PHOTO: Phil Lameira

The all-day event kicks off at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 25, when the most fetching pair of dogs will be crowned Slobber King and Queen to lead a pack parade.

Dog owners are asked to meet for the parade in Beaches Park, at the boathouse just below the foot of Leuty Avenue.

Slobberfest prizes include awards for the best dog costume, howl, trick, and kiss, plus prizes for the top hot-dog bobber, ice-cream eater and the dogs with the softest and the roughest coat.

Volunteers will also be measuring up the competition throughout the day to recognize the tallest and shortest dogs, as well as dogs with longest and shortest ears and tails.

Along with vendors offering dog services and treats of all kinds, the Chip Truck from Toronto Animal Services will be on hand to provide microchip IDs.

The rice-sized chips will be installed and tested by a TAS veterinarian, and do not require anesthetic. The passive, radio-frequency chips can then be used by shelters, animal control officers and other veterinarians to make sure lost dogs find their way home.

For more information, phone Community Centre 55 at 416-691-1113.

Sporting a red London 2012 Paralympics jacket and a haircut that looks just as fast as he does, Justine's first guide around the oval was Josh Cassidy, winner of 75 medals and a world record marathon time.

He and fellow Paralympian Rachael Burrows were two special guests at an April 28 Try-It Camp, part of a new program that aims to recruit more people like Justine into track and field para-sports.

Paralympian Josh Cassidy chats with Justine Wilmot while guiding her through her first laps in a racing chair at the Whitby Athletics Centre on April 28. Behind, able-bodied members of the Durham Dragons test their strength in para-athletic style shotput.

“I just took her here to try it out and see how it is,” said Justine's mother. “She loves it.”

Run by Athletics Ontario, the new program aims to grow para-athletic sports across Ontario by concentrating on two hubs: London and the GTA.

Back in the Beach, Craig Blackman is head coach of I Be Fast, a Beach track and field club that will join two other clubs – the Etobicoke Track & Field Club and the Durham Dragons – to build the GTA hub.

Before he started coaching, Blackman ran at several international games, including the 400-metre relay in the 1972 Munich Olympics. What he started as a small track club for his kids and those of his sprinter friend Charlie Francis quickly grew to include a full team of all ages and abilities.

“Everybody runs together,” he said, speaking at an another Try-It Camp held at Variety Village. “After the first 20 minutes, they're just one of the gang.”

Blackman says he enjoys coaching able-bodied and disabled athletes as one team not only because it makes for a bigger, friendlier group, but also because training in heats and seeded events pushes everyone to work a little harder.

Sprinter Cindy Blunt agrees. A 52-year-old sprinter who holds a 100-metre record in her ability class, Blunt is a long-time member of the Durham Dragons, where everyone else on her team is able-bodied.

“They learn and I learn,” she says. “My coach teams me up against them and I just chase them down. It improves my times.”

Blunt says she welcomes the idea of a GTA hub for para-athletes, and recommends that anyone interested comes out and gives it a try.

“You get to travel for one, and you get to make friends,” she said. “You get to try things you wouldn't normally get to do.”

For Blunt, that meant running the Olympic torch through Nathan Phillips Square in 2010. Thirty years into her running career, she is training up to qualify for a world competition in France this July.

Kayla Cornale, para-athletics coordinator for Athletics Ontario, says the Try-It camps are open to everyone, including parents and teachers interested in learning more about para-sports. Cornale also noted that equipment is no barrier.

“You don't need the Ferrari of racing to start,” she said, noting that both Cassidy and Burrows started training for races using their day chairs. Cornale also said a lot of first-timers will likely try a few sports before they find their favourite.

Whether new recruits play para-sports just for fun or go on to a competitive level is tough to guess – something that Burrows found out firsthand.

Even after competing in the Pan Am Games and a world championship, Burrows said she never expected to make the London Paralympics last year.

“When it happened, I was like, ‘Oh, okay—here we go!’”

The next Try It camp, which is free of charge, will be held on May 25 from 8 to 10 a.m. at Birchmount Stadium’s track. For more information on the Try It camps, email para.athleticsont@gmail.com.

