I dont think they are any worse than the West side, and you perhaps get more bang for your property buck. Like all these places mentioned, there are good parts and parts to avoid, but thats where a realtor could help.

Besides, isnt the Beaches technically East of the downtown?

The Beach is an eastern suburb, yes, it ends at Vic Park where Scarborough starts. When I was drunk and feeling brave I'd go and stand on the edge of Vic Park and look across nervously.

I've just been looking on MLS - there seem to be some decent houses within the price range in North York - and it doesn't look like it's too far to commute

Don't forget that in Canadian terms, outside of downtown TO "new" really means built within the last 5 years. Ours was built in the mid-80s and was definitely a "fixer-upper" - thankfully, and in accordance with the inspection report, mostly cosmetic apart from needing new roof shingles and a replacement furnace within the next year or so. Domestic buildings in general tend not to have the same sort of shelf life that they have in the UK.

Downtown, "new" probably doesn't compute with "decent sized back garden" -more likely to mean "high rise condo."

True enough. We've some friends who live by Mel Lastman Square. Nice house, rabbits in the backyard, easy commute. The downside there is that cheap houses tend to be bought for infill housing. That part of North York is predominantly Korean and Persian and is ok, watch out though, some parts of North York have big gang problems.

So more BANGs for your buck perhaps?

Scarborough gets a bad rep, and I'm sure there are bad bits, but the bit along Ellesmere east of the hospital that I occasionally travel looks like the rest of GTA suburban prosperous blandness to me. Am I missing some dreadful dark secret?

And this is exactly why BE is so useful - you don't find these things out on MLS !

Hmmm - looks like we'll be looking a bit further out then

No, it's a bit of a joke that Scarborough has such a reputation for violence, the area at VP and the lake is mansions; richer than the Beach. Some parts are very rough, Malvern for example, but much of it is like everywhere else except more diverse; in an hour queuing in the bank by Cederbrae VW recently I saw maybe 100 people of all kinds of ethnicity; I was half of the white people.

I like their (rented) house, 1950s, proportionate to the lot, worn but cute. Either side are McMansions that go to the lot line; the former lawns are now parking or pool. Their landlord isn't renting long term.

So the general bad vibe about the eastern burbs is that they arent white enough?

Can I say that here? I doubt in reality that its much different to the ethnic makeup of the rest of the patchwork of neighbourhoods around Toronto.

I'd agree parts of Brampton are almost 80% Indian, its not got anywhere that I'd say would be “White Canadian” other than peel village
Somebody once described it as the first stop off for all the immigrants, and I’d agree.
It does have a huge mix and if you like to have large amounts of white skin around you and have everybody speak English, then its not for you, but if ethnic diversity is your boat and you enjoy diverse cuisine, as an example my nearest 5 neighbors are White Canadian, Portuguese, Sheikh, Nigerian, Palestinian (whose have just moved in our previous neighbor was from Vietnam)
It great for Curries and Cricket (57 local teams) as well as getting many English foods in the Supermarkets, an amazing place in the time of the world cup, and you can buy almost any type of food stuff from all round the worlds simply because there’s a market for it here.
You’ll find it intriguing as many of those colored faces around you turn out to be English too
The commute by car at peak periods is awful down the 410, it really is one of the commuter towns that feed Toronto, having said that if you worked down town in normal hours you could/would use the Go system,
The up side is we are about 30mins by car from the escarpment (well if you live on the top side of Brampton), which hosts many small rural (but civilized) towns, and a few good hiking trails and several provincial parks

I've just been looking at Oakville on MLS. It certainly offers some great houses within my budget, and that commute time sounds fine to me. Out of interest, are there any parts of Oakville to either avoid or that are better than others ?

What does the commute cost ?

i have lived all over GTA and Leaside, although $600,000 won't get you much House, it will get you an excellent Home.

Many people put on additions.

15 minutes is easily done, my wife worked at Mt Sinai, 15 minutes in the morning, more with afternoon traffic.

My youngest Son once said to me, At Leaside High, it was never whether you went to University, but to which one.

We never used the car on the weekend, everything was in walking distance.

My oldest Son once commented that Leaside is probably one of the only places you can walk around at 3 in the morning, and still feel safe.

There is a reason it is called Scarberia, and there are just too many shootings.

Stephen Harper, PM of Canada is from Leaside.

True enough. dbd33 usurped my reccommedation of High Park (where we first lived when we came to Canada). $600K would get you something pleasant there (but not a huge place and not a huge amount of land). This you can find out on MLS.

North York would also work for the commute. Look for somewhere on the west side of Yonge between Finch in the north and Shepherd in the south. Work out the walking time to the nearest subway and add about 2O minutes to Union Station.

I might as well plug Richmond Hill, but the commute is nearer 1 hour using GO. (Long term, that is planned to improve with extension of the Finch subway line, but you'll likely be retired before then).