Hello all. My partner and I are (hopefully!) moving to Canada in the spring. I am from Canada but haven't lived there in 15 years and am not familiar with the Toronto area. I do know Kitchener/Waterloo and Guelph.

On a recent reccie, we found out that 'commuter' trains (ie. Go) and buses to Toronto are nowhere near as frequent as in the UK and that most people drive ending up in horrendous traffic. We ideally want to live outside of Toronto but have access to work there if possible.

Any advice on areas that are somewhat affordable with a reasonable commute? This may well be an impossible question but any help you could give would be great.

Thanks.

GO Trains and buses aren't too bad and it all depends when you want to travel. The Lakeshore line that runs out of Union Station downtown west as far as Hamilton and East to Oshawa runs every half an hour during rush hours and every hour of peak and runs reasonably late into the evening. When I lived in Newmarket which is about an hour north of Toronto there were only 3 GO Trains in the morning and three in the evening and none on weekends but the three trains were at rush hour and that's when most people need them to commute and there are buses as well all through the day. The buses run to further and more out o fthe way places than the trains which run along onyl a few main lines.

Depending how much you want to pay for housing and how far away you want to live from the city most methods will make a long commute. When I lived in Newmarket the train took just over an hour but when you added in getting to the station and then a subway ride and walk to get to my actual office it took 2 hours door to door which meant 4 hours of commuting a day which sucks. Might be worth it if you have a really nice house to come back to that you could never afford in the city but we were renting and it made no sense. We moved downtown and now it takes 30 minutes to get to work on the subway or a bus.

There are nearer places though, I sometimes go out to Oakville and take the GO Train and that takes just over 30 minutes on the train plus the subway to Union which isn't too bad. The good thing about the train is the commute is always the same as there is no traffic, where as driving can take say 30 minutes to drive to Oakville from downtown if you work odd hours and drive off peak or take you a couple of hours in stationary traffic if you have to go in rush hour.

There isn't an easy solution unless you are lucky and can find a job outside the city then you can live and work outside teh city and never have to commute there.

Drew

It depends what line of work you are looking for. There is lots of warehousing, industry, commerce and leisure industry in the Oakville, Milton, Burlington, East Hamilton area. Big family areas, so lots of schools and other educational establishments. You might find a job where you can live and work in the same town, or the one next door, thus avoiding a commute at all. Have a look on www.mls.ca and check out homes for sale in the towns above and also Bronte, Waterdown, Ancaster, Halton Hills, Stoney Creek, Orangeville and Dundas.

We live in Ajax which is on the Lakeshore East line. I am a nurse at one of the downtown hospitals so have to commute at unsocial times!! I am very impressed with the train service compared to the public transport when we lived in Leeds.

When I am on days I get the 6.01 train out and the 20.13 back. It has only been late one morning in the 2 years we have been here. Going home it has been delayed or cancelled very few times, and this was because of extreme weather conditions.

I can also use the Highway 2 bus service then the subway - but prefer to sit on the train and snooze for 40 minutes!! Our local bus service from the GO station takes you to your street - you just tell the driver your intersection and they work out the route. If we get the last train from downtown at 00.13 the local bus is waiting to take you home - no need for a taxi - though people are complaining because the fare has just gone up from 50c to 65c!!

Occasionally I get a lift downtown with my neighbour, the traffic is pretty awful once you get to Morningside and the terrible driving on show makes it very stressful - the train is so much easier and parking is free at the GO station (though my poor husband usually gets up at 5.30 and drives me as we are one of the few families with only one car).

The downside to the GO trains is that they only run as far as Pickering/Oakville at the weekends, they then have bus connections to all the other places. We are in-between the stations so it doesn't really matter but the buses are usually waiting when the train gets in. There is so much building going on in Ajax/Whitby/Oshawa that maybe it won't be too long until the trains also run to Oshawa on a weekend.

During peak commuter times there are express services that don't stop at any of the stations between Pickering and Union Station - so the journey is much faster.

We love living in Ajax, there is always lots to do locally, the school my children go to is great, there are lots of sports facilities. The part we live in "Pickering Village" also has its own events, including a street jazz festival in June and a 50's street dance in September, Christmas festival with lighting of the tree. We are near some very nice conservation areas but also within easy commute of Toronto, it isn't as built-up (yet) as the west side of the city and personally I find the west looks a lot more industrial when you drive past than the east does. It is an easy drive to small towns like Cobourg, Port Hope, Port Perry.

If we didn't have children I would love to live in a condo downtown and be in the middle of everything, but with a family I think we live in a great place. Just take your time when you arrive to look at lots of different areas, rent for a while as buying in the wrong area can be a very expensive mistake.

Thank you very much for your replies. I think we really are going to be caught in the dilemma of either having a big commute for a higher salary or taking less pay elsewhere and travelling less. I work in the not for profit sector and many of the jobs that relate to what I do with half decent salaries seem to be in Toronto which makes sense in regard to urban social problems. Normally, I would be very happy to live in the city but we are having a baby in the next few weeks and are looking for quality of life and a decent sized affordable house.

Being a city person though, I am concerned about living in small towns (and the small town attitudes that sometimes come with them...). My partner does want the small town life so we are trying to come up with some middle ground where I can get my city fix but we are located in a smaller place with good access to conservation areas. We have spent alot of time looking at mls and have seen some beautiful houses in our price range but they are often in the middle of nowhere bringing us back to our original dilemma of jobs vs lifestyle.

Any ideas on places that could give us access to a city with a strong charity sector and conservation areas as well as a house for less than £250k?

Some useful info, Cheers all.

You can find a house in Toronto for $250K you just to look real hard. and by the sounds of it, its just you and your wife so you wouldnt need somehwere big. If your set on a house you can find them jsut get a really good real estate Agent.

If not why not consider Etobicoke and Mississauga area they have a lot of new townhouse developtments in those areas for around the $250K mark.

a really good website is www.mls.ca

We just bought our first house. It's in Toronto, a reasonable area, 3 bedroom detached with garage and finished basement. Not huge and not on a large lot but pretty good all round and not much over $250K. There are some reasonable houses out there for less than $300K, you just have to look carefully and be prepared to see some rpetty crappy ones in order to find the odd good one and be able to move fairly quickly to get an offer in before anyone else bids. We started looking early to avoid the spring/summer volume and price increases.

Drew