As the neighbourhood continues through its cycles of rediscovery and reinvention, the debate over its name persists.  Theoretically, there is only one long stretch of beach.  Yet correspondence between the family members of Kew Williams – so-named for Kew Gardens in Britain and once-upon-a-time resident of the house that remains in the Beach park of the same name – suggests early inhabitants made reference to their location in the neighbourhood through their proximity to one part of the beach, for instance, Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach or Kew Beach.

Given this, it seems plausible to understand how the controversy may have begun.  Conceivably, people may have envisioned themselves as residing in micro-boroughs, which may have led one to perceive their beach-front vicinity as distinct in nature from another – hence, the potentially historically meaningful reason behind calling the neighbourhood 'the Beaches.'

I will place a special emphasis on my family home at 269 Glen Manor Dr. E.

As early as 1884, the Beach was identified as a part of what is today the City of Toronto on insurance maps. It is not always clear how the specifics between newly appropriated areas and older parts of the City were managed.  Evidence suggests the Beach was annexed in the mid 1880s.

Yet Balmy Beach, the name which refers to the entire neighbourhood on the 1884 insurance map and, likewise, on the record illustrating the amalgamation of the area, officially became a part of the City of Toronto through an Ontario Railway and Municipal Board Order dated Nov. 12, 1909.

While Balmy Beach may have been the first piece of waterfront land to be named, the name Kew Beach emerged by 1890.  The addition of beach names over relatively short periods of time lends credence to the argument that early inhabitants perceived themselves as living in small communities. The adoption of unique beach names by each community suggests that each perceived itself as a distinct neighbourhood; yet collectively these communities are 'the Beaches', a shared identity unified by the beach itself.

Glen Manor Drive is situated in the heart of the neighbourhood and exemplifies the majesty for which the area is known. In essence, The Glen is a ravine with tree-lined streets,  and it remains straddled by a bridge that enables pedestrians to cross over its steep hills. (I call it The Glen because that is how it is referred to on maps until the street was officially named.)

In 1884, divisions for the allotment of properties surrounding the park are illustrated on maps of the East End of Toronto.  While the area adjacent to The Glen appeared to be earmarked for development in the 1880s, Glen Manor Drive, the street on either side of the park, did not come into existence until somewhere between 1913 and 1924.

In the 1880s, property lines were drawn for Glen Manor Drive East with rear boundaries facing Balsam Avenue. Divisions for the allotment of properties on Glen Manor Drive West were drawn fronting on the ravine and backing on Southwood Drive. Between  1903 and 1913, many of the roads and road names that remain today came into existence.

In the 1880s, maps depict few street names, but those that were already founded include Birch, Beech and Balsam Avenues. By 1913, much of the geography contemporary Beachers are familiar with was established. Examples of later roadway developments include Bellefair, Wheeler, Hambly and Wineva.  Nineteenth-century maps of 'Old Town Toronto' depict sections of the city in divisions named after Christian saints, such as St. Patrick's Ward, St. Andrew's Ward and St. John's Ward. From the time of its amalgamation to the City, the Beach was incorporated under the system that succeeded the saint-naming tradition; from the outset, the community was simply assigned Ward and Division numbers.

As the neighbourhood grew in population, Ward numbers changed. Glen Manor Drive was in the catchment area of Ward 1, Division 9, until 1919. In 1920 it became a part of Ward 8, Division 3. From 1969 it became a part of Ward 9, Division 3, Subdivision 240, and its ward status has subsequently changed since then.

Tax assessors compiled information on Beach residents for the purpose of property evaluation.  The assessment role from 1918 indicates that there was only one taxable party who lived on Glen Manor Drive. Joseph Price, aged 56, a British subject – as opposed to a foreign ‘Alien’ – worked in advertising.

Price was a Protestant and a 'freeholder' (not a tenant), who resided at 48 Glen Manor and had a property value (both land and house) of $7, 300.

It was not until the 1932 assessment role that 269 Glen Manor Drive East surfaces, with a value appraised at $11, 530.  The owner was Robert L. Kimber.

