Is It Better to Live in Toronto or Outside the City?
As the most populated and most internationally known city in Canada: Toronto is an obvious place to move for those wanting to start fresh. Unfortunately, when moving to the area, people aren’t sure about living in the city itself or not.
Is it safe? Can you afford it? These are the top things to consider when thinking about moving to Queen City!
The Cost of Living
Toronto balances between Canada’s first and second most expensive place to live, only beaten by Vancouver. Everything from the housing, the food, and education are extremely expensive here, and it can be hard to keep up with.
Moving outside of the city into a suburb can save you thousands of dollars per month in housing, electricity, and transit. However, if you aren’t established in your career, be prepared to need roommates to live within city limits; many people above 30 still live in multi-family households.
Transit in and Out of the City
Public transportation in Toronto is famous for being on time and affordable. If you take public transit instead of buying a car, you can save hundreds to thousands every year.
If you live outside of the city and have to drive to work, you’ll be losing several hours of your time every week. Peak traffic times in Toronto are between seven and nine in the morning and four to six in the evening. Unfortunately, that means the average worker will give up a lot of time to commute if they aren’t near their jobs.
Getting to Entertainment
Getting to entertainment if you live in Toronto is simple! You could walk down the street and learn about three different live shows and two local bands you’ve never heard of. In addition, there are pop-up shops, local live artists busking, and endless movies and concerts that you can see every single week.
Unfortunately, if you live outside of the city, accessing this on the weekends means losing a lot of time to transit, expensive parking, and possibly not even hearing about the live performances before it’s too late to attend.
Safety For Families
Compared to other major cities, Toronto is one of the safest on Earth. Ranking as the second safest, right behind Copenhagen, it’s globally recognized as a safe and comfortable city.
Unfortunately, it does have some dangerous areas of town and streets where crime runs heavier. If you’re new to the city and trying to save money, there’s a chance you could accidentally end up living in one of these unsafe areas. Although cheap real estate in Toronto is not hard to find, it’s not worth risking your health.
Access to Art in Daily Life
One of the largest drawbacks to not living in Toronto is that you may miss out on the constant art that’s in the city.
Street art, from graffiti to murals, is a tradition in the town that’s reaching beautiful heights. Driving in, you can see some of it, but when you live here and see new pieces every day, it feels different.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
