a nightmare, but their parents were worse. Heaven forbid they not like their work schedule or receive a deserved written disciplinary warning for serious work infractions. Thankfully there were off-duty officers on each site to protect the management team from their parents, or brothers!

I always thought Keswick was a little "unusual" too, but it's my only close real-world rural experience so I thought it must be small-town normal. I still see women in their 40's with Farrah hairstyles in Keswick when I visit. It takes everything I've got to keep my composure.

 

[luxome]

My wife-to-be works for the York Region Catholic School Board. She told me on many occasions that the worst posting you can have (after Woodbridge) is Keswick. It's like a little piece of hillbilly Appalachia transposed to Ontario.

i'm not totally familiar with Woodbridge, but i totally agree with you about teaching in Keswick.

i heard that the crime rate (for the population size) is relatively high. However, i do start to see more and more small investors in the area.

BTW, have you seen the prices of those condos (Crates Landing)? They're Toronto pricing (e.g., Yonge/Sheppard)!!! call them up if you don't believe me.

here's the website: http://brightstarcorp.ca/featured_projects.asp

price list is not available online. However, they do e-mail the pricelists out if requested.