# Where best to buy a house for 140k close to Toronto?



## chaudi

What your opinion of the best town to buy a cheapy house? It should be 'close' to Toronto, 60-90 minutes. Doesn't seem to be much in this price range. So far i see south St Catherines are a few from 110-150k that look decent but i get the feeling that area is not so good around the university? 
The other area i am more excited about is Midland i want to ask your opinions on this area. It think the nature and outdoor actives are excellent in this area. My feeling is that this is the direction Ontario will grow. Georgian bay is world class and much nice that lake Simcoe or Lake Ontario.
Looks like the towns near by are nice too, Port Mcnicoll, victoria harbour. Hwy 400 goes straight up here seems like a good point to get back to TO. So seems like the best value is this area.


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## Spudd

What about Hamilton? House prices there seem very cheap. 

You can just go to realtor.ca, type in "Toronto, ON" in the where to look field. Once you're in map view change the type of dwelling to "house", and zoom out until you find houses. 

I don't know much about Midland. According to Google Maps that's 2 hours from Toronto so it wouldn't meet your criteria. 

One of my co-workers lives in Barrie and she drives into work at 6am every day to beat the traffic, and it still takes over an hour.


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## marina628

you can buy a NEWER 2 bedroom 1 bathroom condo in Bowmanville for that price , there are homes in Oshawa for that price but not in the best areas.My friend owns the condo in Aspen springs Bowmanville and she pays $192 a month maintenance and includes everything except her phone.


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## chaudi

Ya i could never deal with a condo. I need a house, just they way i was brought up i guess, i'm sure about that at least. As you probably know there are very few decent houses for rent in Ontario, since i have the cash it makes no sense paying $800 a month for 100k houses to someone else. Or a $1000 a month for 150k house. 
Midland and Penataguashing is only 90 minutes or 130km or so. Important part here is the good quality roads will make all the difference. I only planning on coming to TO every 2 weeks or maybe once a week. I figure 90 mins each way is maximum for a reasonable day visit with return. I wouldn't dream of commuting so far.
I figure i might move to the most natural and beautiful place that i can do some boating, fishing etc Hamilton just won't be on the radar. It seems most of these small town have their pros and cons. I was considering Niagara before but now i realize this area is not so clean and not so prosperous. This is more or less the same story all over south Ontario. 
Why settle for Niagara or Simcoe when pristine world class Georgian bay is available? The north as soon as you pass barrie feels different, it look prosperous up there, lots of new houses and wealthy cottagers. Very clean. I mean if the houses goes up or what ever it doesn't really matter until i sell which i hopefully will be never. It always nice to see some capital gains but maybe fast growing town is not so good in many ways, changes too fast. 
It's not hard to make a case for small towns with excellent nature around them, cities like Toronto are declining, i think in the future, like in the USA, people will want to move to the country and small towns to avoid smog and crime. I am surprised that RE is so reasonable around there which is basically prime cottage country. I was going to *check this one* tomorrow, but apparently there is an offer already.


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## marina628

If you are only coming to the city once a week you have lots of flexibility with location .ORILLIA area may find something,just get out and drive around you may find something that way.


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## Nemo2

marina628 said:


> If you are only coming to the city once a week you have lots of flexibility with location .ORILLIA area may find something,just get out and drive around you may find something that way.


I was just (back) up in Orillia two weeks ago......the main street was buzzing....festivals, and there's always something going on by the shore at Cooch (Lake Couchiching)....hadn't been there for maybe eight years, and it's improving.


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## mind_business

The area I live in (Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph), $140,000 will only buy you an older apartment, run-down attached, or a very run down detached house. This area is probably the farthest radius for your search. The small towns around these larger centres also have strong property values. A 1970's, 1000SF bungalow in decent shape, on a 45'x 100' lot, will run you at least $230,000 - $290,000.


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## andrewf

You have champagne dreams on a Colt 45 budget, my friend. Try Windsor...


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## HaroldCrump

You keep starting new threads every few months, asking the same question in different words.
You are looking for a cheap house - _we get it_.
What you are asking for does not exist, no matter how you phrase your post.

There are areas where you can get cheap houses, yes.
But they are cheap for a reason.
You can always choose to accept the reason, and buy there since price seems to be your primary factor.
You can get $140K houses in Windsor, Hamilton, Chatham, etc.