Kimber, aged 48, resided in the house with three other people (presumably a wife and two children) and, like Price, Kimber was a businessman, Protestant and British subject.

Between 1932 and 1951 the house went down in value from $11, 530 to $11, 346, and this figure remained constant throughout the 1970s. Tax assessment forms did not reflect the market value of the house but the total sum upon which the resident should pay taxable dues.

Given that the Kimbers resided in the house by 1932, it seems fair to suggest 1930 as the probable year of construction. Building permit application stubs indicate that there was much development on the street at this time. Records show permits were issued for the owners of 1, 10, 270, 272 and 352 Glen Manor Drive that year. Elsewhere in the Beach, houses were being constructed on Kippendavie, Kenilworth, Silver Birch, Kingswood and MacLean. The 1930s was an era of much change, a moment of significant movement of people into the area.

Those that moved to the neighbourhood tended to live in their houses for the better part of their lifetime. Anna Kimber, born in 1884, lived at 269 Glen Manor Drive from around 1932 until her death in 1972 or 1973.

With Anna's passing, the house was sold in 1973 to a retired couple named Robert and Marilyn Francis. They lived at the home from 1973 until 1981, when the house was purchased by my parents, an investment banker by the name of Norman Fraser and his wife, Ruth.  The Frasers remained at the residence until the year 2013.

The house at 269 Glen Manor Drive East has enjoyed three generations of ownership and, while its owners may change, the beauty of its locale and tension over whether the neighbourhood is in name the Beaches, or the sum of its parts – the Beach – remains constant.

Wokie Fraser is a local history buff who grew up in the Beach

Bernadette Wong’s With A Bang show is at Gerrard Art Space from May 22 to June 9.

Bernadette Wong will be showing her surreal landscapes at Gerrard Art Space, 1390 Gerrard St. E., from May 22 to June 9. The show is called With A Bang.

Wong draws on childhood memories, recurring dreams and nightmares and world issues for inspiration, sculpting and texturing her acrylic paintings. She considers herself as a storyteller, using a vibrant colour palette and high contrast compositions of light and dark areas.

In her artist's statement, she writes that “the soul of a painting should take precedence over its technical correctness. Armed with a set of acquired technical skills, an artist sets forth to create his imaginary world from the recess of his psyche.”

There will be an opening reception on Saturday, May 25 from 2 to 5 p.m. For more on Wong, visit bernadettewong.com. The Photography Show continues until May 19. For more on GAS, visit gerrardartspace.com.

•

Ben Stellino is showing her work at Wunderland Gallery and Espresso Bar until the end of May. Her photo Comfort, above, won her an award including a new camera in a Toronto Star photo contest.

Beach photographer Ben Stellino is currently showing her work at an exhibit titled The Moment, at Wunderland Gallery and Espresso Bar, 1905 Queen St. E., one block east of Woodbine.

Stellino has been “puttering around with photography for a long time, but I decided to get serious with it,” she said. She may be known to some Beachers as the owner of the former Konditor café.

After winning a Toronto Star photo contest with a photo called Comfort, Stellino jumped into digital photography, thanks to a prize package. Now she's concentrating all her spare time outside of her day job into her camera. However, the technology upgrade from 35mm film hasn't changed her love of photographing people.

“The essence for me is capturing the moment,” she said. “It's always been about capturing the moment.”

Stellino expands on her theme in her artist's statement, writing that “living in the moment allows me to see the poetry in life and invites magic to happen …  Every photograph has a beautiful tale to tell, and at the root of it all, I’m just a storyteller.”

Wunderland is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday. The Moment runs until May 31. For more information on Stellino and her work visit benslenz.ca.

PHOTO: Ben Stellino

•

Shabnam Khosrowshahi will be displaying her photographs at Artfest at the Distillery over the Victoria Day long weekend.

Beach photographer Shabnam Khosrowshahi is offering East Enders a reason to head a bit to the west over the Victoria Day weekend, for Artfest at the Distillery.

The show draws artists and artisans from across the province, but those unfamiliar with Khosrowshahi's work may find it worth the trip.

