Client Q: Where Are The Racially Diverse Toronto Neighbourhoods?

The email read: “It is important to us that we live in a RACIALLY diverse Toronto neighbourhood.”

To quote the ‘Handmaids Tail’: “Praise Be”.

When working with a prospective buyer, I give them homework to qualify them before we walk through the door of anything. They must meet my “do-I-like-you” criteria (because I don’t and won’t work with jerks), meet and get pre-qualified for a mortgage with a mortgage broker, advisor or banking professional, be educated on what to expect as a buyer in the Toronto market, and provide me with a written-out list of their needs in a new home….and their wants. The needs are often the number of bedrooms, if a parking spot is necessary or not, a specific school district catchment, and/or the geographical boundaries for the home. The wants are things like modern kitchen, tree-lined street, a detached vs. a semi-detached, and/or a hot tub in the backyard.

So when this particular buyer-set included “a racially diverse Toronto neighbourhood,” on their needs list, I rejoiced for something so refreshing. (Coincidently this locked them in on my “do-I-like-you” barometer with great ease.) The fact is, the request for a racially diverse Toronto neighbourhood is not something I hear enough of. And it was ever-the-more refreshing after hearing, earlier that week – to my horror I might add – a resident on the High Park street I was showing a property on, share that she hoped they new buyers were [insert racial profile here]. “EXCUSEEEEEE ME???” I had replied. I can’t believe in today’s day in age that we still hear that. “May-you-burn-in-hell” is along the lines of what my inner-monologue shouted that day.

What Google Uncovered

The request for me to isolate racially diverse Toronto neighbourhoods in the downtown took me to google. Toronto is presently the most ethnically diverse city on the planet. We are majority visible minority in fact, with more than half of our residents identifying as visible minorities according to the 2016 census. Yet, the obvious

truth is that some neighbourhoods are more-so than others. I wanted to know more. In my research I came across a fascinating map, shared in Canadian Business magazine from 2013 from developer, Jeff Clark, who plotted a dot (according to the Canadian census) for every visible and non visible minority living in Toronto and the surrounding suburbs. The map plotted 5.7 million inhabitants using data from the new National Household
Survey. You need to click the link to really see it, but the data is fascinating. And my assumptions were right.

Racial Diversity Has Shifted Somewhat To The Suburbs

If you’re looking for a racially diverse Toronto neighbourhood in the whole of the GTA, the key players are in the suburb communities of Brampton, Scarborough, Richmond Hill, Markham and Ajax. House prices and affordability have unfortunately shifted some of the diversity from the City of Toronto’s central core to the outskirts in recent years. Why is that so? One Toronto Star investigation speculated that the shift began originally upon a desire for more space and cheaper living, and then as the ethnic communities grew stronger in these places, new immigrants just by-passed the downtown core.

Racially Diverse…Downtown

But this request for a ethnically diverse neighbourhood was for one in the downtown core. In the city – and let’s say our boundaries are Etobicoke to the west, the Beach to the East and Willowdale to the North – we’re still fortunately very diverse. Check out this map. Right, smack in the southern central where the CN Tower is, where we are demographically PACKED in so-to-speak, the data hovers between 40-60% ethnically diverse.

There are most certainly pockets in Toronto that bleed very white. Dare I say this but you can see this in the neighbourhoods of Lawrence Mark, Moore Park, Forest Hill, High Park and Leaside on the map. Is there anything wrong with you living in one of these neighbourhoods? Absolutely not. There are different ethnicities who live here, but there are less so than in others, especially to the south. And that is fact, especially when referencing the two above maps.

My heart swells a bit (with pride) looking at the Toronto core, the neighbourhoods I predominately sell in south of Dupont. To the east, Riverside, Riverdale and Leslieville are very mixed with culture. The Beaches as a comparable, less so. These observations are not from me just walking on the street, or selling houses in these neighbourhoods, but again cross-reference on the maps above. To the west, Mimico and Long Branch are a sea of colour. And in the core, south of what looks to be Queens Park, it’s hard to find a predominant colour.

For those of you looking for racially diverse Toronto neighbourhoods, I suggested the following neighbourhoods for your consideration. I would love for anyone reading this blog to weigh in and tell us about your neighbourhood, and whether you think we should add it to the list as well. Thanks so much for reading!

A List Of Some Racially Diverse Toronto Neighbourhoods:

• Leslieville
• Riverside
• Riverdale
• Danforth Village
• Dovercourt Park
• The Junction
• Wychwood
• Parkdale
• Bloordale Village
• Cabbagetown
• Wallace/Emerson
• Waterfront Communities
• Liberty Village
• Moss Park

We want to hear your feedback. Do you agree with our picks and/or do you have neighbourhoods to add that are racially diverse? Talk to us on social media or via email!

**We have not yet updated our website to include full-page descriptors all of the above neighbourhoods, but if you would like to learn more, please just ask us: karyn@homesweetkaryn.com OR hillary@homesweetkaryn.com