Are You Crazy for Living in a Crazy Expensive City?
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Cities like New York, Toronto, London, and Sydney have extremely expensive housing not just because a lot of people want to live there - although that’s obviously true too - but because of dysfunctional housing policies that limit how much housing can be built. But given the unfortunate reality that these cities are very expensive, does it ever make financial sense to live in them? Are you crazy for trying to make it work instead of giving up and moving somewhere else with more reasonable housing costs?
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#urbanplanning #housingcrisis #newyork #toronto #london #sydney
For an imperfect but pretty good comparison of the cost-of-living between different cities, check out Numbeo: www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp
For salary comparisons between cities in the U.S., check out the Intuit Mint Salary Database: mint.intuit.com/salary/
Pro tip if ur american live on the mexican side and work on the freedom side
Great video! Transportation costs are such a big factor, its amazing how many people still live in a city like Toronto with a car. Could save a *lot* every month without!
What’s wild is that I remember us considering a monthly TTC pass “expensive” at $145 when we lived there ($156 now) because it was more expensive than the equivalent in Montreal. I don’t want to downplay that it is actually a burden for some people, but it’s all peanuts compared to car dependency.
Even being able to cut down to one car can be so liberating! A pet peeve of mine is when my wife and I meet somewhere after work and then have to drive home separately in two cars.
But ever since I started taking the train to work that’s stopped being an issue! And I’m sure the business we meet would be happy that we’re wasting less of their parking if they knew!
If you're in the suburbs or inner suburbs of Toronto for example North Etobicoke, you would spend far too much time trying to get into the core for work with transit (1.5hr each way). A car is still able to cut that into half almost. Toronto is a city that is 40 years behind in transit infrastructure.
wild RM Transit appears!
@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet unfortunately there's many backwards businesses where the opposite is true. It's not unheard of to be denied a position because you don't have access to a car.
What’s really sad about retail workers making so much less is that people will say “They’re not longterm jobs. People should work to get a new career, not stay in retail.” But when you’re in retail you’re hardly paid enough to access the basic necessities, so how are you meant to move up?
And if they moved to better jobs, who will do their job? I figure they should just be paid better.
@@Jacksparrow4986 AMEN! And besides, what’s wrong with serving coffee?
@@Jacksparrow4986 robots
@@jellybeansi that's when you get into management position,
@@jellybeansi AND! students (like myself) still have bills to pay. I’m not asking to get rich, but being able to afford living would be nice 😂
"Kids need more space, but don't bring in any money"
* Charles Dickens has entered the chat.
That's because they're not old enough to.
Something that keeps me looking for a home in an expensive urban center is the cost of socializing.
People that live further away from the city tend to also have their homes very far from any place where they can meet friends. As a result, they always tend to meet up with people at their home which leads to them doing these lavish projects in order to make their living room and backyards a usable “meeting place.” Projects which don’t always actually add the the overall value of the home.
But when you live in a more urban area you tend to have lots of access to great bars, breweries, restaurants, parks, etc all within walking distance! So If I’m meeting with a large group of people it’s more likely that we just meet at one of those locations!
One of the ways to get the best of both worlds, is to look for the downtown area of a smaller and less expensive Metro. You get all the benefits of being near parks breweries and restaurants, while having the lower cost of living.
Completely agree. Being in a suburb is cheap on the surface, but you will have to internalize a lot of the "social" costs just to make it work, else life is pretty static. You would also have to internalize transport costs, time-opportunity costs,... It's all a balanced equilibrium economically, but living in the suburb will exact more social costs on everyone else through more consumption and less effective resource allocation, since no one is sharing anything.
@@Nobilitism Well I have to disagree. I live in a "smaller" city away from Toronto and while you do get better access to entertainment and culture, unlike in the suburbus or exburbs, its still second tier compared to a major urban center. You basically get what you paid for.
I don't have access to world class opera house, sympathy, ballet, museums, art galleries or film festival for example. The movie theatres are all second tier as well. Sure I have restaurants and some of them are good but few if any are next level. Can't find a Jazz club to save my life. Mentality is different too as coffee shops or restaurants have curtailed hours of operations unless its a pizza joint or Tim Horotons.