Khosrowshahi came to Toronto in 1998, but only moved to the Beach a little over a year ago. She and her husband came for the boardwalk, the water, the shopping, the architecture and, of course, the large and thriving community of artists in the area. She's already settling in, having recently took part in her first Beach Studio Tour.

Khosrowshahi replied with a laugh and the word “forever” when asked how long she's been taking photographs. “Basically I've been taking photos since I was 10 … I was always curious about it.”

Although she has a fairly distinctive style, when she sets out with camera in hand there's no agenda.

“The only plan is, 'I should go out and take photos',” she said.

Though she learned on film, Khosrowshahi has since made the leap to digital cameras. That doesn't stop her from doing her own printing. She sells her work framed, matted (in easily framed sizes) and also in greeting card format.

Artfest in the Distillery runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, from May 18 to 20 in the historic Distillery District, south of Front Street East, between Parliament and Cherry Streets. For more on the show, visit artfestontario.com. For more on Khosrowshahi and her work, visit morningdewphotography.ca.

Watercolour specialist Jenny Reid displays two of the four small sized works she will have on display at the Gardener’s Cottage for the Beach Guild of Fine ARt’s annual Small Paintings for Small Spaces show, on May 17 to 20.
PHOTO: Jon Muldoon

Guild member Anna Clarey said the annual show is a great chance for newcomers to the art world to begin a collection.

“It’s a really great way for someone to get their first piece of affordable art,” she said.

Watercolour specialist Jenny Reid, who also paints in other mediums, is one of the artists who will be hanging work at the Guild weekend show. She joined the Guild just over a year ago, and is looking forward to her first exhibition with “some very good artists.”

Reid took art courses in her native England, and studied fine arts at university in South Africa.

After emigrating to Canada in 1979, she took up watercolours after a friend pointed her to a night school class. She was attracted to the medium’s fast drying and cleanup time, a real plus when raising four children.

However, the urge to create has always been there, and she comes from “a long line of photographers,” another medium familiar to her.

“Since I was born I’ve been interested in art,” she said.

Reid and her husband, Neville, regularly organize painting trips for small groups to Italy, a location – and situation – which never fails to inspire.

“When you get a group of artists together, there’s an energy that’s formed that’s really conducive to painting,” she said.

It also doesn’t hurt that “the light is wonderful.”

Reid has work in collections around the world, and has a painting in the East York Foundation’s and City of Toronto’s permanent collections. She has won numerous awards, and is a founding member of the Toronto Watercolour Society. Find out more about her work at jennyreidfineartist.com.

The show runs from 3 to 8 p.m. on Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. For more information on the Guild, visit beachguildoffineart.com.

The main stage opens up Friday night at 7 p.m. with Jon Knight and Soulstack, a southern Ontario five piece featuring dual guitarists. The group mixes urban blues and Memphis soul. Chuck Jackson takes the stage at 9 p.m., with Chuck Jackson’s Big Bad Blues Band’s Tribute to Big Joe Turner. Canadian blues fans will recognize Jackson as Downchild Blues Band’s singer since 1990, but here he will be paying tribute to one of his major influences.

Chuck Jackson

Saturday’s party gets started early at 1 p.m., with The 24th Street Wailers. The Canadian crew features a frontwoman split between vocals and drums, and has been earning rave reviews in the band’s short existence. At 3 p.m., Scott McCord and the Bonafide Truth take over. Memphis soul, jazz, funk and blues are played with a rock approach as McCord belts out the tunes over a seven-piece backing band. At 5 p.m., New York City’s Alexis P. Suter Band help Suter showcase her vocal talents. Toronto stalwarts Fathead will help get the party rockin’ as the sun sets, setting the stage for Saturday night headliner Eugene Hideaway Bridges. The son of blues guitarist Hideaway Slim, Bridges also claims family ties to Tina Turner. He’s played in countless blues, soul and gospel groups over the years, led by himself and others. His latest CD, Rock And A Hard Place, features blues, soul, jump, funk, gospel, rock and beach music, and his live show should prove to be a musical journey.

