[Innsertnamehere]

^ not a terribly different experience than me, but move it from 2007 to 2013.

First year I lived in shitty student housing for dirt cheap, spitting distance from Hooker Harveys. Second year I upgraded to a shared tiny apartment with a buddy in West Queen West. Cost about 1/2 what it would today in rent. Spent days in classes, evenings biking around, hitting up dive bars in Chinatown, the Annex, and Dundas West.

I launched my professional career, and moved in with my now wife in a tiny 1 bed apartment which we were paying significantly more for than I paid for the 2 bed apartment just 3 years earlier.

I hadn't really planned on leaving when I first moved to Toronto. Prices were high, but not too crazy. You had to make some sacrifices to make it work, but it felt like a young working professional could still live relatively well. Buying a townhouse on the subway would have been a possibility given my career trajectory at that time. I recall seeing 3 bedroom stacked towns in the West Queen West area going for about $500k. Today those same units go for for 900-1mil.

Fast forward to today, and rent for a 1 bed apartment is more than most people's mortgages in more affordable markets. Salaries are barely higher than the rest of the province. I found myself going out less and less, so started questioning why I was doing it.

Made the call about a year ago to plan an exit path.. My wife is from the Hamilton area so we decided to do that. The city offers more than a typical suburb, still feels "urban", and doesn't come with the absurd costs.

Found a job late last fall, she followed suit, and made the move a few months ago. My mortgage on a detached house is less than what my university friends are paying for a 1 bed apartment a 35 minute subway ride from work. Just not worth it to me anymore.


I don't regret a day I spent in Toronto, and loved the years I spent there. I still go back regularly to hit up my favourite spots and just crash at friends for the night occasionally. The cost you pay to be in that energy is just too much though.