Is if more affordable? Sure. But you do pay the cost and I can't wait to move back to Toronto even if it will cost me a fortune.
This is true. Ever since buying a house 2 years ago my wife and I almost always entertain at home rather than go out for meals with friends.
Friends? What are those? :D
I bought a home, didn’t sell a car, and have a job that can be done in a cheaper city, but living in downtown Toronto is still 100% worth it to me for the quality of life factors you mentioned near the end of the video lol. Still, this video does a great job of showing the potential cost benefits of moving to an expensive city, such as transit and work opportunity.
This post is a pretty good reflection of the vibe of this channel. Good for you :-)
This is kind of what I was thinking thousands of people still want to be in these cities despite the cost because usually more affordable cites have less amenities or fewer jobs which may or may not be a deal breaker.
We live in a walkable neighbourhood in Toronto. We're also 50 metres from a subway station and we don't own a car. Rent controls keep our apartment cost reasonable - but honestly, we couldn't afford to move into a new place because rent control doesn't apply to new rentals. Luckily, Toronto is very affordable for us, but it might not be so easy for new renters.
My family and I live in downtown Ottawa, and I feel like the amount we save not owning a car is really what makes the difference in us being able to afford our enjoyable lifestyle.
@@WillmobilePlus I mean, if you aren't enjoying your life?
Owning a car wouldn't mean we don't have to pay rent. Lodgings is a necessity. Car ownership isn't.
@@alexanderfysh410 well thanks to corrupt deals between politicians and automakers you now need a car to survive in most of North America
@@jiml3456
And exclusionary (read: racist) zoning policies.
@@WillmobilePlus i think it is suburbia sucks
Lol, I live in Palo Alto, CA - when people from around here go bankrupt and lose everything they move to more affordable places such as NY, Toronto etc.
A good comparison. Shows how many factors they are and how personal and subjective it ultimately all is. I have made both expensive major cities and smaller less expensive ones work for me. Currently living in a big, expensive city and yes I am well aware the housing costs more here but I also have lots of friends here, like the area, and am earning enough money to afford that cost of living, so it is worth it *to me.* It does not hurt my feelings that others choose to live elsewhere because it is not worth it *to them.*
Love the model railroad shot at the end... :D (And, to be clear, the rest of the video too! Especially fun recognizing the locations in my time living in or near Toronto, Ottawa, and SF. :)
Thanks for the great and informative video loving the content on the Channel!
Appreciated, thank you!
Thank you for making this! I recently moved from Chicago to San Francisco, and this video helps me articulate how the increased cost of living is ultimately offset by a number of factors (especially #1 rent vs buy price difference). Related note -- very few of the other transplants I know in SF plan to settle in the Bay Area because of how expensive buying is, vs Chicago where a lot of other transplants I knew thought they might stay
1:15 - As a Mancunian (though soon to leave for London on account of my job😥), thank you for recognising Manchester as England's second city. 🙏
Joking aside, it really is incredible how steep the price differential is. In my case I'm fortunate to have a source of external income that makes the financial aspect of it substantially less painful, but unfortunately both me and my partner are in a bit more niche fields which doesn't give us many options of where to live - we'd stay up in manchester if it were possible.
There is a pretty interesting video by Tech Altar in which he calculates the average costs by the lifetime of the vehicle, which is insanely high. Sometimes it may be worth paying more to be car free, if you're paying the price of a small condo just for a depreciating piece of metal.
I used to do my own automotive repair. Even when you only have to pay the parts cost, things can still get very expensive. Cars have also become a lot more complicated to work on, compared to the models made a few decades ago.
@@lihtan Yeah, there are a bunch of mechanics in my family and they are really picky when they get a new car, there are fewer and fewer than can be easily repaired without costing a fortune.
In big cities, salary is a big difference but so is opportunity. The verdict may not be out on this yet, but I believe even in the remote work era, you could still be missing out on a lot of potential opportunities by living in a city with little job market in your sector. So, not only does your salary tend to increase for the same career level, you may find yourself actually advancing faster in your career as well which makes an even bigger difference in salary.
