The tiny Toronto neighbourhood known as Blake Jones, or The Pocket is tucked in between Leslieville and the Danforth. Pocket residents (what do they call themselves? Pocketers? Pocketeers?) love their little corner of the city and have a tight-knit community; there are a lot of neighbourhood events, like open-air movie nights and street fairs. Homes tend to be on the small side, but they're taken care of with pride. It's also still a more affordable area to buy a home than many of its surrounding neighbourhoods. Let's see what you could pick up with a little Pocket change.
[Photos via MLS]
↑ 1 Hunter Street, $749,000: The ad copy for this listing is a little odd; for example, they suggest you can "enjoy intriguing conversation with guests as others dine in the adjacent urbane dining room". Wouldn't you want everyone to eat at the same time? Do you feed people in shifts? There's a large walk-in closet in the master bedroom, which is apparently "perfect for storing all of your fashionable wardrobe." What about your unfashionable stuff? Where does it go? In any case, the house is pretty nice—fully detached, corner lot, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fully-finished high basement, and a big garden. Further south in Leslieville this would probably list for closer to $1,000,000, so this could be a bargain.
↑ 105 Boultbee Avenue, $629,000: This three-bedroom, two-bath home on a quiet street off Jones Avenue has a deep sunny front garden. It's on a fairly narrow lot—just under 15' wide—but it's 100' deep so there's still a good amount of room for gardening, patio-sitting, or what have you. From the description, it's not the most up-to-date home you could find ('Lovingly cared for 54 years but needs renovation to todays standards'), but it doesn't sound like a dump either. Too bad they didn't put more photos on the listing.
· On the Market Archives [Curbed Toronto]
· Profile of the Blake Jones neighbourhood [Toronto Life]