glendem4

Latest update on our recce around south west Ontario.... We visited St Thomas and Strathroy on Sunday and decided both towns were not for us. Both towns are spill overs from London. Not enough facilities to support our needs. We would frequently have to drive into London to shop for clothes, furniture and culture events. Driving 30-35 km into town in summer is ok, but in the depths of winter we don't know long it would take. One thing we have discovered....it takes ages to travel anywhere with speed limits of 80km per hour on local roads and 50 km in town. Traffic in and around London during rush hour is very busy and we try to avoid traveling between 7-9am and 4-7 pm.

On Monday we drove to Kitchener/Waterloo and then visited Guelph. Down town Kitchener was ok, but the modern and upscale Waterloo area had more street appeal. Property prices were on average 50-100k more expensive than London for the same size of house. The closer you get to Toronto the more houses cost.

We then drove onto another university town ....Guelph. Down town area was more to our taste and we discovered a craft beer pub called the woolly that reminded us of pubs in the England. Guelph has a large shopping mall called stoneyroad mall, just 5 minutes from downtown, where you can get everything, similar to masonville mall in London. Guelph and south west London appear to be our favourite places so far.

dbd33

A number of posters here are familiar with the Wooly. The same people run a more formal restaurant out in the suburbs south of town; that's next to office of the vet we use for the cats and dogs. We lived in Guelph for a couple of years and still work there so if you have a question about the town please ask.

I think that the attractive thing about Guelph is that, while it's a university town with all that entails, it also has a fair amount of industry; while there is definitely an affluent hippy/hipster air to the place (six shops in the core selling only cupcakes with affected names) there are also practical shops and facilities. I expect, like me, you rushed into Bolts Plus on first sight. The university has a veterinary school, it's the place to get a pacemaker for your dog, and so, oddly, there's a horse hospital almost in the centre of town.

glendem4

Great to hear about the vet options in Guelph, as we have dogs. Just to wet your whistle, here are the real ales on tap at the Wooly...... http://www.thewoolypub.ca/our-menus/now-on-tap

dbd33

I'm in a rut with that place, always Arkell.

One weak spot with Guelph is that there's no reasonably sized off leash dog park. The official one is beside the Hanlon Expressway, that's ok, if you don't mind driving to the park and have a dog that can be reliably recalled; the area is huge and the fence porous. It's usual to see off leash dogs in the park by the river (100 yds south of the Wooly) and in Exhibition Park. The latter attracts very many dogs.

What I can say about Campus Estates Animal Hospital is that we chose them as a vet when we lived in Guelph because they offer 24 hour service. We now live 45 minutes away so for vet appointments we drive home from working in Guelph, back to the vet, passing umpteen other vets, and home again. It's a group practice offering consistent service from all of the vets we've seen. We moved from Guelph 4 years ago so have been using them for about 7 years.

EngCan

Hi,

Don't want to hijack your post but we are also thinking about London (having originally considered Toronto / the GTA) so wondered what people thought of it as a place to raise a family. I am English (38), my wife is Canadian (33) and we have children who are 3 years and 4 months old. Currently living in Nottingham and hoping to move in April / May next year.

glendem4

London is very family orientated with lots of trail ways to cycle on. London is a 6th of the size of Toronto, a bit like comparing Notingham with London UK. There are lots of 2 storey family homes going up all the time, so if you want a new build you will be spoilt for choice. This all depends on your job situation, which is a big factor. For us, we do not need to work full time. We would be happy with a part time job and taking the easy life with our dogs.
If you would like more info on London just send us a message. We will be in town until tomorrow,then we will move onto Toronto for a week before flying home. So far, London has ticked most of our boxes.

MarylandNed

My daughter has lived in London for the past 6 years (first as a student at Western and now working there) so I've been up and down like a yoyo in that period spending anywhere from a weekend up to 2 weeks in the place at a time.

London is an enigma to me. My wife hates the place and wants our daughter to move. Much of the east side looks run down and poor. There are lots of homeless people and unsavory looking characters in and around downtown. Richmond St has some good bars and restaurants but part of it is an eyesore full of the shady characters mentioned above. I've never felt unsafe as I do in some US cities but it's something to be aware of.

At the same time, London can be a good place to raise a family as there are good areas to live in. It is a green city and there are lots of parks and trails that I have gradually discovered over time. And people do use the river in places for fishing, kayaking, etc.

Traffic can be horrendous and the public transit system is really not up to scratch. My daughter doesn't have a car and finds the bus system confusing at times (e.g. a bus route will change depending on the day or time of day) and unreliable. She uses Uber a lot.

The university (Western) and other colleges are a big part of London. Probably want to make sure you're not living in an area full of students. It could get noisy and irritating or worse - speaking from experience.

Oh, and it rains - a lot.

glendem4

We have been in Toronto since 20 September looking at places within an hour of downtown. After much thought we have decided London Ontario is too far from our family in Toronto. Also, we have decided to rent for 12 months while we figure out long term where we want to live. We have looked at renting in St catherines near Niagara and Newmarket to the north of Toronto. Our favourite area is Don Mills, north east suburb of Toronto. It is possible to rent a house for $2500 per month on a green tree lined street. Long term, we are thinking of buying around Barrie, which is only 60 minutes from Toronto and there is a GO train link into town. House Prices are still reasonable in Barrie. Equivalent properties in GTA are twice as expensive compared to Barrie. I will start a new thread on Barrie soon......

Partially discharged

Just a word of warning. A few posters on this forum have little good to say about Barrie.

BristolUK

Define 'few' and does he say anything nice about anywhere?

dbd33

I love Pantelleria.

glendem4

London property average price in 2017 is $339K compared to $288K in 2016.
Still more than 50% below Toronto average of $732K.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-real-estate-market-1.4280938

glendem4

https://www.zolo.ca/london-real-estate/trends

Property prices appear to be still in a bubble in London, however the number of properties for sale is above 1000 in volume with only 40 sold in the last 28 days.

Let us see if average prices can fall back to $300K in 2018

DandNHill

Do they not have anything more recent than May? Lots of changes since then...

glendem4

In September, a total of 646 detached homes were sold, a decrease of 9.8% from the previous year, while condominium sales were up 4.0% from 2016, with 156 units sold. The average sales price across London and St. Thomas was $318,347 slightly down 1.0% from the previous month. The average year-to-date sales price was $328,759, up 17.8% from the 2016 average home price of $279,057.
London & St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® - Statistics

Quarterly forecasts for Canada show prices to be flat for 2018 with Ontario average price of $575K, showing how GTA has a big impact compared to places like London, Ontario
http://www.crea.ca/housing-market-st...rly-forecasts/