It's official: South Riverdale / Leslieville has gentrified

Ah, gentrification. The scourge and the saviour of low-income neighbourhoods. East end residents love to debate whether the area is tapped or a complete urban renewal is still to peak. Everything about gentrification is controversial — even its very definition.

Yet according to the Toronto Star, South Riverdale/Leslieville has officially gentrified. The area is among the less than 1 per cent of city neighourhoods that actually made the transition from low to high household income in the past 10 years.

The average household income in the neighbourhood has increased 47 per cent in the last decade, from $70,093 in 2006 to $103,384 in 2015. In 10 years, South Riverdale/Leslieville has gone from the bottom 40 per cent of Toronto neighbourhoods by income to the top 35 per cent. 

On some blocks, the Star notes, incomes grew by as much as 76 per cent. In contrast, incomes rose by only 18 per cent across Toronto as a whole.

It's hardly news that house prices have gone berserk here, too. Condos aside, the average price of a home increased by a shocking 140 per cent — from $319,753 in 2005 to $764,124 in 2015, according to data provided to the Toronto Star by Realosophy.

Check out the Toronto Star feature for more detail on local gentrification, and insight into the history of changes that have taken place in the area, including how Leslieville originally got its name. 

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