Sunday’s festivities get underway at 2 p.m., with Morgan Davis. Originally from Detroit, Davis has been playing the world for almost four decades. Paul Reddick brings his songwriting skills to the stage at 4 p.m., and the weekend closes with Deanna Bogart, a multi-instrumentalist who combines genres into something she calls “blusion.” Her high-energy show should provide an exciting end to the weekend.

The Waterfront Blues Festival is free. There will also be award-winning barbecue, vendors and the “Don’t Lose the Blues” contest, including a draw for albums and a Danelectro guitar. For details check out waterfrontblues.ca.

•

Patti Loach, Brad Hampton and Ellen Bodie

Patti Loach and Brad Hampton star in The Picture of Happiness, directed by Ellen Bodie, on Saturday, June 1.

The cabaret show tells the true story of a photograph Hampton found in his grandmother’s basement when he was 23 years old. The photo shows two soldiers sitting on a picnic blanket, taken just before the Second World War. When Hampton asked his grandmother who the man was sitting with his grandfather in the photo, he was informed that “we don’t talk about it. We never talk about it.”

The family secret and subsequent conversations with his mother inspired The Picture of Happiness, which Hampton connects between his life and that of his grandfather in 1943. Hampton, Bodie and Loach use song and storytelling to tell the story through a colourful cast of characters.

Hampton (bradhampton.ca) is a singer and actor who has been working as an actor for more than 20 years, first in Calgary and now in Toronto. Loach (pattiloach.com) is involved in jazz, theatre and classical music and studied at University of Toronto’s music program and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Bodie is a voice and acting coach, actor and director, originally from Calgary, where she met Hampton.

The Picture of Happiness is intended for small venues, and will take place in a home on Pine Crescent. Tickets are $35 or $30 for students, seniors and arts workers. For more info and links to ticket sales, visit thepictureofhappiness.com.

•

Linda McRae
PHOTO: Mo McMorrow

Acoustic Harvest presents BC-based Linda McRae (lindamcrae.com) on Saturday, June 1 at St. Nicholas Anglican Church, 1512 Kingston Rd.

McRae played accordion and bass with Spirit of the West, but now performs on clawhammer banjo, acoustic guitar, accordion and “porchboard stompbox,” combining universal lyrical themes with old-time sounds. Her latest album, 2012’s Rough Edges and Ragged Hearts, was nominated for Contemporary Album of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Tickets for Linda McRae are $22, and doors open at 7:30 p.m. This show will wrap up the 16th season for Acoustic Harvest. For more information, visit acousticharvest.ca or search Acoustic Harvest on Facebook.

•

Relish Bar and Grill continues its quest to provide a haven for live music on the Danforth, a block east of Woodbine. Every Monday at 8 p.m. Bentroots offers up “swampy N'Awlins” blues, while on Wednesdays The BTBs play jazz-funk fusion. David Macmichael's power pop can be heard on Fridays at 9 p.m. Saturday is New Music Night.

Upcoming guests include High Winds playing jazzy originals at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, singer-songwriter Steven Rainken at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21 and the Babershop Quartet at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 28.

Art lovers check out the work on display at Todmorden Mills for Danforth C&TI’s annual end-of-year art show.
PHOTOS: Andrew Hudson

As the jazz band picked up and more people streamed into the gallery at Todmorden Mills last Wednesday, art student Emilee DeSommer-Denis took a measure of the night's success.

“People are actually coming to us instead of watching the hockey game,” she said. “The Leafs aren't going to win anyway, but I'm impressed.”

Students at both the Danforth Collegiate and Malvern Collegiate high schools staged end-of-year art shows last week.

Especially for Grade 12s, getting ready for the final show must have felt like the playoffs.

At Malvern, Liona Bravo and Lillian O'Brien Davis had to start planning the final pieces they showed on May 6 way back in September.

For her installation piece, Bravo chose to explore a looming choice – a career in art or a career in science.

To illustrate that split, she placed a model brain on a tray and detailed all its sense areas with Grey's Anatomy-style diagrams. Behind it, she mounted a series of whimsical, impressionistic travel snapshots.

