[manishsharan]

Neither. I had to do it all over again, I would buy a detached house in the middle of boondocks ( like Mississauga, Brampton , Vaughn ,Markham , Richmond hill etc. ) . The supply of detached houses is limited whereas condos in Toronto are growing like weed. The detached houses have grown more in value and they are not encumbered with maintenance fees.

[OldSchoolJohnny]

Detached houses could end up costing far more in maintenance. From experience.

[eekfuh]

One time maintenance fees versus monthly HOA fees that you are required to pay.

[mfringel]

That's true, but only in the most naïve sense.

A house starts falling apart as soon as it's put together... and it keeps falling it apart, and you have to keep putting it back together. The distribution of expenses is lumpier with a house than with a condo, but it's certanly an ongoing cash outflow.

[nasalgoat]

Toronto is mostly made up of 100-year-old brick houses, so the maintenance is mostly soft stuff like painting, gardening, etc. unless you do major renovations.

My last house I did, essentially, zero maintenance over a 10-year span except for a drain replacement ($2K). Every other expense was month to month expenses like heating and electrical.

When I finally decided to sell, I replaced the crappy carpet, painted the walls beige and made a 5x profit.

[jarek]

> Toronto is mostly made up of 100-year-old brick houses

That's true for inner Toronto but not for the suburbs as manishsharan suggested. Newer developer-built-subdivision wood-frame rules out there.

[nasalgoat]

Yeah, fair point. Mississauga mostly dates to the mid-70s and has some truly terrible construction.

[sanswork]

Most of those places are no longer really the boondocks(4 of the 5 are a 30 minute drive to the core) and are priced accordingly. You're going to have to go out to north of Whitby or north of Stouffville these days if you want a cheaper place.

[ska]

That's really a different and more difficult question. In many cities (like Toronto) living in the "boondocks" as you put it vs. downtown is a pretty fundamental lifestyle change.

This comparison at least narrows the variables a lot.

[branchless]

Yeah and I'd buy Apple. Let me know when you get the time machine.