That is definitely a good thing to point out. It's not just taking a job with bigger salary. There's still a great networking effect in cities where you meet people in your line of field and get more opportunities that way which can lead to a better job. Sure, you can network remotely but I still think meeting and getting to know people face-to-face holds great value even in the remote work era.
Doesn't matter nearly as much if you have a remote career. Also once you reach certain pay levels and experience levels, this also matters way less. If you already make around 6 figures and have years of experience and work remote, the city you live in is not going to affect your career progression or pay much.
That's the whole point of having a remote career is being able to navigate your career independent of your physical location. I left California in 2021 and made 6 figures in Texas and Oklahoma because I work remote. My personal career moves matter way more than my physical location. Being in an expensive area doesn't automatically mean more money.
I love this well rounded video on this topic. I can really relate as we are looking to moving from a small town that is pretty walkable of you live near downtown to a medium size city in Ontario.
When I moved from my small town in Maine to just outside of Washington D.C., the cost of living went up quite a bit, but my pay went up way more. And I had access to so much more. Even the public transit, which isn't great, was so much better. But as you say, the cost of buying a home was WAY higher here. Of course, now the price to buy a home in Maine has skyrocketed and you still don't have access to anything, unless you really like trees.
UA-cam really knows how to recomend good small channels. Informative with charts and a nice narration with separated topics along the lines. Are you guys teachers? I hope so.
I live in the Bay Area and it's tough with the housing costs. I save money on transportation as I sold my car and primarily get around by my electric bike. But it's definitely not possible for me to buy a house here. It's somewhat ok for renting, only a matter of time until I move away to buy property. For now though there's a lot of fun things to do here and easy to make friends because people are always moving here (and of course moving out because of the cost) so it's easy to meet people.
I went to college in a small city, just over the 100,000 mark, and I recall an engineering prof say that when he was working in industry he had a job offer in a big city. He crunched the numbers and found with the increased living costs made the salary increase much less impressive so it wasn’t worth moving. This was probably in the early 2000’s but the same can often hold true today.
Can confirm. I make more in a MCOL city in the midwest than I would on either coast (tech) when you crunch expenses. Long story short, housing is INSANE
Great video! I'm Fort Worth, TX and right now I'm working with a lot of people from NYC. I think the differences between us are really interesting. When I was a kid the dream of any creative Fort Worth kid was to move to NYC but talking to them their dream is only to move to Long Island or Florida!
Having grown up in Sydney, I moved to Adelaide way back in 85:and was much happier with everything except the weather. I doubt that anything will sway new arrivals, esp international students, from choosing Sydney or Melbourne over any other town in Oz but it all feeds into the insane price of real estate.
I was really surprised at the price difference between Chicago and New York. I would have thought it would be closer. I also love how at the end of the video you say Bike and Subscribe 😉...
Chicago is much cheaper because right wing propaganda has convinced people it’s one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. while in reality, it doesn’t even crack the top ten.
Big Thanks Patreon supporters. You do heavy lifting to support channels like this or others that I appreciate.
i biked and subscribed ❤
I work remote and get no CoL adjustment so if I was logical, like y'all said, I'd find the cheapest area with decent Internet, but I just love living in cities too much haha
Sometimes it's about the place that just makes you happier. We completely understand that.
I was looking into purchasing in Toronto and this video saves my sanity a bit. The mortgages that wouldn't go anywhere near buying a home I could afford had a higher monthly payment on 30 years than the house i'm renting out of (converted apartment). Even though we are only renting out half a house half the property value on mortgage is a lot more than our rent it would seem.
It's fascinating just how much cities vary regarding the buy or rent calculation! Here's an analysis that might interest you that more than 85% of homes in the GTA, including 98% of condos, are cashflow negative (rent is lower than the cost to buy): www.thehabistat.com/post/almost-all-recently-purchased-homes-in-the-gta-are-cash-flow-negative
Canadians should really look at comparable cities to grasp how super inflated the prices are. You can find luxury apartments in Brooklyn 1 stop away from Manhattan that cost less than the median Toronto condo. NYC salaries are roughly 40% higher as well (in case of tech jobs, can often be 100% higher).
