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Byline: by Maryanna Lewyckyj 

YOU DON'T have to be a business tycoon, heiress or lottery winner to join the ranks of million-dollar homeowners these days.

Thanks to low interest rates and soaring house prices, there are now an estimated 20,000 homes worth $1 million or more in the Greater Toronto Area.

And the number of buyers taking the million-dollar plunge continues to balloon.

For the first three months of this year, 296 homes sold for more than $1 million in the GTA, a 33% jump from 2004.

MOST EXPENSIVE SALE
The three-month tally exceeds the total annual sales of million-plus homes posted in every year from 1996 to 1999.

The most expensive home sold so far this year was an Oakville property that fetched $4.75 million. The priciest property currently listed is a Bridle Path home with an asking price of $15 million.
But it's not just the super-rich who are clearing the $1-million hurdle.

"There are families that you would consider solidly middle-class that can afford a $1-million home," Peter Norman of Clayton Research Associates said yesterday. "It's not the brass ring it used it be. It's not necessarily that unattainable."

Jim Rawson of Invis mortgage brokers said a family with an income of $215,000 would qualify for a mortgage on a $1 million home with a 25% down payment.

"That's not an astronomical number," Rawson said. "It's much more common to see million-dollar mortgages."

SAFE HAVEN FOR SAVINGS
Michael Polzler, executive vice-president of RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada, says Torontonians see homes as a safe haven for their hard-earned money.

"They are, in many cases, skeptical of the financial markets these days," Polzler said.
Lawyers, doctors and the self-employed are some of the even-figure home buyers.

Jerry Hammond, a real estate agent for RE/MAX Ultimate, which sells homes in the $1-million-plus range, says the benchmark for "rich" has shifted considerably.

Because homes in the most desirable areas so rarely change hands, Hammond has had clients wait up to three years to land their million-dollar dream property.

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