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“You gotta live somewhere.” That’s what everyone who just bought a house in Toronto says. Yeah, $1,561,780 — the average sale price of a detached home in the Centre of the Universe — is a lot of money. And yeah, maybe it’s not a great investment, and maybe that million-dollar mortgage will never get paid off.

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If there is a housing bubble in Canada, experts agree, it is in Toronto. The trick is fixing that without laying waste to other markets across the country.





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But hey, you gotta live somewhere.

That mantra has been carrying Toronto’s housing market to superheated levels, with average sale prices soaring last month by 33 per cent year over year. And there’s no sign that Torontonians’ desire to own the roof over their heads has dimmed a whit.

Our policymakers, however, seem convinced that Toronto’s housing market is a national crisis. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau wants a sit-down with his provincial and municipal partners to figure out solutions. Nothing is off the table. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa thinks the feds should raise the capital gains tax on non-primary-residence transactions. Toronto Mayor John Tory is taking a look at a special municipal tax on unoccupied homes. Both want to discourage “speculators.” Or maybe foreigners: nobody has ruled out a tax on out-of-country real estate buyers, a la the 15-per-cent levy the B.C. government introduced in Vancouver last August.