Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
May 28th 2018, 6:57 am
#16
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
My nephew and his wife commuted from Guelph to Toronto for a few years before they became professors at Guelph Uni. There's a Go train now which takes about 1 to 1.5 hours each way - but it may be an option when you consider house prices and the nicer area that Guelph is compared to Oakville.
Is Missisuaga a good option? I saw a few jobs there on indeed.ca - in Citi, TD Bank etc. Does Mississauga have a decent bank/IT job market?
Thanks again eveyone for kindly contributing.
May 28th 2018, 11:14 am
#17
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
commuting that long won’t work for us unfortunately. If we end up choosing Guelph, Waterloo and Kitchner will be around 30min drive from there? I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE that! I’m struggling to manage home, kids and work at the moment here in London (UK). We live in a leafy suburb with a direct 30min train into London. However, the commute is taking me nearly 1.5hrs each way. (Walking to the station, changing into underground for another short journey, walking to office - it’s all adding up). So, I’m spending a good 3 hours each day on commuting. This is draining me out so much that I’m considering giving up my job. Last night my husband and I decided that it’ll be impossible for both of us to commute into Toronto. I will try to find work locally. That way Guelph, Kitchner and Waterloo - all together should give me a good market for jobs. My husband however seems to swing between GKW and Toronto. He feels working in GKW will limit his career and growth prospects. (I don’t understand why).
Is Missisuaga a good option? I saw a few jobs there on indeed.ca - in Citi, TD Bank etc. Does Mississauga have a decent bank/IT job market?
Thanks again eveyone for kindly contributing.
Is this the sort of thing he does?
https://canr53.dayforcehcm.com/Candi...?source=indeed
If you could give us his NOC or job title it would be easier to offer some help
May 28th 2018, 12:11 pm
#18
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
Is this the sort of thing he does?
https://canr53.dayforcehcm.com/Candi...?source=indeed
If you could give us his NOC or job title it would be easier to offer some help
https://canr53.dayforcehcm.com/Candi...?source=indeed
If you could give us his NOC or job title it would be easier to offer some help
May 28th 2018, 12:52 pm
#19
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
K-W and Guelph have numerous insurance companies though not, AFAIK, banks. There are some banking data centres in Mississauga (and Barrie) but I don't know if they have bodies there.
May 28th 2018, 2:28 pm
#20
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
You're most welcome!
Found this one in Stratford
https://ca.linkedin.com/jobs/view/se...medium=organic
Waterloo - https://canr53.dayforcehcm.com/Candi...ting/View/1093
May 28th 2018, 2:47 pm
#21
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
There are some asset & investment management services outside of downtown Toronto, but the head offices of the banks, and their AM subsidiaries, are nearly all downtown. If your OH's skills are transferable to investment management in either Life & Health or Property & Casualty then K-W begins to look a better option - Manulife is headquartered there, and Equitable and Allianz both have back offices in the town that I know of. There are probably others.
FWIW I commuted from Oakville to downtown TO for several years. Like HGerchikov, I found it a pretty easy commute (especially in comparison to the Chiswick-to-Westminster journey I'd had previously), very rarely more than an hour door-to-desk even when taking a city bus from home to the GO station in Oakville. We were a one-car family until our third child was born and we started needing to be in two places at once in the evenings! I can't give any experiential help on cost as most of mine was before the Presto system came into effect, but from the Presto website it seems a return trip every working day for a month will cost you $282.25 from Oakville GO to Union (and the way the system works means that any additional trips on weekends etc will be effectively free). And if you do take the Oakville city bus for the last mile, the co-pay scheme means you only pay $0.75 each way for that part of the journey.
