Is Toronto too costly, too crowded? Does Toronto only work for the rich or the childless? Do the benefits to leave outweigh the costs to stay?
The cover of this months Toronto Life depicts a young family happy with their decision to ditch the 416 for a smaller town where “the houses are bigger, the people are nicer and the comunte doesn’t suck”. This is the focus of Philip Preville’s article “Exodus to the Burbs” found in the September issue of Toronto Life.
Read a snippet of the article here
While there is no denying that your money does go farther in cities like Dundas, Creemore and Cobourg (which despite claims in the article are not suburbs of Toronto, but that is another topic). Some of the arguments made by Mr. Preville are stirring up quite the debate.
Mr. Preville discusses a statistic from Statistics Canada where he states that between 2001 and 2006, 224,000 Torontonians left for the suburbs. This while 60,000 made the opposite move, going from the “burbs” to the “Big Smoke”.
As a former resident of Toronto my wife and I are one of the 224,000. We decided that when we were ready to purchase our first home we didn’t want to compete with 20-30 other offers, pay way over asking and put ourselves behind just when we were about to start out. So we decided to “take a chance” and move to where our money went further, Dundas, Ontario. And we haven’t looked back since.
Here in Dundas we were able to get our first house for 150,000-300,000 less than our friends that decided to stay in the city. We still enjoy Toronto but much prefer everything that a small town has to offer. This includes a warm community feel, access to nature and hiking at our doorstep and of course lower mortgage payments.
There are many great opportunities to invest in the Dundas, Hamilton, Ancaster and surround areas. Whether it is an income property or you want to join the “migration” give the outlying communities a good look!
What do you think? Leave a comment to discuss.
