GTA Tour: Scarborough

The next stop on our tour of the Greater Toronto Area is Scarborough, Ontario.

What is Scarborough known for? Despite being so close to the Metropolitan Toronto area, Scarborough has many beautiful attractions for nature lovers. Many people all across Ontario are already familiar with the famous Scarborough Bluffs that stretch 15 kilometers and include several parks and beaches along Lake Ontario. Interestingly, as reported by the Canadian Encyclopedia, the area of Scarborough was named by British settlers after a town in Yorkshire called Scarborough given their shared feature of the Bluffs.

Also located in Scarborough, Ontario, is the Toronto Zoo. The Toronto Zoo is the largest zoo in all of Canada, holding over 300 species of animals and welcoming 1.8 million visitors every year. Scarborough is also home to two important schools: the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus and Centennial College. Interestingly, Centennial College is Ontario’s very first community college.

The City of Toronto produced a sheet sharing the profile of Scarborough using data from the 2021 Canadian census. Since 2016, the population of Scarborough has decreased 1.3%. Interestingly, as of 2021 there are 218,920 private dwellings in Scarborough, a 1.4% increase in dwellings from the 2016 census.

The City of Toronto provides some clear data on the most common types of private dwellings occupied by the people of Scarborough. As usual, the most common dwelling type is the single detached house, occupied by 37% of the private dwellings. With slightly less occupants, the second most popular housing type is a 5+ storey apartment building, making up 35% of the total dwellings. Row houses make up 10%, and semi-detached, apartment buildings under 5 storeys, and duplexes make up 5%, 6%, and 7%, respectively.

A small majority of dwellers are owners, at 64%, whereas 36% rent their homes. This is more than the amount of people who own in Toronto, where they have an even smaller majority of owners at 52% and renters at 48%.

The average household size of Scarborough is 2.85 people and the average amount of children in the city per family is 1.8. This is compared to Toronto where the average household size is 2.38 and the average amount of children per family in Toronto is 1.7. The most common household size in Scarborough is 2 people, compared with the most common in Toronto being 1 person. Most people in both Scarborough and Toronto speak English, with the most common language spoken at home being English 56% in Scarborough. Some other commonly spoken languages at home in Scarborough aside from English, in order is Yue, Mandarin, Tamil, Tagalog, and Bengali.

We can also look at some immigration data for the city. The top five places of birth for all immigrants, in order, are China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh. In terms of recent immigrants, or those who came to Canada anytime between the beginning of 2016 and May of 2021, the most common origin countries were the same, this time with India taking the number one spot.

We can finally look at some socioeconomic data for the city. Most people, being 54%, have some sort of post-secondary education. The median annual household income is $83,000. The average monthly shelter costs in the city are $1,286. Those spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs are 34%. The total low-income population in the city is 13%, the exact same as Toronto.

According to WOWA, the average sold house price in Scarborough was $914,460, a 6.7% decrease from this time last year and a 2.7% decrease from this time last month. They also state the number of home sales has gone down 15.4% from this time last year but increased 33.3% from last month, with 44 home sales. The number of new listings is 127, showing a 7.6% increase from last year and a 24.5% increase from last month.

Even though it is within very close proximity to Toronto, and while Scarborough has some very similar data points, they are still different in feel. Scarborough has a healthy mix of residential, commercial and industrial properties. It generally has a lower skyline profile, although that is changing. They have a great mix of higher education and cultural attractions, together with terrific access to nature and leisure activities.

Take a trip to Scarborough and we think that you will be very pleasantly surprised by what you find.?