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Home of the Week, 31 Victoria Ave., Markham, Ont.Winsold
This week: Realtors are taking a break from the housing industry after several years of downturn, and Canadian couples are considering prenups to protect their housing investments. Plus, the iconic home from a beloved sitcom goes on sale.
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Time off
With home sales slow, realtors take a step back from the industry
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In2ition CEO and founder Debbie Cosic says some of her former employees have moved onto other types of jobs.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
While selling real estate was once viewed as an easy way to make a living, that’s no longer the case after several years of downturn, leading thousands of Canadian realtors to leave the industry or take a pause in their business. And it’s not just realtors new to the industry who are leaving, Rachelle Younglai writes: Veterans are retiring or have cut staff to deal with the multiyear slowdown.
Debbie Cosic’s Mississauga-based real estate brokerage In2ition used to sell about 3,000 preconstruction condos across the country every year prior to the downturn. Last year, they sold 800 units. Because activity slowed, she had to downsize and change her business model to focus predominantly on houses and rental-only apartment buildings. She now has about 50 employees compared to a few years ago when she had a staff of 150, including realtors.
In Ontario, the country’s largest real estate market, there were 84,798 realtors or salespeople at the end of last year, according to provincial regulator, the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO.) That is down 1.3 per cent from 2024 and marked the first decrease in licensed realtors in at least eight years. Read the full story.
Prenup paradox
A growing number of Canadians say they want a prenup, but few people sign them
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Illustration by Dominic Bugatto
Prenuptial agreements, more commonly known as prenups or marriage contracts, have been part of the legal landscape in Canada for decades. They are meant to bring clarity and certainty in the event a marriage breaks down, yet, as Zahra Khozema writes, most Canadians still avoid them, often because of high costs and emotional toll.
More younger Canadians are showing interest in prenups in recent years, particularly as housing becomes harder to afford and family money plays a bigger role in home ownership.
“Every couple in the story who had a prenup either already owned property or had bought a home with help from family they wanted to protect – no one was ultra rich, so, housing has changed the equation,” Khozema said. “Maybe wealth in Canada is just measured differently now, through a single home, not millions in a TFSA or a big business.”
A prenup could also be a condition for parents to feel comfortable contributing financially to a new home, she said.
“I still think wealth plays a role, but now I actually see them as something that can matter even more for middle class Canadians. If it took you years to save a down payment or your parents helped you buy your first home, that’s probably one of the biggest financial achievements of your life,” Khozema said. “You have something worth protecting.”
Khozema said that while she was surprised at how few Canadians actually have a prenup, what held couples back from getting one was the act of putting it together.
“I expected disagreements between couples, but more often than not they were on the same page. It was the legal process that wore them down,” she said. Read the full story.
This week’s lowest fixed and variable mortgage rates in Canada
Rates shown are the lowest available for each term/type and category (insured vs. uninsured) as of market close on Thursday, July 30.
Home history
Canada’s disclosure rules for homes with dark pasts can be murky
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Witthaya Prasongsin/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Earlier this year, when homebuyers in Hudson, Que., sued the prior owners after discovering a deadly home invasion took place in 2020, the case hinged on one major detail: The sellers allegedly didn’t disclose that a violent death had taken place in the house.
Quebec is unique in Canada, in that sellers in the province must fill a declaration form that asks these kinds of questions about a home’s past. But in the rest of the country, as Salmaan Farooqui writes, experts say disclosure of a home’s history – such as a murder, suicide or criminal activity that occurred on the property – tends to fall under caveat emptor, meaning “let the buyer beware.” Essentially, the buyer must do their own due diligence.
The Ontario Real Estate Association, which represents nearly 100,000 real estate professionals, says that while realtors should try to uncover details that could affect a property’s value and reputation, the seller ultimately has no responsibility to divulge these details unless asked. Read more for a look at some scenarios that buyers might want to look out for when researching the history of a property.
Design corner
From cozy to chic, all the ways you can use gingham in your home
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The cottage-y coziness is a relatively new layer to the pattern’s long historySupplied
It’s hard to think of a more comforting design staple than the iconic stripes and squares of gingham. For Vancouver interior designer Francesca Albertazzi, founder of Studio Albertazzi, the print is imbued with a nostalgia for pie-baking matrons and their aprons and short curtains at windows overlooking a beautiful sea view.
In home decor, designers are constantly finding new ways to incorporate the pattern, doing so in just about every application (toasters, ice buckets, butter dishes). Its popularity is due in part to its versatility – simply change its scale or colour palette and gingham can take on different roles and aesthetics in your home.
From ceramics to napkins to wallpaper, here are some creative ways to incorporate the timeless pattern in your home design.
Home of the Week
Gilmore Girls fans thrill as Toronto-area house goes up for sale
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31 Victoria Ave., Markham, Ont. – Full gallery here
The Gilmore Girls house is for sale, and, until recently, its current owner didn’t know the first thing about Stars Hollow or the rabid fandom for the early 2000s comedy-drama. In fact, he didn’t live there at all during the show’s 2000-2007 run.
But now that 31 Victoria Ave. is for sale for the first time in 25 years, it’s gone viral on social media. There’s been a wave of interest in people coming to see the home.
The main entryway will be very familiar to fans: a set of double doors in the middle of the wraparound porch under a stained-glass transom. To the right of this rounded portal is a raised dining room, actually the first room in the house depicted in the show: in the pilot, Lorelai is having a conversation with fictional private school Chilton Prep about tuition as she walks down the hallway into the great room.
The house listing has a virtual tour, and sharp-eyed viewers will note the real space does not exactly match the one in the TV show, at least not after a few scenes in the pilot.
In the real house, there’s a built-in bar right next to the entrance from the foyer and the dining room. Despite replacing it with a staircase when they recreated the home on a film set, Hollywood faithfully recreated all the other features of the real great room, including the brown-brick fireplace with double arched openings for hearth and log storage. It’s the same today as it was in the pilot, and many spikily sarcastic or heartfelt conversations were had in front of its TV clone for eight seasons.
What do you think is the asking price for the property?
a. $3,880,000
b. $4,385,000
c. $4,999,000
d. $5,565,000
a. The asking price is $3,880,000.