When your career, family or just life brings you to live in a large metropolitan area like Toronto, you\u2019ll also find yourself dealing with higher costs in living and maybe even a more difficult time just finding a house to live in. Suburbs were built surrounding these big cities to help alleviate the stress of paying for and finding housing in the city but it means your commute to get into work every day is just that much longer. This begs the question: is the cheaper housing found in the suburbs around Toronto worth dealing with a commute into the city every day? According to recent findings by the CMHC, they may not be.<\/p>\n
Owning a car isn\u2019t a cheap endeavor: there\u2019s insurance, gas, maintenance and parking costs to consider all just to get to work and around the city every day. Depending on how far away from the city of Toronto you live, these costs can easily run you $600 or more every single month. That is a sizeable portion of your monthly budget, and is comparable to a single bi-weekly mortgage payment. Further, the more you drive your car the more general wear and tear you\u2019ll have to fix on a yearly basis.<\/p>\n
Having a sizeable commute to get to work isn\u2019t just about the financial impact, there\u2019s also a time commitment to this. Some commutes add 2 or 3 hours onto your workday, every day. This is time away from your family, friends, hobbies and things you just enjoy doing. Is it worth spending 2 hours in your car every day?<\/p>\n
While living in areas like Vaughan, Richmond Hill or Oakville means you can likely have a home with a backyard and a driveway for your family to enjoy the dollar per square foot isn\u2019t really that much cheaper when you move outside of the city of Toronto. While the type of real estate you will find might differ, purchasing a home in the city vs. in a suburb may not be that much different in terms of pricing.<\/p>\n
Purchasing a home in the city core gives you, and your family, almost immediate access to various restaurants, shopping, culture and entertainment venues and so much more. Living in a suburb will give you shopping, groceries and restaurants but there will always be an event or store only available in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Whether you decide to live in the city or outside of it, there will be a cost in terms of carrying a mortgage however more studies find that owning a home outside the city carries a far greater cost to pay: your time. If the price of housing is low enough in your area and it\u2019s close enough to the city to not take up too much of your extra time then it might make sense to look outside the city, but that is something you\u2019ll need to determine for yourself.<\/p>\n