Grade 12 student Liona Bravo tells a friend about her piece, "Conveying Chaos," at the Malvern Collegiate art show on May 6.

“I wanted to use the piece to try and sort out my ideas,” she says, adding that she is leaning towards psychology. “I really like order and organization.”

For O'Brien Davis, the standard order is to paint an abstract in monochrome.

But for her final show, she did the exact opposite – a pair of self-portraits in bright colours.

'A dat wid you sistren' and 'Binghi Dawta Girl', paintings that Grade 12 Malvern student Lillian O'Brien Davis showed in her installation 'Back to Black' at Malvern's end-of-year art show.

One confident, one shy, both the paintings reflect her Jamaican roots in sunny, tropical contrasts.

“For the reds and yellows, I just dipped the brush right into a pot and didn't do any mixing,” she said. “It was fabulous.”

“Fabulous” is a fine word for the only piece at Danforth Collegiate to combine Mozart, battle ships and a beaten pair of Chuck Taylors.

Designed by Leland Lamb, a Danforth grad now at Sheridan College, the piece shows runners that have sprouted real cloth and wood sails and masts like a pair of canonizing battle ships of the 18th century.

“My heart and sole is in them,” he joked.

Showing her four pieces – a woodcut with blue ink on handmade paper, an abstract vertebrae, a fairy bottom and a panel of ravens – DeSommer-Denis was as excited by the place where she had hung them.

“Getting to work in a gallery like this is terrific because it also introduces all of our students to jobs in the arts that aren't just 'artist,' whether it's curator, gallery director or matting and framing.”

As she heads off to Lakehead University where she hopes to become an art teacher who can one day stage a final show like the one at Danforth, DeSommer-Denis seems to know what she's in for.

“The staff here are amazing,” she said. “They've put in two weeks worth of 10 o'clock nights at school. They work hard.”

No. This not a joke, but the truth. When it comes to women’s hygiene, dignity and self-worth, underwear is no laughing matter. Students in your author’s grade 12 French course at Notre Dame believe this and wanted to make a difference in the lives of women in developing nations.

Students in grade 12 French at Notre Dame teamed up with We Care Underwear, to collect over 150 pairs of underwear for women in Haiti and Zimbabwe.

Students had been reading the novel Les Trésors d’Haiti and learning about the challenging aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated lives in Haiti, when they decided they wanted to make a difference.

Sadly, some families in Haiti are still living in tent cities three years after the earthquake.

“I can’t imagine being a woman in that situation,” said grade 12 student Samantha Pollock.

That was when Maggie Hayes and her local foundation We Care Underwear stepped into the school and changed the lives of not only the 22 students in French class, but of the 700 young women enrolled at Notre Dame.

What started off as a class discussion about the lives of women globally, turned into a full fledged campaign called Sauvez la planète avec des bobettes. The aim of the campaign is to get students at Notre Dame to bring in underwear for donation for women in developing nations.

“You don’t realize how much you have until you open your eyes to other people’s situations around the world,” said Sarah Abulencia-Leeming, a student in the grade 12 French class.

Students collected over 150 pairs of underwear to be shipped overseas, showing that if you have the will, there is always a way.

We Care Underwear is an organization in the Beach dedicated to promoting the dignity, hygiene and self-worth of women in developing nations. For more information visit their site at wecarewithunderwear.ca or their Facebook page at facebook.com/WeCareWithUnderwear.

Boaters haul a cradled yacht onto a winch-powered railway that will then it carry it to Ashbridges Bay.
PHOTOS: Andrew Hudson

“This is the way the ancient Egyptians used to do it," he said cheerfully. "Except we're not slaves, and they don't kill us after we launch.”

The ABYC is one of the last clubs on Lake Ontario to launch boats in such a traditional way.

Cradled in the wood frames where they are stored all winter, most of the more than 270 boats get hand-pulled by volunteers to a powered winch line that then hauls them to the lake.

Larger yachts get hoisted in by a hired crane, with crews working quickly to harness each boat and guide it safely through the air and over the docks to water.

“It's very much a community effort for us,” said club member Krista Slack, noting that about 350 people joined this year's launch.