I spent many years in Sydney before coming to the US and I still miss it every day. The transportation there is great. Living in Australia, the rent cost is /week not /month. may be new info for some out there.
I'm also in Ottawa and don't have a car but it really limits what I can do sometimes because of our transit system (thanks Sutcliffe!) Just got winter tires on my bike so that's fun.
The reason rent is less crazy in these cities is that housing is appreciating in value all on its own. If the structure is a depreciating asset like a single family home in dallas rent has to amortize the cost of construction, pay running costs, and provide a profit for the owner. Versus an apartment in SF where the value is going to accrue tremendously and the rent just functions as a form of tax abatement on the appreciating asset.
It's still pretty affordable across the river from New York City in New Jersey but that's changing fast.
I own my house in Atlanta and have been considering downsizing and possibly moving to a smaller city. I'd love it if you did a video on walkable mid sized cities
CityNerd has done this
@@user-xs5dp4gw8e He has sort of done something about mid sized cities but really this topic specifically
Surprised to see my home town's airport (REC) in the stock footage at 4:17 !
You could have mentioned access to parents. Grandparents in some proximity can be very valuable to parents, especially as costs for care is insane in the us from what I know about it.
I live in London in Uni Halls, they are very affordable compared to any alternative but it is still more than the loan I get from the government for living, it is literally the cheapest room I could get.
Back when I was in university, london halls were 220 - 240 a week, at the time grossly overpriced for a studio in 2014. That's now the cheapest you can get?
Fellow Ottawa peeps! Could you do an update on Ottawas mayor and what effects Mark will have on the city’s PT? Or, if you’re looking for a more general video, maybe how much local officials affect city PT
I also feel like they're trying to be more general, but I'm in Ottawa too and would like an Ottawa specific vid...lost all hope after the mayoral election result #Autowa
@@pdblouin “war on cars” you and me both brother
I live in one of the most affordable major cities in Canada and I still had to make the decision between rent and having a car. Fortunately the transit is good enough and I’m healthy enough to ride a bike.
I'm curious. Which city? I'm betting something in the prairies?
@@ChasmChaos Guessing it's Calgary, Edmonton, or Montréal
EDIT: it's Calgary, seeing previous comments
Great Video! I do think you left out one important consideration though... namely: "Regional Differences in Taxes and Commodity Prices". I moved from Vancouver to Calgary 2 years ago, on top of much cheaper housing, there is also slightly lower income tax and no provincial sales taxes in Alberta. Saving a full 7% on purchases vs living in Ontario or BC leads to HUGE savings on top of Alberta's already better commodity prices. I regularly save up to 10k a year with these tax considerations
It's even more interesting when you add in "black swan" or "fat tail" events, like wildfires, earthquakes, power outages, or even municipal bankruptcy. Cities have a lot of redundancy built into them, and tend to bounce back better from these events. People remember Sandy hitting New York, and complained about it, but it also hit New Jersey and no one even cares. I'm glad I was in New York City and not a Jersey's suburb during 2012.
I really don't understand this comment-- anyone who lived in New Jersey immediately post-Sandy obviously remembers the whole "Stronger than the Storm" TV commercials (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stronger_than_the_Storm). To say that nobody cared about the effects of Sandy on New Jersey is condescending and borderline ignorant.
@@ProfessorPancakes420 I think he means people outside NJ
I read a news article the other day about how if you owned a house in Sydney it literally appreciated more for 30 quarters (so 7.5 years) up to 2019 than the average income during that time ie if someone saved every $ they earned it would be less than the difference between what they bought a house for and what it would sell for.
I live in the Pittsburgh area, I do own a car but only drive it 1x a week to visit family in a neighboring county. Cost of living is low, Wages are decent, and much of the metro area is walkable, and there are frequent enough busses if I want to leave my town to visit another or visit the Metropolis. Our airport used to be a hub, but has shrunk alot so almost all flights especially international ones will require flying to a bigger airport, and flights are usually pretty cheap from here.
