Housing is getting expensive, but most Cost of Living indexes put NYC/SF 30%+ higher than Toronto proper, and areas around Toronto are still somewhat affordable.
I don't think there are any US Cities where the price of a house or condo doubled to tripled during the pandemic. There is no where in NA where the price of a house is rising at approx 2k a week, The average price of a house in Toronto is predicted to rise by 100k this year. It isn't just Toronto anymore, actually Toronto is super affordable. The prices across the province especially in areas outside of Toronto that have been historically low have sky rocketed. King Township average price is like 2.6 million.
Seriously? You're saying that condos in downtown San Francisco can be had for under $500k? You can most likely find a condo in downtown Toronto for that price. Housing prices in Toronto are nowhere near the SF Bay Area. Geography constrains West Coast cities in a way that simply doesn't apply to Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa. There is still plenty of farm land in the GTA waiting to be developed. The distance between Hamilton and Toronto is similar to the distance between San Francisco and San Jose. You can still find houses for under $500k in Hamilton.
I've lived in both Bay Area and Toronto. Toronto has become absurdly expensive. You can get a 3-4 bedroom modern townhouse in Dublin/Pleasanton for 850K USD. It's common for a senior software engineer to make 200-230K. You can't buy an equivalent housing in Toronto for 850K CAD. Crappy townhouses in Richmond Hill go for 900K - 1M+ and similar housing will be 1.2 - 1.4M. it's also extremely difficult to make 200K+ CAD in Toronto (senior engineers make ~140K). A relative of mine does mortgages so has accurate statistics on how much people make.
Toronto tried it. The city is full of ugly, ugly towers. This has made traffic much worse and the public transit system is a pain to navigate. The craziness of traffic made condos right next to the subway much more desirable than 15 minutes away (the last place I lived in had 700K condos for a two bedroom, 40 minutes from Union station). No silver bullet.
That said, I've almost had it with high housing prices. 900K for a crap hole starter home in Sunnyvale does not make sense to me. Unaffordable housing prices are starting to make me want to go to the bottle :'( Curious how other people are dealing with it?
Housing in Toronto goes up 2k a week. The average price is over 1 million. Unless you inherit Grandmas house, you aren't buying shit on your salary in Toronto. The crisis is now spilling over to all of Ontario. I don't even know what you have to bring home after taxes to save up for a down payment. Most houses are well over 1 million. The house I bought in 2005 for $440k could fetch around 1.2 million today with multiple bids and I guarantee that it will be torn down so a new home can be built on the lot. A new home in my area goes for 2.5 plus million and they can't build them fast enough.
Toronto's property market is insane. I am still seeing condos (e.g. Gibson near North York center) being priced at 600K+ for 1+1 and larger units well over 1 million dollars. Not sure who can afford this.
Places as far as Vaughan and Milton are expensive. We're talking decent detached houses (slightly above starter home) for over 1 million.
I live in Toronto and have to say the real estate prices here have been the puzzle of my life. They are going up even now, still under lockdowns and significantly reduced immigration in-flow. Tiny unliveable condos bought to rent out lost a few percents, everything else keeps going up
Toronto is more expensive to live in than Vancouver? I think you have it backwards. Real estate, rent, food prices are all significantly higher in Van-city.
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