denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
Member Bio
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2008
- Messages
- 7,472
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- Location
- Downtown Toronto, Ontario
Chicago is actually a LOT cheaper than Toronto. I mean A LOT. You can buy a 800sf condo for under 300K in near North Side with a lake view. Similar condo would cost $500K nowadays in Toronto. Car insurance is $800 a year, not $2500. Plus, similar jobs pay 20% more in Chicago.
NYC is also cheaper than Toronto, excluding housing, if you live a normal life, just because the economies of scale. Housing is a different story as NYC is a different league. You pay a premium for living in truly world cities. A friend of mine moved Toronto from Boston, one of the most expensive cities in the US, and find Toronto to be a lot pricier. Everything costs 20% more, with much less discounts, and 13% sales tax vs 6.25%.
I often wonder why Toronto is so expensive for what is actually offers. I am single, so there is not much pressure. However, for those middle income working families, who make $70-80K year, one third would go to income tax, 13% goes to HST, how can the remaining money be sufficient to buy much for the daily necessities, not to mention $450k "median priced" homes? Canada often claim to offer superior "quality of life", but I just fail to see it. Most households hardly have any money left at the end of month. I know money is not everything, but underestimating it is dead wrong too.
I don't think there will be an exodus either, as not everyone is 24 and can simply move everywhere he wants. They have families, established social network etc. There is visa issues, as you can't just pack up and move to the US or Europe to work there. Most will stay, and new people will come as Canada is still one of the easiest countries to immigrate to.
To relate this to the thread, torotno is impossible to get around. Chicago is so easy, never more then 10 min from a L stop by bus. Or 15 min by walk.