https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3z7tf-122aec8
Norma Walton discusses ways to make your life more lighthearted and recommends reintroducing activities you loved as a child into your life now.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3z7tf-122aec8
Norma Walton discusses ways to make your life more lighthearted and recommends reintroducing activities you loved as a child into your life now.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-acujn-11f4885
Norma Walton discusses the five benefits she derives from regular swimming.
The Bridle Path or “Millionaire’s Row” seems the pinnacle of Canadian home ownership. Celebrities such as Celine Dion, Drake, Prince, Mick Jagger and Gordon Lightfoot have all called this neighbourhood home. Living in the Bridle Path is considered “making it” by many ordinary Canadians.
My husband and I lived there with our four young children between 2012 and 2014 and there were definite pluses, the biggest being the park-like back yard. But I would not go back even if I could.
The three lessons I learned from owning a Bridle Path home are as follows:
Lesson One: If you need a mortgage to afford a home in the Bridle Path, this neighbourhood is not for you.
I was told this by one of our lenders at the time and thought it a strange comment, but in hindsight he was absolutely right. This is a neighbourhood for extremely wealthy people – celebrities, titans of industry and old money. If you require a mortgage to join them, you should move somewhere else.
Lesson Two: This is not a neighbourhood in the real sense of the word.
You will not have any neighbours within view when you exit your home; your children will not have any playmates on the street; no one will have eyes on your house when you are not there; almost every house has large fences or walls around it; and you won’t meet any of your neighbours. There is no street activity like ball hockey, raking leaves, playing hoops in your driveway, sitting on the porch, or walking and jogging like on a normal street. This is an exclusive, estate-lot type setting, where everyone keeps to themselves and everyone expects privacy.
Lesson Three: Buying a home in the Bridle Path is not an investment but an expense.
Even without a mortgage you will likely have property taxes of $10,000 per month, utility bills of $10,000 per month, and maintenance fees of $5,000 per month. That tallies $300,000 per year in home expenses even without a mortgage. Hence this type of home requires that the owner have a robust ongoing income from other sources to cover the $25,000 monthly bills. Even if the home increases in value over time, the ongoing expenses will likely eat up any capital gain.
Drake is a perfect resident of the Bridle Path. Normal folk not so much.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-in5vr-f6e688
Ontario needs to follow Israel’s lead and vaccinate at least 48,000 people a day instead of the 8,000 per day it is achieving. It needs people like my dad, a production engineer, to help it ramp up vaccinations.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-wrgws-e9ddd1
Norma Walton details three reasons that construction costs are skyrocketing and her predictions for the future.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-6dmhd-e9b78f
Norma Walton provides three reasons that cottage country real estate is booming along with her prediction for that segment of the market going forward.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gm4j6-e9ab7a
Norma Walton discusses how COVID 19 makes Landlords and Tenants look differently at shared office space. Using a recent example, she describes the analysis that many building owners are undergoing to determine if a new tenant is desirable.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ax5mb-e8162b
Norma Walton identifies three trends in the commercial real estate marketplace, discusses the implications of those trends, and provides her predictions for the sector.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-seszk-e81617
Norma Walton discusses a few trends she has noticed that she expects will impact the residential condominium market. She provides her predictions for the future value of condominiums.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-xgeu5-e2aa4d
Norma Walton provides her predictions for residential real estate over the next two years in the Toronto area.