COMING MARCH 25 NEAR THE ISABEL BADER CENTRE

On March 25 (Tuesday!) I’ll list a three-bedroom, two bathroom intensely modern two-storey home with a splendid pool and even a detached studio/office/gym with its own hydronic in-floor heating system.

COMING SOON IN THE INNER HARBOUR

On April 4 I’ll list what I suspect will prove one of the prettiest Inner Harbour homes that we’ll see this season. Three beds, two baths, a deep breath from the park. It’s very good indeed. The list of fine renovations is longer than anything I’ve written in months. Stay tuned.

ON WAITING (AND THEN WAITING SOME MORE)

FOR THE SPRING MARKET

I wrote a few weeks back about the early spring market I was expecting to start first week of February. Humblebragged about the dozen or so listings I had lined up. Well things change quickly.

There are still good things coming, that much is true. I’ll have a house on Alwington Avenue that would feel like a two-storey NYC condo, were it not for the in-ground pool out back and the detached work-from-home studio pushed against the far off back fence. There are Inner Harbour homes that might be the finest I’ve ever listed in that neighbourhood. Also a year-round waterfront home up north, and a mid-century bungalow I want to fill with teak sofas and chairs and a really good stereo, and then take a month off work. So there’s certainly stuff. It’s just that all of a sudden exactly when to bring it to market feels more tricky.

The last week or two I’m starting to see houses out in the suburbs selling quickly. Lots of bungalows in the 5- and 600s with the potential for an in-law suite - those are moving nicely. But downtown it’s still a bit tentative.

The well-priced and altogether excellent semi-detached house on Cowdy St, for instance (utility costs averaged $222 per month in 2024!), is still available. With that one it feels a bit like I left an unopened bottle of single malt on the post office steps and somehow no one noticed. You really should call me for a showing. The price came down today.

The rush is coming, though, of that I remain convinced. I’ve been in the business a long time, and I’m used to winter’s jump scares and false starts. I’ve been cleaning out the car, gathering up the shopping bags and the muddy receipts, the snow shovel and the escaped Mini-Eggs. I’ve been sorting out the office too. The chair opposite is ready for you. It’s very nearly presentable in here. I’m ready, in other words, whenever you are.

66 COWDY ST - $449,000

A semi-detached three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom Inner Harbour home built in 2018, which makes it more than a century younger than most of its neighbours, and a worry- and maintenance-free option for those wanting to be downtown without a care in the world.

I thought it would be snapped up immediately, and the fact that we’re re-listing the house today at $449,000 isn’t something I thought we’d need to do. Opportunity knocks.

NOW PRICED AT $449,000.

4 BOOTH AVENUE - $599,999

4 BOOTH AVENUE IS RE-LISTED AT $599,999

The jet-black exterior of this very stylish home set among tall trees above the St Lawrence River, just ten minutes from Kingston’s downtown core and with access to community waterfront, is like something dreamed up for the next Bond film. There is even a spot for the Aston Martin, two of them in fact, at the bottom of the stone steps. The house is elegant and minimalist in its design, private as a hilltop fort. The living and dining rooms are open to the ridiculously pretty loft and adjacent to two bedrooms. The ceiling is just shy of a mile high, we’ve measured it, and the light, wherever you poke your head, pours in from all sides. The galley kitchen, with its stone counters and its open shelves, its head-height porthole to the woods, is properly connected to that main space, so as not to isolate whoever prepares dinner. We might use one of those bedrooms as an office, and save the splendid studio/shed for garden tools and a small workshop, a secret spot to crack codes. There is a bathroom on the main level of the house (kitted out with subway tile and a rainfall shower!), and another two-piece in the loft. We keep saying loft, but it is surely the third bedroom, the principal suite, complete with dressing area and a private, elevated deck. You will feel, I swear, as if you've arrived at an exclusive hotel. The renovations are recent and extensive (we can send you a list), and the heating and cooling are top-notch. There really is nothing here that needs your attention. Which is the point, isn't it, when you decide to leave behind the run-of-the-mill and live extraordinarily?

If you’ve been following along you may know that this property was initially offered last year (by someone else) at $885,000. The new price is not a misprint.

RECENTLY SOLD

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