BTW, 60 - 90 mins. drive from Toronto is'nt much.
You are probably not even 50 kms. outside the city of Toronto boundaries, depending on the time of your drive.


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## the-royal-mail

Exactly Harold. And this is about the 3rd thread like this the OP has started in the month of June alone. If you check the OP's history you will see this goes back years. In fact when I got up this morning and saw this thread title I had correctly predicted who started it, before I even confirmed it. I think the OP is just yanking our chain, amazing that so many people continue to fall for it.


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## cedebe

Based on the OP's signature line, maybe he's just a spammer?


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## the-royal-mail

Great catch cedebe! I think you may be right. How else can you explain this? The OP keeps asking the same sorts of questions over and over and using this as the chance to post spam via sig file is a sneaky way of getting past the mods.


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## chaudi

This is not the same question(s), you are being paranoia, toronto-beaches is not a commercial site, this CMforum is rather unknown, i could spam somewhere else with much better results. Why would i bother here?


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## Sampson

I have little to contribute to this thread - either to the perception of the OP, or to the topic. But I will make one suggestion.

Find a realtor who covers Southern Ontario region. They, better than anyone here will be able to provide suggestions of 'decent' communities will housing requirements and budgets fitting your needs.


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## marymouse

Real estate agents are not always objective and I don't see what the problem everyone is having with this person asking for help. It can take 1st time buyers years to figure out where best to invest - esp in this unstable financial environment. Isnt this what this real estate forum is for - asking for advice ??? 

If people are bored of what seems like the same question, just move on - stop making a federal case out of it.

Midland seems to me like an area that will most likely improve in value.


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## Rusty O'Toole

Port Hope is a nice little town and has some decent houses in your price range. Some do not like it because of the Eldorado Nuclear plant on the lake shore.

Next along the 401 is Cobourg which tends to be higher priced. Nothing in town for you there.

Next Colborne, very quiet and rural feeling, even cheaper prices. Probably the cheapest on this list.

Next Brighton, I like Brighton it is a nice town and near Presquile Park and boating, recreation etc. I have 2 nice 3 bedroom 1 bath houses there, both bought last year for under $150,000.

All within 90 minutes of Toronto, Port Hope is within 60 minutes of Toronto.

If you are willing to buy outside of town prices are lower in rural areas.


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## kcowan

I think the OP is underestimating the time to get out of Toronto. Maybe on 400 north of the airport, he can get to Midland in 90 minutes, but my friend with a sailboat there takes over 2 hours, leaving from The Beach. I know because we did it last summer on Saturday to look at a new sailboat moored there. Forunately it was a cloudy weekend so there was not much traffic around Toronto.


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## chaudi

Thanks for your replies. I am pretty sure it's gonna be Midland or one of the small townships near by. My friend say i should live in Midland because the winters are brutal and it will be too boring/lonely in the small villages which are more like a cottage area. So i am still struggling with this decision. I think it would better to be near trees and just drive to midland (10km.)
Your right cowan about the drive. There is big difference if you want to get to downtown TO which or North Toronto off the 401. The good things is the 400 hwy i think is probably the best hwy in Ontario, straight north very easy drive imo. Driving 110-120km/hr helps and assume is legal since last time a opp cruiser just rolled by me going even faster.
Anyways if anyone has insider knowledge about this area please let me know. There is a lot of development planned in that area, actually massive in port nicolle for what i can tell. So i am unsure if this is good or bad thing really? Taxes may go up and peace may go down. Also if a bunch of new houses flood the market may push my house value down?
Needless to say i am concerned about this predicted housing crash. On one hand people may move out of the city to live cheaper or they may be downsizing and selling their second homes up north. Seems like a lot of homes for sale up there.


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## MoneyGal

chaudi said:


> Seems like a lot of homes for sale up there.


I am pretty familiar with that market. You should check how long those homes sit on the market before sale and the average sale prices over time for comparable properties. I wouldn't personally assume above-average rates of growth for Midland or Penetang in the foreseeable future. Also. Have you spent any time using the 400 to get where you are going at the times you are likely to want to be using it? The 400 can be a brutally slow drive.

(I spent more than a decade commuting to job sites in Penetang and Midland, on Christian Island, along the Moon River at Hwy 69, in and around Orillia, etc.)


