Cabbagetown

Cabbagetown The most dynamic neighborhood in Toronto! HISTORY:

The area today known as Cabbagetown was first known as the village of Don Vale, just outside of Toronto.

It grew up in the 1840s around the Winchester Street Bridge, which before the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct was the main northern bridge over the Don River.[1] This was near the site where Castle Frank Brook flowed in the Don River. By the bridge the Don Vale Tavern and Fox's Inn were established to cater to travellers.[2] In 1850 the Toronto Necropolis was established in the area as t

he city's main cemetery. In the late 19th century the area was absorbed into the city as it became home to the working class Irish inhabitants who were employed in the industries along the lakeshore to the south in Corktown. Brick Victorian style houses were built throughout the area. The name Cabbagetown came from stories of new Irish immigrants digging up their front lawns and planting cabbage, as had been done during the years of the Irish Potato Famine. In this era the Cabbagetown name most often applied to the area south of Gerrard Street, with the part to the north still being called Don Vale. It was a working class neighbourhood, but reached its peak of prosperity just before the First World War, which is when many of the brick homes in the area date from. After the war the area became increasingly impoverished. It became known as one of Toronto's largest slums and much of the original Cabbagetown was razed in the late 1940s to make room for the Regent Park housing project. The remaining section to the north, then still known as Don Vale, was also slated for to be cleared and replaced by housing projects. In 1964 a Toronto Star writer wrote that "Cabbagetown has become a downhill ride and if you're on way up, you don't dare stay there for long unless you live in Regent Park."[3]
The construction of new housing projects was halted in the 1970s that saw the rise of the reform movement that opposed such sweeping plans. In Don Mount this effort was led by Karl Jaffary, who was elected to city council in the 1969 municipal election along with a group of like minded councillors who soon ended the urban renewal plans. John Sewell led the effort to preserve Trefann Court, that covered the southern section of the original Cabbagetown. Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbagetown_(Toronto)

08/24/2026

New listings dropped 1.6% nationally in July — and in Toronto specifically, they’re down 17.8% year over year, per RBC Economics.

That’s the real story behind the “market turnaround” headlines: this isn’t demand exploding, it’s supply retreating after three years of inventory buildup in Ontario and BC.

Canada’s sales-to-new-listings ratio now sits at 0.51 — balanced territory, a meaningful shift after years of buyer’s-market conditions in the hardest-hit regions.

The risk: if sellers regain confidence and list again, that emerging floor under prices gets tested. Watch new listings as closely as sales over the next few months.

Source: RBC Economics, “Focus on Canadian Housing” (Robert Hogue), Aug 18 2026.

08/23/2026

RBC’s “convergence” thesis: the markets that carried Canadian real estate for the past two years — Prairies, Quebec, Atlantic Canada — are showing signs of topping out. Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Montreal, Quebec City, Moncton and PEI all posted monthly resale declines in July, and Quebec’s annual price gains have fallen to less than half what they were at the start of the year.

Meanwhile Ontario — the market that took the hardest hit the last three years — is the one RBC flags as initiating a recovery.

For investors, that’s a directional signal on where capital and deal flow could rotate next, not a guarantee. Immigration cuts and affordability pressure are still headwinds across the board.

Source: RBC Economics, “Focus on Canadian Housing” (Robert Hogue), Aug 18 2026.

08/07/2026

Toronto rents rose for the fourth straight month in July — up 1.6%, pulling the annual decline down to just 0.6%, the smallest of any major Canadian market.

Listings are down roughly 6% year-over-year. Supply is tightening, and rent is starting to respond.

Urbanation is calling it a potential leading indicator — not a confirmed recovery. Worth watching closely.

08/01/2026

84% of Ontario LTB tenancy cases this year were filed by landlords, not tenants. Before drawing a conclusion from that number, it's worth understanding the structure behind it.

Arrears and hold-over applications are procedurally landlord-initiated by design — a tenant doesn't file to evict themselves. So the number partly reflects how the system is built, not necessarily who's "in the right" more often.

It's also fair to ask whether tenants are underusing the remedies available to them — repair orders, harassment complaints, illegal fee disputes. Both readings deserve airtime.

07/31/2026

Nearly 6 in 10 landlord applications to Ontario's LTB this year weren't about damage, harassment, or bad behaviour. They were L1 filings — unpaid rent. 20,162 of 34,422 landlord applications, 58.6%.

For investors, that's the real underwriting signal: arrears exposure isn't the exception in a multifamily portfolio, it's the base case you build reserves around.

Not advice — just the caseload, Smarties.

07/31/2026

Ontario's LTB issued 40,844 orders between January and May 2026 — and 6,523 of them, almost 1 in 6, were ex parte. Decided without either side in the room.

That's not automatically a red flag. Sometimes it's a no-show, sometimes an unopposed filing. But it's worth knowing how often the system rules without a hearing.

Worth watching for anyone navigating the LTB from either side of the table, Smarties.

07/27/2026

LTB Orders Now Public. Here's What It Means For Your Underwriting.

The Landlord and Tenant Board just released a major transparency upgrade: all final LTB orders are now accessible on the Ontario government's Open Data Catalogue.

Starting July 24, 2026

This means you can now see:
Every eviction decision and the grounds used
Tenant defense strategies that worked (or failed)
Damage award patterns
Adjudicator decision-making trends

Initial release covers January 2026 through May 2026. Historical orders dating back to 2021 will be added incrementally.

For investors, this is intelligence. Real data on what actually succeeds in front of the LTB. Better tenant quality underwriting. More predictable regulatory environment.

This is regulatory modernization. Transparency at scale.

07/20/2026

Good news for borrowers: mortgage renewal shock averted. BoC stays on hold.

Bad news for investors: rent inflation is stuck at 3.5%. Unchanged month-over-month.

Shelter price growth (1.6%) is the slowest of any CPI category, suggesting housing supply is catching up to demand.

Translation: Household demand is solid. But you’re not getting pricing power on rents.

That changes your underwriting lens. BoC on hold means rates won’t move. Rents won’t accelerate. Cap rates compress.

Borrower relief ≠ investor upside.

07/10/2026

"Rents rose three months in a row" and "rents have fallen for 21 straight months" sound like they can't both be true. They are — and understanding why is a genuinely useful skill for reading any market report.

Month-over-month tracks the most recent trend. Year-over-year compares to twelve months ago. Rents crashed hard through 2024 into 2025 — so even as monthly numbers improve now, the annual comparison is still catching up to a much higher starting point from a year back.

The number to watch: Toronto's annual rent decline has narrowed to just 1.9%, per Rentals.ca/Urbanation — the smallest gap in this entire 29-month stretch. If monthly gains keep compounding, that flips positive. That's what a market bottom looks like in the data before it's obvious anywhere else.

Full breakdown on this week's Smart Real Estate, free at learninvestmanage.com.

07/09/2026

Toronto rents rose for a third straight month in June, according to the latest Rentals.ca/Urbanation National Rent Report — and the city's annual decline has narrowed to just 1.9%, the smallest gap in over two years of consecutive drops.

Nationally, the picture is more mixed. Rents are still down 4.3% year-over-year, marking 21 consecutive months of declines — though the pace has clearly slowed from earlier in the year.

The real signal is the split within the GTA itself: while the core stabilizes, suburbs like Scarborough (-11%), Markham (-10.2%), and Niagara Falls (-12.5%) are still falling sharply. One market, two very different stories.

One month doesn't confirm a bottom — but it's worth watching. Full breakdown on this week's Smart Real Estate, free at learninvestmanage.com.

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