Abby2012

Hi, I'm Abby, and me and my hubby are considering a move to Ontario, my hubby works for a Canadian company here is the UK and may be able to get re-located..

If he can move, he would be located in Toronto (TD Towers!). I am not a lover of big cities, although I loved Toronto.. are there some smaller residential areas that would be a short train/subway journey away.

I fell in love with Niagra on the Lake and Collingwood etc, but they are just a little bit too far away

Any area recommendations would be most appreciated!

christmasoompa

What sort of house are you after, what sort of amenities, and a rough budget? If you can give a bit more info then I'm sure the lovely peeps in Toronto will be able to suggest somewhere that might suit.

Good luck.

Abby2012

Ah sorry, should really have said! lol

We are after preferably detached, min 3 beds, garden, close to at least some shops.. Budget of about £180k (300k Canadian dollars ish).

I'd love to be close to water which is why Collingwood and Niagara on the lake appealed.

We have a young daughter, who will be 2 when we move, so schools/nursery will be something we need to look into too!

Cheers!

dbd33

There are nice enough inner suburbs, in the manner of Ealing; Leaside, High Park, the Beach. They're within the bounds of the subway/tram system. Then there are outer suburbs, Oakville, Ajax, Whitby along the lake, they're accessible by GO train. If you want an actual small town in the manner of Collingwood then a brutal commute will be involved. I think this is an accurate guide to the areas of Toronto: http://www.boldts.net/Toronto.shtml

dbd33

Ah, just saw this. Please forget the previous post. Look east along the Lakeshore GO train line; Scarborough, Ajax, Whitby.

Abby2012

Ah thanks! We picked up a Camper van in Whitby, ON so I'm slightly familiar with it (And I love Whitby in the UK too!)

Being near water might not be possible..its not the most important thing really. A nice residential area would trump water views.

x

dbd33

magnumpty lives out there somewhere, I expect he'll be along with suggestions.

Abby2012

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

bats

Have a look at Cobourg and Port Hope. Not a short commute but Via rail is between 60 and 90 mins or drive to the GO station at Oshawa. Maybe Newcastle too.

Dulciusexasperis

I grew up in Toronto and when I read that your buget is around $300k, my first thought is that you can't afford a decent 3 bedroom detached house anywhere near Toronto.

Unlike the UK, house hunting in Canada is much easier because of the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Basically, every house for sale is listed in one place. Any Real Estate Agent can show you any house that is for sale (other than private sales by owner) anywhere and they all list properties for sale on the MLS website.

So, what you can do to start with is go to realtor.ca and click on 'search by map'. Someone mentioned the Beach area of Toronto. I used to live there and laughed when it was mentioned. Here is a 3 bedroom in the Beach.
http://declute.com/property_profile....o&mls=E2788382

For most people, working in Toronto means a long commute to work if they want to own a house for $300K. Besides time, you also have to factor in the cost of that commute which can be a signigant cost per month out of your income.

You will need to look at suburbs a fair distance out from the city centre. Say east to Pickering or farther or west to Burlington or north of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). You may need to look at a Townhouse (terrace house) rather than a detached if you want to try and be a bit closer in.

I would suggest that if your husband is going to work in the TD Centre, that you look at the Go Transit map http://www.gotransit.com/timetables/...ules/maps.aspx
That will help you decide what areas to look in. Besides the nightmare that driving into and out of Toronto in rush hour entails, parking can cost anywhere from $150-500 plus per month in the downtown core. So Go Transit appeals to a lot of people instead. He can easily walk from Union Station to the TD Centre.

Looking at the realtor.ca site will let you get a good feel for house prices if you do some browsing on it.

dbd33

You will note that, once the budget was mentioned, I revised my suggestion to Scarborough, Ajax and Whitby. This was based on the Lakeshore line being the only really viable GO train service and properties being cheaper that way than west.

Surely the house listed isn't in the Beach anyway, that's Scarborough, the reasonable price is because it's in the wrong school district.

Dulciusexasperis

What house 'listed' dbd33? The one I linked is in the Beach. Of course the question of just where 'the Beach' is nowadays is an amusing one. I still laugh when I see a real estate ad saying a house is in the 'upper Beaches' and the house is up near Danforth!.

I lived in the Beach neighbourhood on and off since the 70s. Back then the boundaries were pretty simple. Anything west of the Hunt Club, east of Woodbine and south of Kingston Road was in the Beach. For real old time residents (1960s or earlier) it really only included anything south of Queen St. Nowadays they seem to have stretched those boundaries a whole lot farther.

I recall very well the big flap when the city changed the street signs in 1985.
http://www.blogto.com/city/2014/03/t...r_the_beaches/

That was back in the days of the 'yuppies' moving into the area. I still recall the joke back then about the 'definition of a beaches woman'. In her 30s; works in the media; has a dog.'

Funnily enough, on my last visit to the area (last year) I did notice just how many dogs there seemed to be on Queen St. Perhaps the definition had some merit in it. I honestly can't recall ever seeing so many people walking a dog down the street anywhere compared to how many I saw that day. Put it this way, there were enough that I noticed.

I bought my last house in the Beach around 1988 and sold in 1997. It cost $450k and I sold for $600k. I recently saw what I would say is an equivalent house one street over listed at $1.7 mil.

dbd33

It's east of Victoria Park, which makes you guilty of the expansionism you decry in others.

Tirytory

Guess you should have held on to it then...

Dulciusexasperis

LOL, OK dbd33, you're going back to 1960s borders. Woodbine to Victoria Park and south of Queen only. Fair enough.

I think you would have a hard time convincing someone who lives on Blantyre, Courcellete or Fallingbrook that they don't live in the Beach though.

You would be wrong in that guess Tirytory. It would have increased in value (97-2013) from $600k to that comparable $1.7 mil which is about a 180% increase. But who is to say you could not have put the $600k in some other house somewhere else and made as much or more in profit? From 1997 to 2008, you could get those kind of increases in house prices in a lot of places and I did.