I can't afford a car no matter where I live. Not if I don't want to live in that car. Living in a moderate sized city with decent transit makes life without a car a lot better than living in a small town with bad transit. The really expensive cities are too expensive for me, period.
"Work From Home" vs "On Site Work" is the new class struggle as on site work often pays much less that jobs that are done remotely. While On-Site workers have to spend money on child care, transportation and lunches plus they are exposed to diseases, harassment and possibly even violence from co-workers whilst At-Home workers sit in their comfortable home or coffee shop or park or beach and work without any of the expense and risks of On-Site workers. "At-homers" make more and have less expense.
I live in Hong Kong, one of the most expensive places to own property and highest petrol price in the world. Public transportation is very efficient so I didn't need a car for 30 years. The savings and opportunities gained over thirty years were used to buy a primary residence in HK and rental properties abroad
I think London, UK doesn't really deserve to be on the same scale of high cost of living like NYC, Toronto, Vancouver. Being ~30 minutes on transit out of the centre can cost as low as £1100 ($1350 USD) for a decent 1 bedroom or £750 for a flat share which just doesn't exist similar distances out of the city in NYC! When you factor in the cost of no car needed, London actually becomes super affordable compared to cities like Machester, Birmingham etc where a car is much more of a necessity.
That's interesting because according to Numbeo, rents in London are about 40% higher than in Toronto: www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Canada&country2=United+Kingdom&city1=Toronto&city2=London
Although it does show that New York is on a whole other level!
Yes! Finally someone said it other than me. Having lived in London and Toronto, I know that London is not as expensive given the excellent public transport. I lived in London zone 3 for years using an annual 90 quid Boris bike subscription while still having great access to zone 1 London, something that is simply impossible in Toronto where I now live.
Another element is how rental contracts are structured. In North America, the standard lease is a 12 month contract which you cannot break. You're on the hook for all 12 months payment and it's up to you to find someone to sublet to if you want to move out. The landlord basically is assured effortless money for a year. In London, contracts have a 6-month no-break clause, which means you can break your contract, give notice and leave after 6 months. This is why the rental market is much more fluid and you can always find good houses up for grabs no matter when you look.
@@OhTheUrbanity I'd take numbeo with a mountain of salt. I can't provide anything more than anecdotal data, but Canadian figures definitely can't be trusted. I probably wouldn't have moved to Toronto had I known about the actual costs here (I had used Numbeo during my decision process). 😅
I can't stand being stuck in traffic seven days a week . It causes high blood pressure so big car-centric cities have their disadvantages.
Automotive literacy goes a long way to reducing transportation costs outside of big cities. my old prius has a total cost of ownership (purchase, gas, insurance, repairs, fees) averaging to $5000 a year
How much is your insurance and where do you live?
Interesting to point out that moving and working in a rural area and working there can also mean cheaper transport.
It costs me half as much in fuel to live and work in the country than the city simply because in the country I am travelling just a few blocks to work.
Many rural workers end up spending the amount they save in fuel and car costs by travelling to the city for a big shop once or twice a year.
I wish there were more medium size walkable cities. Row townhouses with small private (not shared!) backyards are so common in Europe but almost non-existent in the US
They are right about the transportation. I have two cars and barely use the other. In Houston I’d be driving three cars
What about the outskirts of big cities? Or small cities in the surrounding are of the big city?
I keep hoping to see you kids on Ottawa's multi-use paths.
This video didn’t consider public transit cost though
In nyc it’s about to be close to $3 per person per ride
I realize it’s still a lot cheaper than the 1k example for a car given here but it’s not free
Fair point. That was influenced by the fact that we personally walk and bike most places and don’t take transit daily.
lol. I live in Salt Lake. No way am I moving to LA. I think we have better public transportation than LA too. 😬
Curious to know what your experience has been with OC Transpo without a car. Specifically with the LRT going down for like 4-5 days or something and I keep hearing buses are extremely unreliable
When it works, the O-Train is excellent. Great frequencies, fully grade separated, etc. The technical problems and outages have been a major disappointment, unlike anything we've experienced in other cities, although it doesn't affect us as much as it otherwise might because we planned our stay in Ottawa around being able to walk/bike places as well. The buses have been fine enough when we've used them but we've heard the same stories about wild inconsistency once you get further into the suburbs.