“We all participate in some way.”

Another club member, Nancy Wilson, says she found her role on the traditional side of launch day.

For 13 years, Wilson has suited up in white Tyvek to oversee the “tallow” crew that melts drums full of slick, artificial beef tallow that they brush over the club's launching rails.

Nancy Wilson shovels a load of artificial tallow into a propane-fired drum for melting.

Each boat needs a fresh layer before it can slide off, so by day's end the whole tallow crew goes home smelling like French fries.

Still, Wilson's loyalty is unwavering.

“It's a great little club – lots of stuff going on all year long,” she said.

“You can get out of the city by car, or you can get out in a boat. It's like being out at a cottage in 15 minutes.”

A crane crew at the Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club harness the Sakara for launch.

It really feels that the Beach real estate market reflects the weather we’ve witnessed over the last month: hot and sunny … cool and rainy … looks like rain then suddenly sunny. Certainly some of the swagger and seeming invincibility that had been indicative of the Beach market over the last few years has been lost. The rumours of its demise are overheard, but overstated.

What we’re seeing in this Beach spring real estate market is simply the by-product of several factors that have been gently at work for some time, and are only now pushing through to the surface. This isn’t the forum to debate the myriad of economic forces at play. But the reality is that many buyers are just more cautious, and relaxed, than they might have been even two months ago. They’re just having a longer look before they leap, as they survey the situation, only to see that indeed they have choices. Instead of too many Beach buyers hunting too few Beach homes, now more homes are hunting those buyers. It’s called balance.

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the market is cooling somewhat. It has to take time to breathe in order to be sustained and thrive. Yes, there are more homes available than what we’ve become accustomed to, and many ‘for sale’ signs are lingering longer than what had become the perception as normal in the Beach. But the wild market we became used to just wasn’t a normal one. Beach real estate has become complacent; lazy even. In today’s adjusting and fluctuating market, Beach homes are going to have to bring real value to the buyer’s table – surely something much more than what the previous hectic market has become accustomed to, anyway. And that’s what has started to happen.

Yes, there are still the notorious bidding wars and multiple offers taking place, largely (but not necessarily exclusively) between first-time buyers in Beach homes priced below $700,000. Yet the difference between now and a year or two ago is that, instead of five offers on a home purposely priced low to garner such attention, there may only be two or three buyers willing to step up.  Will those buyers move the price up to where it should be, or should have been in the first place? Maybe. But with the market harder to peg down than just a couple months ago, the answer could easily be maybe not.

On another note, I imagine that most people who cruise Realtor.ca realize that they are not really viewing the same MLS (Multiple Listing Service) that your favourite real estate agent is looking at, and working on daily. But if you didn’t know that, well, the truth is, you’re really just surfing a great big advertisement site, paid for and sponsored by local real estate boards such as the Toronto Real Estate Board and produced and maintained by the Canadian Real Estate Board for public consumption. Yep, we got you! You’re dutifully soaking up real estate agent propaganda, when you may have believed you were just cruising for a house, without the assistance of those darn bothersome agents. No need to hire an agent, I’m on the MLS!

All kidding aside, what you’re looking at when you go to Realtor.ca is only a tiny piece of the entire MLS service that agents have access to. The MLS that agents use is a private member to member (agent to agent) service, employing the latest technology and up-to-the-minute market data. Yes, most homes listed by brokerages (but not all) are uploaded automatically to Realtor.ca for public viewing. But there’s much, much more to the real MLS than what you’re seeing. You only see available homes that agents allow you to see, and only approximately 24 to 48 hours after the house actually hits the market. By the time you see it, the house could already be sold. What’s more, you only see part of the actual data for the house. Some of the most important information about the house is held back from the public, often for privacy reasons. Realtor.ca is a fabulous tool for agents to advertise their listings. And that’s it. Cheap, but effective advertising for agents.

If you have any questions about this column, or about Beach real estate in general, please feel free to call me at 416-690-5100, or drop me an email at tneal@trebnet.com.

Thomas Neal is a well-known and respected local Beach agent
Real Estate… Beach Wise