Mauro Quattrochi faces a decision shared by many in Toronto: commit to a “wallet-filled life in the city, or an almost equally expensive car life outside of it?”
Quattrochi, an engineer who lives in downtown Toronto, says the cost of his condo’s mortgage will skyrocket after renovation next year.
“We are looking at the barrel of an economic weapon,” Quattrochi told CTV News Toronto.
She wants to start a family with her partner, “but with the costs of food, childcare and daily life in general,” the path forward for the couple is not so clear.
It’s a dilemma shared by Toronto residents (both renters and homeowners) amid skyrocketing costs.
According to a new report from real estate listings site Zoocasa, the cost of living in Toronto increased almost 20 per cent between 2017 and 2022, pushing the average home price in nearly half of Toronto’s neighborhoods to more of $2 million.
The condo in downtown Quattrochi can be seen above. (Distribute)
If prices rise an average of 5.6 percent annually between now and then, in just ten years, the median value for all homes in the city will be $2 million, the company projects.
Homeowners aren’t alone in the fight either: renters are feeling the crunch, too. Between 2016 and 2021, average rental prices in Ontario increased by almost 30 per cent. Since the average two-bedroom apartment in Toronto currently costs just over $3,000 a monthsome renters look elsewhere.
But the decision to leave the city isn’t easy for everyone: Moving to the suburbs or a smaller city requires a lifestyle change.
“Most small towns look the same,” Quattrochi said. “A sea of suburbs, a downtown strip of 20th-century two-story buildings, a sprawling industrial district, smart centers and highways, highways, highways.”
Bay and Front streets in downtown Toronto (CP PHOTO/Kevin Frayer)
Born and raised in Toronto, Brad Burgess left city life with his wife late last year and bought a home in the Maritimes.
In late 2023, Burgess said they were served with an eviction notice, forcing them out of their more than decade-long rental in Danforth.
Re-entering the property market for the first time in more than 10 years, Burgess, who was working as an assistant Crown attorney at the time, said he and his wife were “shocked” by the price of a comparable unit.
“To rent, we would probably be looking at more than $3,000 and I wasn’t willing to pay that amount. “It’s outrageous,” Burgess said in an interview. “And then to buy a house, I don’t think we would have been able to change anything in the city, maybe in the GTA, but we would be homeless.
“And I would have to travel downtown every day.”
So Burgess returned with his wife to the province of his childhood, New Brunswick, and bought a house in Moncton that was mortgage-free.
“What I don’t miss, number one, is the outrageous cost of living and number two, the crime,” he said.
“What I miss is being able to walk out the door of my house and have everything there. We lived on Danforth, so you could walk to little bars, restaurants, grocery stores, whatever. Whereas here you have to drive everywhere.”
Danforth Avenue can be seen above. (Broadview Danforth BIA/Facebook)
Petya Stavreva, another lifelong Toronto resident, moved to Alberta last August, she told CTV News.
Before moving, Stavreva had rented an apartment with her husband in the city; “It was a one-bedroom basement apartment, 500 square feet, no real windows,” she said.
They wanted to buy a house, but property in the city was out of reach. “So it really didn’t take long to make the decision and execute it.”
The couple loaded up their car and headed to Edmonton “without a second thought.”
They now live 20 minutes from downtown in a five-bedroom house with a backyard. His mortgage payments, she said, only cost them $200 more than their previous rent payments. “In Toronto, this was simply impossible to achieve,” Stavreva said.
Petya Stavreva can be seen above alongside her husband (Handout)
“We took a giant risk and left everything we knew, our friends and some family, to start a new life. “I would never, ever, ever go back to Toronto,” he continued.
“Life is too short to spend it living like this, it’s not worth it.”