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## Four Pillars

Why wouldn't you just rent to "try out" some of the areas for a while. Pretty risky to move to an area you aren't familiar with and buy a house in what is likely to be a slow real estate market.


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## Homerhomer

chaudi said:


> Thanks for your replies. I am pretty sure it's gonna be Midland or one of the small townships near by. My friend say i should live in Midland because the winters are brutal and it will be too boring/lonely in the small villages which are more like a cottage area. So i am still struggling with this decision. I think it would better to be near trees and just drive to midland (10km.)
> Your right cowan about the drive. There is big difference if you want to get to downtown TO which or North Toronto off the 401. The good things is the 400 hwy i think is probably the best hwy in Ontario, straight north very easy drive imo. Driving 110-120km/hr helps and assume is legal since last time a opp cruiser just rolled by me going even faster.
> Anyways if anyone has insider knowledge about this area please let me know. There is a lot of development planned in that area, actually massive in port nicolle for what i can tell. So i am unsure if this is good or bad thing really? Taxes may go up and peace may go down. Also if a bunch of new houses flood the market may push my house value down?
> Needless to say i am concerned about this predicted housing crash. On one hand people may move out of the city to live cheaper or they may be downsizing and selling their second homes up north. Seems like a lot of homes for sale up there.


Midland is not 90 minutes from Toronto, all you have to do is look at mapquest to figure out it's two hours with not traffic (that's in the middle of the night) and even longer if you go downtown, with traffic I would safely assume it would be a bout three hours, and then there is the winter factor. Probably driving to Barrie and taking GO would make sense, however if you commute often the time and money wasted on travel would outweigh most of the savings you had on the purchase price.


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## HaroldCrump

The OP just doesn't get it.
90 mins. drive from downtown Toronto during the rush hrs. (which is approx. 18 out of 24 hrs.) barely gets you 40 kms. out of Toronto city boundaries.
MG can easily beat that on her bicycle, while eating her supper and posting on CMF _at the same time_ ;o)


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## Toronto.gal

marymouse said:


> If people are bored of what seems like the same question, just move on - stop making a federal case out of it.


Contribution: 1 post in a year and it starts with a lecture, LOL.


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## Sampson

Toronto.gal said:


> Contribution: 1 post in a year and it starts with a lecture, LOL.


I think we have an unconventional, albeit relatively successful, way of moderating ourselves. I'm guilty as the next of 'enforcing' when perhaps we should be more tolerant, but really, the topics on this forum are pretty diverse compared to most, and to have the same points/questions asked over and over and over.

If they were different posters, I think we would all be more tolerant.


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## Four Pillars

Sampson said:


> If they were different posters, I think we would all be more tolerant.


Of course, but it's not. It's the same guy with the same question receiving the same answers time and time again.

As far as distance to and from T.O. - the day/time and exact location would help. Are we talking about getting to Pearson for mid-day? or downtown in the morning rush? Or Highway 7 on the weekend? something else?


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## Four Pillars

Toronto.gal said:


> Contribution: 1 post in a year and it starts with a lecture, LOL.


Lol - How did I miss her post? 

She might want to check out Chaudi's post history before commencing the lecture.


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## Sherlock

There's a lot of space between the boundary of markham and stoufville, why don't they fill all that with houses?


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## kcowan

Sherlock said:


> There's a lot of space between the boundary of markham and stoufville, why don't they fill all that with houses?


There is an issue of sewage capacity and the first subdivision has to eat the entire cost. This helps keep costs of housing high. And the rules have changed for septic tanks (you need room for 2 complete tile beds and that limits minimum property size).


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## Cal

^ Also some of the space in the Major Mack area is designated as green space. No building there. However I have no doubts that Stouffville will continue to grow in size and population.


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## Brenner

With the latest RIMM cuts you may be able to find something in the KW area in this price range soon.


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## chaudi

Another question, i can't find any info but i assume you can unofficially live in your rec zoned property, 360+days a year? This place is a mixed area with some res. and some rec. As long as i don't apply for any new permits or expect mail delivery and few things like that.


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## hystat

go to mls.ca, residential, put your price range in, drag and size the window to the area you want and voila! 
The "best" neighbourhood for you is a personal choice- go look around and see if has the amenities you desire. 








I would offer that ^ area ^ as the 90 minute zone.


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