Here’s an easy question: where do you live?
Now here’s a much harder one: where should you live to ensure you’re near a GTA transit hub and how will the TTC’s plans for expansion impact the value of your home?
The answer to both queries can be worth thousands of dollars because the old real estate axiom about location, location, location has a well-known addendum: being near a subway or major transit route can instantly increase what your home is worth without you having to do anything at all.
But can you tell where they’re going to build or if the place you’re looking to buy will one day find itself on a subway or major transit line? The answer is yes, if you believe government plans about where officials hope to put the new routes.
Adding transit takes years of planning and a commitment of millions of dollars and all of it has to be done well in advance. That means the powers-that-be know where they’ll be putting the new tracks and trains as much as a decade or more before a shovel actually hits the ground.
One of those locations could be along waterfront-adjacent Cherry Street, which would make the folks on Condo Row lick their collective chops at the thought of bulging resale values.
“Streetcar access is phenomenal in terms of adding to value and presence … people want to be on a streetcar line,” said David Jackson, a Toronto urban planner.
Plans for the new tracks could start as early as spring 2009, while the underground expansion of the Don Mills subway line all the way to Morningside could have homeowners on the north side of town dreaming of dollars, though there’s no official date for that project to commence.
So just how much of a bottom line difference are we talking about here?
“Easily thirty to fifty thousand dollars,” confirmed Toronto realtor Janice Mackie. “Thirty thousand dollars is a parking spot … you don’t have to purchase that.”
What’s more, given the constant rise in gas prices and the GTA’s traffic volume, the Better Way may soon be looking even better still.
And while the two mentioned above are among the more central and immediate transit expansion schemes in the works, there are dozens of others being hatched around the GTA and Ontario as well.
Here’s where you can check out the best laid plans that are being laid out right now.
Transit City: Can tell you about planned expansions in the city of Toronto.
Transit City map: Have a peek at what a future light rapid transit system might look like.
Move Ontario 2020: See the plans for the rest of the GTA here.
Move Ontario 2020: See a map for the GTA
Waterfront Toronto: The downtown core may soon look a lot different than it currently does.
Metrolinx: Transforming transit in the GTHA
See original CityTV News video and read more | digg story
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