madhusivan

We are planning to move to Canada in March 2009 from US. We already have our PR cards and my husband is going to work from home for a US company. We have a son who is 3 years old. My husband's commute to work is not a problem.

We are not able to decide between Mississuaga and Toronto. Some decent places in Mississuaga cost around 1300-1400$ in rent for a 3 bedroom apartment, but I see that Toronto has 3 bedroom apt. starting from $900 itself.

So could anybody here shed some light on which place is better considering cost of living, safety, raising children, education, etc.

Thanks

dbd33

Toronto is a city. Mississauga is a suburb. So, London or Milton Keynes?

Atlantic Xpat

Milton Keynes isn't a suburb of London though so a more apt comparison would be London or Croydon.

If you can work from home and are presumably able then to live pretty much anywhere then why on earth would you restrict yourselves to Toronto or Mississauga?

dbd33

Granted, I trying though to give an impression of the built environment. I suppose that, if Brampton = Slough, then Mississauga = the sprawl between London and Slough, airport, industrial estates, Hayes maybe?

Atlantic Xpat

You have the right of it.

christmasoompa

Ditto that, if I could live anywhere in Canada then those two places would probably be bottom of my list!

clynnog

That is a rather gruesome stretch to drive through on the M4. In many ways as ugly as the stretch on the 401 from the 427 to Meadowvale.

Oakvillian

Hounslow.

triumphguy

It's nice here in'it! - Luton

Mikey B

Could not put it better myself!

Zap0ne

Hi madhusivan,

There are not many newer three bed aprtments in Mississauga as generally the condo market has outstripped the apartment buildings over the past 10 years and three bed condos are few. We do not need to get into the shortfall of the cities with the rabbit hutch condos. So, many of these large apartments were built in the late 50’s and early 60’s as purpose built rental units. It is hard to find a building that has been updated. Many have been superficially decorated and you will need to deal with outdated bathrooms and kitchen. You might want to keep away from the areas that have a lot of high rise rental buildings that are close to a lot of ‘community housing’.

A three bed apartment for $900 sounds like a ‘interesting’ basement to me, but you could have found a gem. Freehold, start roughly between $1,200 - $1,500 will get you a townhouse or maybe a semi in Meadowvale area of Mississauga that is split into two units and you are in the basement. To get the townhouse to yourself you might need to be in the $1,800 and up bracket to have a choice. Condo’s will mainly be condo townhouses which are in the $1,300 – 1,800 bracket. Three bed high rise condo apartment will be in the region of $2,000 up for liveable square footage but in some cases the utilities are included. Bearing in mind that the upper limit of what you can spend is very high.

I have not found a great deal of difference in rental rates between Mississauga and Toronto which always surprises me. Obviously Toronto does have expensive parts as they are high on the desire scale but it does have some inexpensive also.

Cost of living will depend on your lifestyle. If you find yourself commuting in and out of Toronto then perhaps living in the city would have been a wiser choice. Cost of food, gas, electricity, gas, purchasing consumer goods etc. is the same in Mississauga as it is Toronto.

Safety etc. Fortunately the unsafe areas are in the minority and overall Canada is still a safe place to live and raise the family. Clearly there are a few pockets that are infected with the drug, gang, crime issues in both areas but most of these places can be found in the newspaper on a regular basis so they are not that secret.

Check out the Toronto Life neighbourhood guide
http://www.torontolife.com/real-estate/
or for Mississauga
http://www.myhood.ca/section/view/?fnode=205

Hope that this helps
Roy

Jerseygirl

Not quite sure what type of 3 bed apartment you would get for $900 in TO. My daughter shared a small 2 bed 1 bath apt when she was a student...the rent was $1500 per month...plus $100 for 1 parking space. We own a 2 bed apartment and the monthly service charge is approx. $600. Service charges and property taxes should be included in the monthly rent.

DaveLovesDee

Which area of Toronto is the $900 apt in. It may be that low for a good reason.

madhusivan

Thanks everybody for your input.

Zapone, will get in touch with you.

These are the listings I found in Toronto in the 900$ range, but have no idea where it is, or how good it is. Check from the 3rd listing.
http://www.apartmentcorner.com/asp/P...ch_results.asp

Novocastrian

A 3 bed apartment in Toronto renting for $900-$1000 is highly unlikely to be in a neighbourhood conducive to child-rearing.

You didn't answer the questions as to why these two locations comprise your shortlist? Also, while Mississauga is quite homogenous (almost all of it is nasty), Toronto is a big city with extremely different neighbourhoods.

What exactly is the budget you're on?