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I grew up in Brooklyn (left N.Y. in 1974) and my wife and I met in NYC over 40 years ago. My wife and I have lived in Chicago for 38 years, but we are now thinking about moving back to the East Coast. We are both 60 and in a very active retirement. The cities we are considering are Greater NY, Greater D.C., and Greater Toronto. She has relatives in N.Y and Toronto, while my family is in N.Y.
Since we are in retirement, we will be living on our retirement savings so we are looking for a modest home (could be condo, co-op, town house, etc.) in a clean and safe neighborhood but one that has lots of activity. We like walking through the Lincoln Park area in Chicago where there are coffee houses, book stores, lots of shops and a highly diverse environment. We enjoy sports (especially tennis and table tennis), Bridge, dancing, going to music spots, and socializing with progressive/independent people.
We are going to visit Toronto soon to see family and and friends, and we are wondering which areas should we visit? Any ideas, suggestions, warnings, etc. would be highly appreciated. If you can give us a range of what we might be looking for annual expenses (we live very modestly) it would also help a lot. Thanks for the help!
Do you want city or suburbs (I'm guessing city). What are you looking for in an area? What do you like to do? I can tell you the areas I like (The Beach, The Danforth, Leaside, Bloor West Village, High Park) but they may not appeal to you.
Real estate in Toronto is expensive even for a simple house (check www.mls.ca). My last house (a 1000 sq. ft. post war bungalow is now worth $500,000. It's in a fairly nice area.
One last thing to consider, if you're both American you will have to immigrate to Canada which is not a simple or quick process. The fact that you have realtives there might help, especially if your wife's parents were born in Canada.
I hope that helps!
PS Parkdale is grittier and probably has a higher crime rate but some people lkike it due to its character and Victorian homes.
Last edited by adventuregurl; 03-11-2012 at 11:12 AM..
AdventureGirl is giving great advice here. You should check it out.
Some tips: You will likely want to live on a Subway line. Anyone advertising "10 minute bus ride" to subway really means a 40 minute in real-time bus ride. Having been to Chicago & New York, I can tell you that Toronto's public transit system is amongst the worst in North America once you get off the 3 Subway lines.
Also, Not only is our real estate much more expensive than you may be used to but everything else is too - utilities, etc. My advice would be to rent a home and live in it for a year before committing. Toronto really is a city of neighbourhoods and you have to find the right one for you. My personal pick for my parents would be the distillery district or yonge/eglinton, for instance. Good luck!
Thanks for all of the very helpful information so far. We are currently living in Lincoln Park/Lakeview in Chicago which has a very diverse population of all ages, races, ethnicity and we very much like this. My wife has dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship and we are no looking into the process for me to obtain permanent residence status.
What we like to do:
1) Diverse progressive/independent neighbors and fairly large and active population of all ages.
2) Walking around visiting shops and parks, bicycle paths, tennis and table tennis, dancing, Bridge, music
3) Shopping at Whole Foods or equivalent (a must)
4) Asian food (my wife is Chinese)
5) Alternative medicine doctors
6) Education is not an issue since our son has graduated
7) Moderate housing costs - probably looking for about 1500 sq. ft. condo, coop, townhouse.
Hope this information helps explain the type of living we are looking for. Thanks again for all of the very helpful information.
Don't know how much you are looking to spend on your housing, but an area I think you would love would be High Park. It is very expensive, though.
Housing budget for us is a tough question. The more a neighborhood offers, the less we need to spend in order to keep life exciting. A nice international population always helps with lots of good music, theatre, dancing, and restaurants.
We can probably purchase a house for about $400,000 if taxes are reasonable. We could go higher if the location is just right.
The Yonge & Sheppard area would fit your bill IMO. Will have a Whole Foods in 2013 at the Hullmark Centre (currently under construction), has many Japanese / Korean / Chinese / Thai restaurants in the immediate vicinity, and has a fairly big Chinese community there as well as other cultures. Very walkable and good transportation options (subway) in the neighborhood.
400K would get you a condo apartment in the area. 400K will not get you much more elsewhere in Toronto, and not with the amenities you are asking for (you will not find this in Leaside, Bloor West Village, Beaches that were mentioned earlier).
Thank you all for the great information. I have already begun my research in the areas you suggested. I was also looking into Mississauga. Any comments on this city. It looks very nice from what I have read. Thanks again!
Most real 'toronto' people don't consider Mississauga as part of the city. I am not insulting Mississauga(uans?) but it's just so far and has so little true culture to it it's just not something most Torontonians visit except when flying out the airport. I couldn't imagine moving from Chicago to Mississauga, for instance. It's a nice little suburb, but that's what it is: a suburb.
Most real 'toronto' people don't consider Mississauga as part of the city. I am not insulting Mississauga(uans?) but it's just so far and has so little true culture to it it's just not something most Torontonians visit except when flying out the airport. I couldn't imagine moving from Chicago to Mississauga, for instance. It's a nice little suburb, but that's what it is: a suburb.
Agreed, I'd stay away from it myself, Port Credit is nice but pricey.
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