The ‘ burbs’ buyer

Shirley Kumove, 84, and her husband bought their first and only home in 1961. It was a sign of the times — people looking for more affordable housing were heading to the suburbs looking for larger lots for their family. The couple had a decision to make: buy a fixer-upper downtown or head to a part of new Toronto that wasn’t even connected to transit yet. “We lived in the same house for 53 and a half years. We sold it to come into the Terraces of Baycrest retirement residences. Our house was $ 16,500, the down payment was $1,600. The interest rate was 6.75 per cent. We had no quarrel with that until rates went down.

“We were living in a two- bedroom apartment with three children and that was a strong impetus to buy a house. It was pretty difficult to save. Both sets of parents helped us out with a down payment. They later forgave the loan. That’s how we bought our house.

“We were only able to get a mortgage because the Canadian government guaranteed our loan. For young couples like us we were able to get a home.

“We bought our house in what was then a suburb but now it’s part of the city. It was Don Mills, a planned community northeast of Toronto. Buses ran not too close to our house, but they ran once an hour. The guys would double up ( to work) so that the women could have a car once a week. You couldn’t manage without a car.

“We moved out to the suburbs because that was the best deal available. We would have preferred a house on Hazelton Lanes in Yorkville, but it was an old house. The cost was exactly the same but it would have cost an arm and a leg in repairs and there was no government- backed mortgage, so we would have had to finance it ourselves.

“It wasn’t meant to be. We moved to Don Mills and it was great for the kids growing up, but when they got to be adults they moved downtown again.”

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Shirley Kumove