A little over two years ago, I wrote an article about the increasing trend towards families settling in Liberty Village. I documented some of the new family-friendly amenities builders were promoting as part of the Garrison Point project.
Over the weekend, The Toronto Star published an article “In Liberty Village, Here Comes The Neighbourhood“, for which I was interviewed as the Liberty Village real estate.
Michael Camber is a realtor with The Sutton Group working in Liberty Village. He acknowledges families are staying longer, but they still leave.
“I’m not so much moving families in. What I tend to be doing is moving them out,” he said.
Camber himself left the village six months after his second child was born, citing a lack of parks and “not the right amenities.”
“They’re staying a little bit longer than they used to five or 10 years ago,” he said, but ultimately Camber sees families go far afield to get what they need, in their price range.
To elaborate on what was said in the article, there’s no question there are more kids in Liberty Village then ever before. In general, there are more kids being raised in downtown Toronto condos then ever before. Reasons for this: the insane cost of freehold houses in cereal Toronto; people’s desire not to spend hours commuting to and from work, gas prices and easy access to downtown amenities.
That being said, there are things that the city and developers need to do to make Liberty Village more family-friendly. Parks, schools and better infrastructure are a must. It’s why my wife, two small children and myself left a few years ago.
As house prices continue to rise and traffic gets worse, I believe we will see this trend continue. I think it’s a great thing to have variety in every neighbourhood – it’s what gives neighbourhoods personality. We just need to make sure that the amenities ate infrastructure are there to keep people thriving.
