Dane2014

Hi there,

I am new in this forum, but I hope that someone here is able to help me out:

My husband is currently negotiating a "local contract" with a Canadian company residing in the financial district in Toronto. If he accepts the job offer, we would end up relocating to Toronto in the very (!) near future.

In order to assess whether the job offer - more specifically the paycheck - is adequate to meet our needs, we need to find out how much we would need to pay for housing.

We would expect a long term rental of (preferably) a house or an apartment in Toronto in a nice and family-friendly area with good schools (for children aged 6, 9 and 11) - and a lot of potential play mates in the same age-group.

With 3 children (and a dog) we would need something which is not too small, preferably close to recreational areas making it possible for the boys to continue with their favourite sports, soccer and swimming.
Also, "spoiled" as we are , we would prefer a commuting time to the financial district (Union station) of no more than 30 minutes, so although we do not mind the "suburbian" atmosphere we are not prepared to settle in the outer suburbs of Toronto.

Is anyone in here able to make suggestions for nice areas in Toronto that would meet our requirements - and would anyone be able to give an idea of how much we should expect to pay in rent?

Thanks!

dbd33

Here's a recent thread asking the same thing:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...oronto-845163/

A search for user lullabell will turn up similar threads about topics of direct interest to you.

However, at 30 minutes, you're having a laugh. Cabbagetown would be a possibility, if you bicycle, everywhere else is too far away. I commuted by foot from close to Union and, in 30 minutes, could get as far as University and College. I walked because it was the fastest method.

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Don't panic about the 'very' bit, as it'll usually take 3-4 months just for the LMIA, so you'd be looking at spring next year anyway. You won't have to up sticks and move within a week!

You may not wish to disclose it, but quite often a thread with 'we've been offered x amount and this is the kind of lifestyle we'd like on it' will give you really good info from those in the area, so it might be worth mentioning the salary he's been offered (and also what he does, so that people can tell you if it's fair or not).

Best of luck with it all.

Dane2014

Thanks a lot. This is very helpful.

We actually don't know what they are offering yet, but we are trying to calculate what our own "bottom limit" is - which is close to impossible with all the uncertainties - taxes, cost of living, rent etc. ´

Once we have an offer I might come back with more questions as to how far such a paycheck would get us.

Is Leslieville and Danforth ridiculously expensive or just expensive areas to live in?

Atlantic Xpat

Of all the uncertainties as you put them, taxation is the most certain. You will pay both provincial (Ontario) and Federal taxes. If you know what your husband will be paid, you can work out at least what your take home pay is.

Taxtips TaxTips.ca - Canadian Financial and Income Tax Calculators and the Revenue Canada website Individuals and families can help with this. Also allow for deductions from salary for extended health benefits (say $200/mth for a family). This is to cover the stuff (prescriptions, some dental, etc) that Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP, the NHS equivalent) doesn't.

The other variable - rent, cost of living, can be found on many previous threads on the subject or with a judicious bit of googling. The most useful thing you can do is get feedback from knowledgeable posters here on specific areas you might consider living in.

dbd33

I bloody hope not! We lived in Leslieville for ten years or so. At that time one daughter was a lifeguard at Greenwood pool and I commuted to town by tram. It was, an is, an area of terraced houses and then had a mainly poor population, we eventually moved to the Beach (and I got a parking spot at the office, milestone moment, no more steetcar misery). Leslieville has since gentrified somewhat but the infrastructure is still houses built for poor people; bathroom additions tacked on behind kitchens, that sort of thing.

The lifeguard daughter bought a little house on the Danforth (little enough that she cut the front lawn with kitchen scissors). That was a step up in neighbourhood from Leslieville and it has a subway.

Dane2014

Thanks for that. It is so difficult to find the right areas online - ie my impression from google was that Danforth and Leslieville was middleclass & good schools (which is what we are looking for) but maybe they aren't that nice after all.

I just hope that they will give us a recon trip i advance so that we will have the possibility to look around before we get there and my husband actually has to start working (=not much time for house hunting...)

dbd33

Most of the Danforth would be nice to live in, lots of parks, some lovely houses, walk to shops, pubs and restaurants, easy transport links. I don't know about schools though, my kids commuted downtown for school.

Pizzawheel

Leslieville is more up and coming, can be a tad edgy at times. North of the Danforth is nice and quiet just try and veer away from the Main-Vic Park stretch if you can.

