Moving to Ontario

can't say much about prices, but kitchener/waterloo is a nice area

kitchener has a big octoberfest celebration, not to far away is stratford and the stratford festival theatre, guelph is near by, it's a university town

nice rural areas north of all those towns

I drove through this area 18 years ago. I remember the humidity and the beautiful trees et al.
My exes family came from the Guelph area, his cousin's kindergarten teacher was Robert Munsch. That's pretty cool.
My brother lives in Ottawa.
What I need is cost of living info. My husband is bargaining on a salary and I'm interested if I will be able to get a job as well.

ceili :
i assume you googled already ... but if you haven`t ...

http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enCA233CA233&q=toronto+job+market

toronto and kitchener-waterloo are probably as different as any other small-large city . people living in kitchener will often drive into toronto for work .
ehbeth LOVES living and working in toronto . if possible live close to your place of work or you`ll spend hours commuting . at least live close to public transportation .
IF you love lots of variety of ANY KIND !!! toronto is the plaace to be .
i believe it`s the most diverse city in the world .

see these comments :
http://musplayer.blogspot.com/2007/07/toronto-worlds-most-diverse-city.html

Loved the blogspot.

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Here's a few more links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York,_Ontario

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchener,_Ontario

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo,_Ontario

I’m in Durham Region " just east of Toronto. I drive right downtown for work. It takes between 45 and 60 minutes most days, and that’s about the limit I’d consider, though some folks I work with spend a little longer, say, an hour and a half all in, by GO train. They don’t seem to mind it. They sleep, or read.

Gas at the local station close to home was 99.9 at 5:00 p.m. today. It’s a Petro Canada station, and you’d be able to find it a penny or two cheaper elsewhere in the city. But an hour north and east, it’s considerably cheaper (I’ve seen it a dime less)… so it goes.

Ontario’s HUGE " and housing prices vary wildly. Even in old Toronto, York and the GTA, you’ll see crazy variations, depending on neighbourhood.

Here’s a link to Realtor.ca

If you pick your area, say York, Ontario and your price range, you’ll get an idea what 300 " 400 will get you.

http://www.mls.ca/index.aspx

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll spend some time reading it all.

You will find housing prices in the Kitchener/Waterloo area to be much lower than those in Vancouver. Gas is currently in the 97ø - $1.00 per litre range.

Job prospects are not good. Certainly, it depends on the type of job you are looking for and your qualifications. A lot of people who used to make say $50 - $70,000.00 are taking minimum paying jobs if they can find them. This is in most places.

The weather is much more diverse than Vancouver, but since you have lived in Edmonton you will find our winters a bit milder but more humid than Alberta.

You will find housing prices better outside of Toronto and there has been quite a bit of new home building in Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, Brantford, Hamilton, Burlington and many other areas.

I went to school in K-W. You'd pretty much have to put a gun to my head to get me to go back there. I'm not a fan of the landscape or the community. I don't do flat well, in either circumstance.

York could mean quite a few different things in terms of Toronto. East York, North York, then there's old York Region (I don't think it exists other than as a ward anymore).

Go to gasbuddy.com to check out the gas prices. Great site.

http://gasbuddy.com/

Depending on the precise location you pick, house prices can vary enormously. My house would be $100,000 more 3 blocks south of where I live, $30,000 less 1.5 blocks north, close to $700,000 more about 15 blocks south.

Toronto's got water, which was one of my problems with K-W. You can sink in a boat in Columbia Lake in Waterloo and only be up to your waist in water in the deep end. The beaches at both ends of Toronto are lovely, with good access. You could do much worse than to live near joeblow - she's got it made in the shade in terms of water access. Gorgeous area.

I transit to work in downtown Toronto. About 20 minutes in once I've walked to the subway, usually about 5 minutes longer going back. I made access to 24 hour public transit a condition when I was looking for a house.

There seems to be plenty of work in Toronto - help wanted signs/ads everywhere you turn. From retail on up.

That’s a good point re: “York.” I presumed Ceili meant the old city, prior to amalgamation.

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Property taxes in Toronto aren’t that high apparently compared to other regions.

On a 350,000 home, the annual property tax in Toronto would be $2,991.73. There’s a handy tax calculator on the city’s website:

http://wx.toronto.ca

In Kitchener it looks like the taxes on a 350,000 home would run you 4838.22 (if I did the math right. Their website lists the tax rate as 0.0138235). Other areas can be even higher.

York Region

http://www.york.ca/About+Us/York+Region+Facts/default+York+Region+Facts.htm

just in case that's what your husband meant. Not as good as Toronto (to my way of thinking), but still better than K-W in terms of landscape.

Regarding York, I assumed it was the area of T.O.
Interesting info, thanks so much. This may all be for naught, but I really do appreciate all the help.

Let us know how it goes ... or if you're coming along for a look-see at some point ... it would be great to meet you. I think Setanta would probably stop breathing at the idea of meeting the sweat-er girl

Ha ha. Yeah, I'll definitely let you know. I'd love to meet both of you as well.