Toronto: downtown or suburb with young family

JohnBee

Hi all. I am going to ask yet again what seems to be the eternal question!

We (family of soon to be 5 with a children aged 5, 3, and a newborn) will be moving to Toronto. I will be working downtown near the University of Toronto.

Our needs are: near to University, with a good school and close to amenities.

The convenience of downtown includes walking to work, apartment blocks with pools and roof gardens (which would be good with young kids).

Disadvantage: no garden, lack of community etc, and perhaps no access to schools.

Any thoughts? Anyone living downtown with children of school age to give advice?

Thanks!

COYVB

I'm slightly biased, but I'd absolutely hate to live downtown. It's congested, has the worst traffic in North America and is just far too hectic for my own personal preferences. Given that the university is pretty central, it's a piece of cake to get there on rail, by subway or by bus. I'd recommend the first two ahead of bus, because of the traffic issues I mentioned.

Living downtown also comes with astronomical rent. You'll pay twice, often three times, as much as you would if you looked for somewhere even 30 minutes away by subway (trains are every 5-7 minutes for most of the day). I believe the way schools are done here are that you have to send your kids to a local school, you couldn't, for example, live downtown and send the kids to a school half an hour away if there are closer ones available with vacancies, unless you wanted to go the private route, which will cost you about the same as a decent car every year.

If you opt to stick to the subway line, you've got plenty of options for nice places to live. North York would be the pick of the bunch for me. It's relatively crime free and has plenty of nice amenities. Avoid Scarborough and anything west of Spadina though.

Alternatively you could take a look a bit further afield with the Go Train line as your guide. Ajax, Pickering and Whitby are all fine places to live, and you'd rent a house with all your utilities and have change left over from the cost of downtown renting. The commute time is increased though, and you don't have as much frequency to or from the downtown core (I'm a bit further east in Oshawa, and trains run once an hour in non-rush hour, and twice an hour between 6.30-9.30am and 3.30-6.30pm, give or take)

Your finances will really dictate what's best for you, but you'll get yourself a house and utilities for about $1700 a month if you look east or west on the Go Train line, compared to something similar for a decent sized apartment downtown, likely without utilities

JohnBee

Thanks for such a quick reply!

PS I should also clarify that my job will have very irregular hours, including 7am and 6.30am starts, with nights and weekend work.

How does that influence things? Easy access to downtown with minimal transit is of prime importance!

COYVB

Given the early starts, you're pretty much ruled out of anything on the Go Train line, so I'd recommend looking at something on the subway route. First service is at 601am on weekdays, 604am on saturdays and 903am on sundays, with last service southbound at 154am and northbound at 134am (all times are from yonge/bloor station, which is considered the main one given that it's got both lines on it)

You'd realistically have to be no further than say 15 minutes away from the downtown core to make it there in those times though

Do you drive? Would a car be an option? You'd be able to save a fair bit on both commuting and rent if you were independently mobile, but it's not an option for everyone I appreciate