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Commuting vs. Renting Downtown

What Would You Do?

  • Commute (TTC or Car)

    Votes: 2 25.0%

  • Move Downtown

    Votes: 6 75.0%

  • Move Midtown

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Not worth it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    8
Ryan_T

Ryan_T

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I could use some input.

I may need to move downtown for a job, but it also means a long commute from Vaughan to the Core. Since I pay no rent at the moment, moving downtown in the interim is pure additional cost. What would you do? Thanks in advance.

Rough breakdown:
- Renting cost Downtown: $1400-2000/month (consider cable, utilities, etc inclusive)
- Renting cost midtown: $1200-1800/month
- Commuting by TTC: $128 MetroPass + 80x2 minutes
- Commuting by GO Train: $120 + 50x2 minutes
- Commuting by Car: $300 parking + $360 gas /month + 30 minutes
 
Last edited:
Other ideas: 1) Apartment share downtown. 2) Studio/bachelor downtown. 3) Get a 1B just east or west of downtown, for the same cost as midtown.

I've lived midtown before, and didn't really warm to the commute or the city. Then I moved to downtown east, got a proper urban experience, and became a Toronto-phile for life!
 
One thing that may affect your calculations is the cost of a Metropass. If you buy a year's worth in advance, you can get a small discount
 
Ryan_T said:
- Commuting by Car: $300 parking + $360 gas /month + 30 minutes
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Car costs are a lot more than just gas and parking. Insurance, depreciation, maintenance - all of which goes way up if you are driving the car a good distance every day, rather than just parking it in the garage. Better yet, give up the car and use a car share.
 
nfitz said:
Car costs are a lot more than just gas and parking. Insurance, depreciation, maintenance - all of which goes way up if you are driving the car a good distance every day, rather than just parking it in the garage. Better yet, give up the car and use a car share.
Click to expand...

I love my car, so those costs are accounted for as an existing expense. I'll be keeping the car regardless, but additional costs for gas and parking will come if I choose to drive to work.
 
I do feel sorry for those poor souls driving into the city when I leave Cabbagetown on my drive to Markham each morning. Door to door in 35 mins for me and it must be 2 hours for those going the other way.
 
I found a GO Train route very close to where I live now. So I'll probably wait for some sanity to come back to rental rates before I move down. For now, I can sleep/read/daydream on the train for 40 minutes every morning. A commute is much more tolerable if I don't have to drive.

I'm gonna miss my 1-2 second commute. Ah well. :p
 
Ryan_T said:
...So I'll probably wait for some sanity to come back to rental rates before I move down....
Click to expand...

LOL, good luck with that. I can't think of even one reason why rental prices in Toronto, especially central Toronto, would do anything but continue to rise well above the rate of inflation. If rents in central Toronto are insane for any reason, it's because they've been too low for years and are only starting to reflect market appetite.

Nonetheless, good luck w/ the GO commute, it sounds like a decent compromise for now. You might enjoy living downtown more in a few years, if you're further along in your career and less budget-constrained.
 
Ryan_T said:
I love my car, so those costs are accounted for as an existing expense. I'll be keeping the car regardless, but additional costs for gas and parking will come if I choose to drive to work.
Click to expand...
I love my car too. But when my mileage a year doubles or trebles, my insurance goes up. My repairs go up. My tires get replaced more often. I lose more windscreens. I have more accidents (seems there's one every 5 to 10 years). And I have to replace my car more frequently. I was just looking at the car maintenance expenses that were all piled up in the glovebox. It's startling how much my annual mileage has dropped ... and how infrequent servicing is.
 
UserNameToronto said:
LOL, good luck with that. I can't think of even one reason why rental prices in Toronto, especially central Toronto, would do anything but continue to rise well above the rate of inflation. If rents in central Toronto are insane for any reason, it's because they've been too low for years and are only starting to reflect market appetite.

Nonetheless, good luck w/ the GO commute, it sounds like a decent compromise for now. You might enjoy living downtown more in a few years, if you're further along in your career and less budget-constrained.
Click to expand...


Link to this article on rents in New York City, at this link.

In March (2012), the firm found, the average rent in Manhattan — now $3,418 a month — surpassed the all-time high set in the real estate frenzy of 2007.
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When Ms. Barrocas, 26, first found her one-bedroom apartment with views of the East River on the 19th floor of a Murray Hill apartment building in 2010, it cost $2,550 a month. She and her boyfriend quickly signed up for a two-year lease.
Click to expand...

Rental averages are up in every category, with one-bedrooms rising the most, by 6.5 percent over the past year, to $2,747, according to the Citi Habitats report. Studios rose 3.6 percent, to $1,953; two-bedrooms climbed by 6.1 percent, to $3,865; and three-bedrooms rose 4 percent, to $5,107.
Click to expand...

The couple settled on a two-bedroom apartment at 100 Jay Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn. They paid just over $1 million, putting 25 percent down, and recently moved in. Their monthly outlay is $4,250, which covers their mortgage, common charge and taxes
Click to expand...
 
W. K. Lis said:
Link to this article on rents in New York City, at this link.
Click to expand...

+1. I'm paying the equivalent of $2,200/mo for a 400 sqft apartment in the centre of another "world class" city. Wages in this city are about the same as they are in Toronto (a bit different from NYC, where salaries are about 20% higher vs. Toronto).

So yeah, anyone who thinks $1600/mo for a new 600sqft condo in downtowon Toronto is "insane" is correct...it's insanely cheap!
 
UserNameToronto said:
LOL, good luck with that. I can't think of even one reason why rental prices in Toronto, especially central Toronto, would do anything but continue to rise well above the rate of inflation. If rents in central Toronto are insane for any reason, it's because they've been too low for years and are only starting to reflect market appetite.

Nonetheless, good luck w/ the GO commute, it sounds like a decent compromise for now. You might enjoy living downtown more in a few years, if you're further along in your career and less budget-constrained.
Click to expand...

I was hoping for the influx of rental inventory into the market in the next few years to stabilize prices.

You're right though, Toronto is still cheap compared to Chicago and NYC.
 
This is a tough one. It's not just about dollars and cents. You would be taking a huge quality of life hit by commuting that much.
 
You're right, and I agonize over the decision still.

40 minutes each way on the GO Train. I can read/sleep/stare out the window. Not something I don't already do every the morning at my desk at home. On the other hand, the job is much more challenging with huge learning potentials for me. That's both good and bad, but if going to jump and swim with the sharks, might as well do it while I'm young enough.
 
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