Hello Everyone:
The more I read and research about renting a place in Toronto , the More I got confused. I'll be moving to Canada from US. I thought about places like North York, London, Hamilton - but as I read your previous threads in this forum, the distances to Toronto downtown seems too long.
Anyone please advise a newcomer (a family of three including an infant) to Canada regarding a place to rent in Toronto. Please consider we'll have no car in first couple of weeks. Thank you.

Where do you have to go for work or study ?

Do you want half a house or an apartment in a high rise ?

Do you prefer subways or streetcars ?

Have you an desire for/objection to services in a particularly language ?

Given the choice, are you urban or suburban people ?

This is a good guide to neighbourhoods :

http://www.boldts.net/Toronto.shtml

My advice is just to rent a car.

And yet I know plenty of people who don't have cars and who somehow manage to survive. I know two people, one 35, one in his early fifties, who never got around to learning to drive. It's very common not to need a car during the week and to rent one for occasional weekends. The trick, I'm told, is to use a beer delivery service.

Thinking about it, I didn't have a car for years and I had the use of multiple children, one disabled, on the weekends. It all works well enough until you want to go camping.

Im sure you do, but life has to be easier with a car, at least in the first few weeks when you have appointments to keep and places to check out.

Do you really want to be lugging a tiny kid around, figuring out the transit system to go apply for your OHIP cards when you could just drive?

It sounds like they are getting a car anyway, so why piss about, just rent one for a few weeks when you get here for what, $500? Its a drop in the bucket innit?

<sobs>

Those were the days.

I meant relative to the other major expenses of emmigrating and setting up home in a new city.

OK. You've dropped enough hints. I'll buy you a beer on Monday.

Oh, we're not so brassic as to be pushed for beer money, but, my God, the legal and accounting fees are piling up. No one should attempt a divorce in Ontario.

I thought that was probably the case. I suspect it's even worse in Quebec.

BTW, do you have any idea what time the stores close in TO on a Saturday? I mean the Eaton Centre and stuff like that. I get in at about five and have some time to kill.

Their website says seven but I don't know if that means all the shops. I haven't any direct experience as I haven't been in there since the early eighties.

[QUOTE=dbd33]Where do you have to go for work or study ?

As I have told you I don't know yet. But, we'll be looking for job. and we don't wnt to be in middle of a city. We like it a little quiet. We don't know frenc yet.
Regarding apartment or high rise condo- it doesn't matter.
let's continue this thread on where to live. I know a lot of people who just got their PPR and looking to many websites for ideas on where to rent and so on.

Canada Girl

[QUOTE=canadagirl] French is irrelevant in Toronto, I believe it's the tenth most commonly spoken language.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but you're going to continue to receive impossible answers as long as you continue to ask impossible questions.

The Greater Toronto Area is so large that it is very difficult for people to give you sensible advice if they don't know where you're going to be working.

I know you want to live in a peaceful area. That's fine in the long run. But, if you want a base from which to conduct a job hunt, I think it would make more sense to be reasonably centrally located initially. Look on it as a temporary exercise, just while you get up and running.

Good luck with your move.

I think DB33 was right when he said that you hadnt really provided enough information and you havent really answered the questions he put forward before being able to give you a decent reply.

Answer those and we may be able to help you a little more.

You also havent told us your budget, the GTA is a huge metropolis with many options but what a lot of it comes down too is what you can afford as to what areas we can suggest to you.