The Financial & Emotional Mechanics Of Leaving Toronto
My wife Heather and I recently went through the (unexpectedly painless) process of selling our house in Toronto and moving to what my friend Kevin Pashuk refers to as 'the quiet side of the lake", a small city called St Catharines, at the Northern end of the Niagara Peninsula. This is about the how and why of it.The Financial Mechanics
When I sent out my email regarding our recent relocation to St Catharines, I was surprised to see that relatively few people actually questioned the wisdom of leaving the big city for what is basically a miniature version of the big city.
This is primarily because a lot of the people we know in Toronto live in houses there and they realize that this is pretty much a prime time to make that decision to leave, because your house will probably never be worth a hell of a lot more than it is right now.
And if you move outside the circle of influence of this house price boom, which stretches west to as far as Stoney Creek and even Grimsby, you will still be able to get a great deal on a beautiful home.
Furthermore, with the price you get for your house in Toronto, you’ll be able to do whatever you want to add value to it. Because in a year or two that boom will stretch right to our own front door.
The second key factor in this decision was actually finding the right house. I work at home so I need a nice office and meeting place. And my wife is a miniaturist and needs a place to work and a workshop for all the tools of her craft. We wanted to live close to the lake, because we lived close to the lake in Toronto, and we wanted to have 2 separate places to watch TV, because I watch a lot more sports than she cares to.
The idea to look here was mine. But finding the house was Heather’s. She and my sister found it late in the fall. They brought me to see it a week later. And that was pretty much that.
And so began the process of buying and selling and the ordeal of moving, which I have detailed in several previous posts. Moving in the winter is never fun.
The Emotional Mechanics
My wife (who is a native Torontonian) has wanted to get out of Toronto ever since she can remember. I have only come to that feeling over the past few years, as I have seen Toronto turn into a typical big city. Lots of bad-ass people hurting and killing each other every night, traffic snarls that basically create an all day rush hour and time suck on your life if you’re trying to get literally anywhere.
I also believe that the things that are needed to keep Toronto from sliding into a state of complete dysfunction will raise the cost of living there tremendously over the long term.
These things bothered us both a lot.
On the other side of the coin, the people we like to hang out with the most are our family. My two sisters and brother all live down here on the peninsula and we’ll get to see them a lot more.
Last night we drove down to Fort Erie (25 minutes/virtually no traffic) for dinner at a great Chinese restaurant on the Niagara River with my sister Sharon and BIL Bob. We had a great time time and once it’s done we only have a short drive home.
We are in the process of creating a real guest area in our basement so my wife’s friends can come and stay and so can our kids. My daughter and her husband (Star & Ben) already have.
And because the house comes with a great salt water pool, the kids will show up regularly, because on the weekends it’s only an hour’s drive. Hell, it takes an hour to go anywhere inside Toronto these days, so where we live now is no biggie, distance wise.
In the next couple of years, the Go Train, which is our main commuter line will run right through here so getting into the city without driving will be even more comfortable than that bus/train ride than it is now.
This Is A Win Win Situation
The third factor and post script to this story is the fact that we have not for a single moment regretted any part of this decision.
It has been a hell of a lot of work and fairly stressful. But we are very happy with everything that has gone down so far.
We can get anywhere we want to go in this city in a matter of minutes, and down to Fort Erie in a fraction of the time it used to take from Toronto.
The people are friendly and the stores, at least the ones we have been in, are all great.
We are very close to other towns and the US border and are situated in one of the most beautiful geographic areas of Canada.
We are close to my family, which is really my wife’s family too.
Our kids are close to us and the frequency that we will see them will probably not change very much at all.
Our investment advisor thinks we have done a very smart thing at a very good time.
None of my clients were bothered in the least by the fact that we had decided to make this move. Everybody has Skype and meetings don't take as much time that way as they do in person.
I have identified a number of networking groups here where I can get to know the community and suss out local opportunities.
My wife has found miniature clubs in Buffalo and Niagara On The Lake (which is just down the street, so to speak)
And finally, I have a whole new city to explore on my bike.
So that’s it. Today, we made a list of things that we want to do and now all we have to do is find the tradespeople to help us do them.
After that it’s all about happily ever after, which has always been the objective.
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