Overall, we'd say that Ottawa is an OK place to live without a car if you plan where you live right and you don't need to travel across the city often.
@@OhTheUrbanity that is always the qualification, “if you plan where to live”. IMO it invalidates the claim that you can live in a city without a car.
The basic key point is that it doesn't scale up. If you have to carefully choose your place to live, then by definition it is something that only a select few will be able to do, and most people will still need a car to get around.
Also, what are the chances that this select few will be sorted out by income? Climate activists and urbanists are often looked at disparagingly in the same way as Chardonnay socialists. This is quite unfortunate, but not without reason.
Something that I think about often but won't show up in the data for years is the effect of highly paid remote workers moving to cheap places. It makes total sense for those individuals financially since they get more bang for their buck. But they also drive up rents due to higher demand for places not built for growth. A town known for its ski resort doesn't pay its workers as much as Google will and when push comes to shove, those tech workers will push out those workers since they have so much more financial leverage to pay for limited housing. What was an affordability and gentrification problem for big coastal cities could become a problem everywhere.
As someone who moved from Dallas to the Bay Area, I feel sorry for the retail workers here. They have to live so far away from work. Terrible commute.
Regarding housing, prices are about double here for rent, though it's narrowing due to increasing rents in Dallas. The cost of a house has to be about triple here. I want a house, but it's out of the question unless I move outside of the Bay Area.
People who buy houses out of the Bay Area usually do so just on the other side of the surrounding hills in cities like Tracy for example
I currently live in Los Angeles for school, but when I finish school I plan to leave LA as soon as possible. It's expensive here, I will never be able to afford a nice home, it's very hard to get around on public transit (plus I prefer having a car anyways). To me it makes no economic sense to stay in Los Angeles. I'm looking at other options in other states, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, San Antonio, and Dallas. That being said, if I was more interested in living in a denser urban core, or if my post-school job required me to live in Los Angeles, I would consider staying.
i think that it is worth considering that bigger cities are bigger, so even with much better public transportation one is still likely to spend more time in transit than in small city
Statistically yes, people in bigger cities have longer commutes. Another way to think about it though is that you *could* live in a bigger city and limit yourself to jobs that are within your neighbourhood or section of the city. You'd have a shorter commute and also fewer job options, kind of like in a smaller city.
Hi, just a video suggestion. Urban farming. Also, given that life would be impossible in dense cities if fossile fuels came to be more scarce or expensive (food prices mosty, but also the erosion of the jobs supporting this density), what mitigation strategies cities have implemented to boost resiliency? (Goes back to urban farming).
Alan Fischer did one called "Real Solar Punk is Smart Land Use, not Gimmick Skyscraper Farms".
Sonja Trauss founded the YIMBY movement in the Bay Area when she was a public school teacher. Northern Virginia where I am is also unlivable for teachers in the local schools, though probably not to the degree of California.
I grew up in NOVA and nearly everyone my age who ended up being a teacher quit at some point down the line cause they just could not afford it anymore. The only ones who who could continue had married someone with a much better salary to afford that area...
@@machtmann2881 That's a common story unfortunately
Definitely crazy. Anything you can find in one of those expensive cities you can find in a smaller city. Even if you make good money in one of these cities, throwing it all away at an expensive rent/mortgage is just a waste when you can live somewhere with a more reasonable cost of living.
But with fewer amenities. Smaller cities are smaller for a reason.
@@shauncameron8390 well, now that anything and everything can be delivered by Amazon and others, no need for amenities
@@burntearth85
Not even access to healthcare and services?
@@shauncameron8390 how often do you need healthcare? Every other month? You don't need to be walking distance to a hospital/GP everywhere you are.
I own a house in Chelsea and love shopping snd dining at Harrods.
