Not everyone wants to live in a busy city like Toronto. During rush hour, it’s a madhouse. Everyone is in a major hurry and the traffic is crazy.
As a result, a lot of people live in the suburbs and commute. So the highways going into Toronto from the north and the east especially are very busy. Where you settle depends on whether you will be working in Toronto or not. If you are, pick an area not too far from your job.
For example: my sister works at 401 and the Don Valley and lives east in Bowmanville. During non-rush hour, it takes her about an hour to get there driving all highway. My brother works right downtown and lives north in Keswick (which is a nice little town near the water) and it takes him about an hour into town by highway as well. During rush hour (which in reality is about two or three hours both morning and evening) or bad weather, that time could be doubled.
There are a lot of nice little towns north and east of the city, but they are becoming more crowded since they are commuting distance and many to the north are a lot more expensive than they ever were before. Keswick is still affordable, but is getting busier. There is a beautiful little town called Erin that we drove through last week (not far from Orangeville). Small and very nice – no idea how much the housing is though.
We ended up moving west, to Cambridge. That’s between Guelph and Kitchener. Small town feel, but business is increasing here. Many of our neighbours work in Mississauga and it’s less than a one hour drive on a good day. As a native Torontonian I wasn’t sure I would settle in, but so far I love it. It’s so nice to get downtown in ten minutes and to have people actually smile and greet you when they pass.
Woodstock, just west of us, is another nice little small town with a booming economy thanks to their new Toyota plant. There are also quiet little towns out Niagara way, like St. Catharines. The housing there is very reasonable, but not as many jobs. Like I said, it depends how close you need to be to Toronto if you work there and which end of the city you want to be near. And as in most cities, big or small, some areas are better than others.
Technorati Tags: small town living, Toronto, Southern Ontario