If you're working in the FD the wee loop of subway that serves the FD is overloaded in rush hours (almost London standards) so finding somewhere a little more suburban and close to a GO train that will take you into Union isn't a bad idea; or live on one of the northern branches of the subway and find your corner before the crowds build up (especially the transfer from the easy-west Bloor Danforth line which is where the carriages become rammed).

North York City (Yonge-Shepherd) is nice but pricey.

I'm not familiar with the west end options, High Park and Bloor Village West are great but can also be extremely expensive.

Finally my personal tip would be to look in Cliffside/ Cliffcrest on top of the Scarboro bluffs, making sure its south of Kingston Road, and a bus ride away from Scarboro GO station.

Wikipedia has a half decent guide to Toronto Neighbourhoods and MLS.ca the realtor site I think does rentals as well as purchase, though scouting house prices is a fast and dirty way of getting an idea of the neighbourhoods.

not2old

Prices in the Danforth area, Leslieville, Beaches, south Danforth on Gerrard, even Leaside - the starting range for a house $500k+ to $1 million+++.

Depends what you're looking for, if its a house, not an apartment, then Toronto is not cheap real estate, unless (for similar properties) you travel to the outer suburbs

Take a look on the real estate sites for places North of the Danforth. to O'Connor.. Coxwell in the east, west to Broadview. Older, lots of trees, many small parks, cultural mix. Properties may be cheaper than the Beaches.

http://www.realtor.ca/

A 800 sq ft 2 bedroom clapboard shack or a row house with a 20 foot frontage lot can set you back an easy $500k

Anywhere on the TTC route - if you lived in the extreme west (Kipling) or east burbs (Scarborough town centre) could get you into downtown (Yonge/King) within an hour

dbd33

Pizzawheel is right though, you don't want to set up a commute involving changing from the east-west to north-south lines if you can possibly avoid it. This is a mark against living on the Danforth.

not2old

if you are renting you wont pay council tax separately. That is paid by the building owner.

rental website to give you an idea

http://www.viewit.ca/torontozones.aspx

As far as general cost of things

Cost of Living in Toronto, Canada. Prices in Toronto. Updated Nov 2014

as for store price of things as well as grocery ideas & flyers/weekly specials

http://flyers.smartcanucks.ca/

not2old

sort of agree, however many folks do the tram, bus, subway combination, spending up to one-hour to get to work.

As for the subway changes - I guess having lived in several different areas of the city as long as I have been here & having to change from above ground transport to subway on the Bloor/Danforth, then the yonge/university line - you sort of get used to it & the hour to work can go quickly.

Better than being stuck in vehicular traffic on the DVP/404/427, QEW/Lakeshore or the 401 for an hour... winter a wee bit longer.

The TTC for the most part is good, as is the Go Bus/Train (or whatever its called these days)

My favourite TTC bus ride is from the Port Union/Lawrence east terminus to Eglinton/Yonge terminal & back again -quite the cultural experience. Give or take 15 minutes its about 1hr 20 minutes. Pushing, shoving, bumpiest ride ever, like being on the dodgems

dbd33

My least favorite is the corner of College and Broadview. Hundreds of people try to get on. Almost all of them have invalid transfers and/or forged passes. If the driver chooses to make a fuss over all of them the tram is stuck long enough that the fragile thingy attached to the wires freezes and the next car has to thump it along.

Dane2014

Oh thanks all, this is just great. Very very helpful for me!

He has been told by someone who should know that he should expect to be offered an annual pay of CAD 250-275,000 before deduction of taxes.

Taking into consideration that I would probably not be able to work, at least not in the beginning, this still seems like an amount that should set us up nicely, even taking into consideration that we will be going from 2 salaries to 1. I assume, though that it will not set us up "anywhere", if we still would like to have financial freedom to "do stuff" (cool vacations etc). whenever my husband has time off work.

We do not plan to buy property in the beginning - at least for the first couple of years until we have decided whether to make the placement permanent, so we are looking at rentals.

As mentioned our main priorities
1) as short as commute as possible, as mentioned preferably no more than 30 minutes (haha) as I expect that I will go nuts if I have to spent too much time alone.

2) Good schools and plenty of children close by

3) Recreational facilities (pools, soccefields and playground) close by.

I expect that my husband will do the commuting by train or subway so that I will be able to get around by car.

In that sense I would assume that our priority would be to find someting that ot be close to the financial district/Union St in terms of distance, but maybe a place that is close to a GO Station or Subway station on a line that would lead him directly to Union St. (which would save a lot of time when commuting...)

But are there such areas in Toronto - or am I being totally unrealistic?