evets

The line from Lisgar runs one way in the morning, and only rush hour. Returning from Union, again rush hour and one way.

You then have to consider, the commute when you get to union station as I doubt 10 mins to a job from Union unless you get super lucky.

Finding a house 10 mins from Lisgar with your requirements is doable, but having been around those suburbs. I think you would really need to get on google maps street view to give you a better idea...

evets

haha which is why I put my additional comment, so I would hope to avoid the thread being derailed.

dbd33

I hope they're hands were good to them but that's a digression too far even for me.

evets

I have to agree with both of these comments, mainly as I am on the Lisgar line and would not really like to commute to a job in Toronto from here.

As dbd33 says, and I completely agree. Had to take a bus for a few weeks which took me through some of the cookie cutter houses. Certainly was not impression of the Canadian lifestyle. Then again it all really depends on what you want.

With 1.5mCA$, maybe reconsider the areas you are looking at. Port Credit is nice, Oakville slightly further out and on a GO line, albeit you may still have to drive to the station. Caledon has also been recommended to me, but not sure of the commute. My colleague lives in Orangeville, which looks quite nice, North of the GTA and tells me the commute to Union is very doable.
With that sort of cash and a small mortgage, you really do have some options.

Other than than if you are only looking for work in Toronto, and downtown Toronto. Have you considered living North or East of Toronto?

Winterdiva

I currently live in a 1930s semi-detached fragile shoebox. So, we are immediately attracted to anywhere that has some space. You can already see why I started this thread. I wanted sanity check on my plans (thanks for the inputs! ) We have stars in our eyes for any house that offers space and commutable to jobs.

Which areas would you recommend in the north of QEW? Btw, We both work in the Financial Services IT. Rigid hours?

Winterdiva

Never thought of that. Will look into it. thank you

First thoughts - Can I afford to spend a million on buying a greencard?

Winterdiva

Which areas would you recommend in North or East of Toronto?

Hmm, Ideally, I'd like to get a house within $1M and spend $500k on 2 smaller properties for investment (with a small mortgage on each).

Is that doable anywhere nice and commutable to Toronto? Investment properties need not be in Toronto. I can look into other cities for those.

evets

Honestly cannot comment, as only coming up for a year here.

North: Orangeville and Caledon have been recommended to me. The first, my colleague in the office tells me the commute would be doable, around the hour mark. The latter I cannot comment.

500k on 2 investment properties. mmmm. Condos in Mississauga are really starting around 300 to 400k.

Considering the property market in Canada. Vancouver and Toronto are the property hotspots, not really sure how much gains you would/could make in any other cities. But only time would tell on that.

dbd33

I used to commute from north of Shelburne to Boystown. In the morning it was a consistent hour and a quarter (so an hour from Orangeville). Coming back I could sometimes do it in two hours but it routinely took three and sometimes four (all less 15 minutes to Orangeville). That was a lot of time on the road. Note that I have a parking spot in Toronto, if you have to pay to park it can get quite expensive.

I don't think one can be competitive in an IT job if tied to such a limiting commuter schedule. Some negotiation over working at home is possible but that's not the ideal start. The new person should seem committed to the job.

Space, to me, implies both decent sized rooms and a garden in proportion to the house. A snag with subdivision Mississauga is that the houses are built to the lot lines, all the space is indoors. They're built on farm fields so there are no trees or natural features. Maybe outdoor space isn't important to you.

I lived in a solid, well decorated house on a decent lot in Mississauga and moved to a leaky one with a tiny garden in the Beach so we have somewhat different priorities. Something that I got from living in the Beach was independent children, they could work the trams on their own. Suburbs mean giving them a car at the age when they experiment with drink and drugs. I don't think that's a great idea when so much trouble has gone into raising them to that age.

Smaller children would present a different challenge if working so far from home, do you imagine having a nanny?

If I lived north of the QEW in Mississauga...

well, no, I wouldn't do that.

DandNHill

Orangeville is lovely. I was working there until last week. Really loved that little town. It has a quaint feel about it but at the same time it has everything you could need on a day to day basis.
Would I commute to Toronto from there? Absolutely not. Way too far... Factor in traffic and snow and you'd spend as long on your commute (there and back) as you would actually at work.

What about north or Vaughan somewhere? King has some lovely areas which should be affordable with that kind of budget. With the new TTC line coming in to Vaughan maybe it's doable?

Just remember to weigh up home life and quality of life vs work. It might seem a doddle to do the commute for a short while but it's an expensive mistake if you have to sell up...

Pretty Flowers

Also, my niece, who is an outstanding footballer was unable to get funding for a place at Penn State costing $60,000 US a year, despite being offered a scholarship there.

Instead, her family (and my bro) moved back to England so she could take up an apprenticeship with Chelsea....

HGerchikov

If you want to commute via the GO and don't have set hours then the Lakeshore line is the way to go. It has trains at least every 30 mins from early in the morning until late at night. More frequently in the rush hour periods. If you are looking for outside and inside space then your $1.5 million budget is probably not going to be anywhere near enough in the closer towns on the west. Probably have more options on the east side. If you are ok with a subdivision in Mississauga, then it's doable with some left over for the investment properties. Some of the subdivisions are so lacking in outdoor space that if you sneeze you will infect the occupants of 6 houses.
For a 250k budget per property, you are looking at a very small condo apartment (which will come with maintenance fees which may not be so small) or looking further afield. Hamilton still has some properties in that price point although a lot fewer than a year ago. It is commutable to Toronto. Again there are probably similar opportunities to the East of Toronto.
I wouldn't want to commute to downtown Toronto from Orangeville on a daily basis, although if you were working on the north side of Brampton it could be an option.

Pretty Flowers

We live in downtown toronto, and our 3 bed inner row (think terrace) built for poor people about 130 years ago - about 1,000 square feet is now worth about $1.2 million.

When I first emigrated I bought a 2 bed end townhouse in oakville south of the QEW. This cost about $450k 12 years ago. Likely worth double that now.

High quality housing in the GTA conveniently commutable is very expensive these days.

If you are looking for investment property, these days Hamilton is likely your best bet.

dbd33

I think that ship may have sailed. I'd look at the awful tenements they're throwing up in Grand Valley, Dundalk, and similar places. Rent them to some poor bastard who works in Brampton.

Siouxie

Hamilton is getting expensive too, in comparison to what it was even 18 months ago; there are a lot of Toronto/Oakville/Mississauga folk buying houses and pushing prices up.

I bought my house 6 years ago, a very small 3 bedroom bungalow, it's already doubled in value. I know several people who bought 1.5 story houses on the Mountain 8-9 years ago for around the $160-180,000 which are on the market for over $400,000 now. Downtown North End houses - which you could pick up for $130,000 5-6 years ago - are $350-450,000. Even 2 bedroom townhouses - easily bought for around $130,000 5-6 years ago are now well over $200,000, and 2 bedroom condos regularly sell for the mid $200,000's and up.

It's crazy!

If you have that sort of money, it might be worth looking around the Burlington area - it's a nice City, commutable to Toronto with direct rail and Go bus access. There are older houses with larger lots that are really quite nice. Also the Oakville/Burlington border.. check out Realtor.com