FWIW I commuted from Oakville to downtown TO for several years. Like HGerchikov, I found it a pretty easy commute (especially in comparison to the Chiswick-to-Westminster journey I'd had previously), very rarely more than an hour door-to-desk even when taking a city bus from home to the GO station in Oakville. We were a one-car family until our third child was born and we started needing to be in two places at once in the evenings! I can't give any experiential help on cost as most of mine was before the Presto system came into effect, but from the Presto website it seems a return trip every working day for a month will cost you $282.25 from Oakville GO to Union (and the way the system works means that any additional trips on weekends etc will be effectively free). And if you do take the Oakville city bus for the last mile, the co-pay scheme means you only pay $0.75 each way for that part of the journey.
May 28th 2018, 3:36 pm
#22
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
Thanks for your post Oakvillian.
There is another factor to bring into the mix here. We will be selling our UK house and liquidating all our investments. That will give us roughly CAD 1.5M for a nice house and investment. Living in Oakville will give us access to Toronto jobs, but it will set us back by ATLEAST CAD 1.3M for the kind of house we want. Salaries in Toronto are higher - $120k looks achievable. However, in KGW areas, salary of 100k looks achievable and I could get a similar house for $800k-900k. Giving us $600k to invest. At a modest 6% return, it can grow into $1M in 10yrs - Giving is a nice nest egg for retirement. PLUS the massive plus of being able to live within 30min drive to work.
It is almost impossible for a $1.3M house to return $650k growth in 10yrs surely? Given that GTA housing is already in a massive bubble!
There is another factor to bring into the mix here. We will be selling our UK house and liquidating all our investments. That will give us roughly CAD 1.5M for a nice house and investment. Living in Oakville will give us access to Toronto jobs, but it will set us back by ATLEAST CAD 1.3M for the kind of house we want. Salaries in Toronto are higher - $120k looks achievable. However, in KGW areas, salary of 100k looks achievable and I could get a similar house for $800k-900k. Giving us $600k to invest. At a modest 6% return, it can grow into $1M in 10yrs - Giving is a nice nest egg for retirement. PLUS the massive plus of being able to live within 30min drive to work.
It is almost impossible for a $1.3M house to return $650k growth in 10yrs surely? Given that GTA housing is already in a massive bubble!
May 28th 2018, 3:40 pm
#23
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
My little bungalow outside of the GTA gained $250,000 in 5 years.. so yes, it's possible... although prices are now dropping again - but better not to have all your eggs in one basket, so to speak! A nice house in the KGW area with enough cash to purchase a 2nd rental property (perhaps in Guelph, University town) with the income and increase in value perhaps? Or a cottage somewhere - which you can rent out when you are not using it
Last edited by Siouxie; May 28th 2018 at 3:47 pm.
May 28th 2018, 5:20 pm
#24
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
I think $900k in Kitchener will get you a nicer place than $1.3mi in Oakville. We sold in Oakville at the end of 2016. We got $500k more for the house than we would have got if we had sold at the end of 2015. I don't see that particular level of insanity as being sustainable and the evidence of the first few months of 2018 supports that view. We now live about 25 minutes north of Guelph, with the equity from the Oakville house invested.
Both places are nice places to live, Oakville definitely offers much better options for travelling into Toronto, which, as your kids get older and want to go to concerts etc is a plus. Our younger one quite regularly hopped on the GO train to spend the day in Toronto. There is even a late bus from the GO station which costs 75c with a Presto card. The main advantage of the Guelph area is the slower pace, never any traffic, I can sometimes drive for 20 mins near where we live and not see another car. Guelph itself is somewhat busier but not in the same league as the GTA.
May 28th 2018, 9:45 pm
#25
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
Hi all,
Thanks a TON for helping me think through this. I’m very grateful for the responses here. Kitchner might be the place we are looking for
Thanks a TON for helping me think through this. I’m very grateful for the responses here. Kitchner might be the place we are looking for
Jun 1st 2018, 2:38 pm
#26
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Re: Commuting costs to downtown Toronto (from Oakville)
A little late to this one, and it may be moot if the OP has decided on Kitchener, but for what it's worth I commute from Oakville to TO, and I load my Presto card up with $300 each month. That covers the bus to/from the Oakville GO station and the GO Train rides to and from Union.