I can only say this about New York, a city that I have lived for 20 years. The problem with modern urbanism is that everything centers around an area, in NYC's case Manhattan. The cities that I have experienced as affordable provide to each neighborhood the amenities of a "city center", parks, plazas, shopping, even a business area, that way the areas close the "city center" become just playgrounds for the rich. Examples of cities that each neighborhood provides plenty of amenities to skip the center are Barcelona, Chicago, Vienna, all relatively affordable compared to the cities listed here. In San Francisco, the entire Bay Area is centered around it, making San Francisco just ridiculous to be around.
That's the North American approach. All buses and trains head to a central station. It's not how cities that grew more organically work. Check out a London tube and overground map for instance and see how quick and easy it is to go from an outskirt region to another. Compare that with how challenging it is to go from a random location in Queens to Brooklyn.
@@ChasmChaos yes!!! Finally someone else sees it too!
I hate how one area leeches off others. For instance food prices are higher in Brooklyn than Manhatten and it’s close to impossible to find a good doctor here. Why does a local economy have to suffer so much to enhance another? Why do I have to spend my money in the neighborhoods of the 1%ers and improve their area to get a decent and affordable product or service ?
I get all cities and towns tend to have the best businesses near the town center but when cities or metro areas become too large, they become inefficient and leeches. We need more medium cities that provide goods and services in close distance.
i’ve been in NYC for nearly 40 years, & agreed! too much centers around Manhattan, like that new train line extension on 2nd ave, they said it would cut down congestion but i knew it’d end up just as crowded, which it did. many people who lived there didn’t want that line, but they did it anyways because the rich! it’s easier for their servants to get there and move around, plus the UN is over there.
what they really need to do in New York City, which I’m going to keep putting out into the ether every which way i can, &hopefully it will actually get done one day, is to build a train line that goes across the north Bronx into Queens and then Brooklyn, that’s how you open up other parts of the city so that we don’t all have to be funneled through Manhattan. It’s a simple solution, but the rich does not see how it would benefit them, tho they’ll destroy neighborhoods for the L line because it’s trendy over there.
@@ThereAreNoBlackPpl my life's dream is to live to see a Brooklyn to Queens direct subway built.
@@SNeaker328 your dream is called the G train, 🤦🏽♀️
I save so much by not having to own/maintain/insure/store an automobile that I'm able to afford a much larger apartment in the city than I would have if I didn't live in such a walkable area.
1000$ a month on a 2017 honda civic in canada? My 18 brz's calculated average was 750-800$ back when i drove it more.... and that car ran premium gas. This was a quebec car until recently
toronto is generally considered a world city. also don't really agree that ottawa is mid-size with a metro population over a million lol. it's definitely a major city
I've heard this a lot. Who considers Toronto a "world city"? Not trying to diss on TO (I live here), but it just isn't true in my opinion.
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC)
@@tunnel6773 I'd never heard of that. Looks like it's a very capitalist take, about where the global firms have key operations and HQs than about quality-of-life. Washington DC/Berlin/Vancouver being ranked below Riyadh, for instance, would never occur in a realistic poll of people looking for immigration opportunities.
I don't disagree with that necessarily but it does seem like the ppl behind this channel have an inferiority complex about being Canadian or something
@@tunnel6773 really? You'll probably hate NotJustBikes then.
I find OhTheUrbanity! pretty balanced. They are able to strike a non-biased and calm tone citing data and making reasoned arguments, even while discussing topics of grave importance (like the cost of living crisis that's been escalating since a decade).
Things are definitely not all fine in Canada, and not being allowed to criticize in good faith will not help.
Don't the wealthiest people tend to live around state/national capitals, not just because they're big cities but because so many rich folks make their money from the government as lawyers, consultants, administrators etc? Your analysis of blue collar jobs is interesting but I suspect Cambria has a higher average income compared to Sydney because of the lucrative government jobs that don't include teachers and nurses.
The pattern definitely seen in Canada (but also I believe the U.S. and Australia) is that the capitals have high *median* incomes while the financial centres have high *average* incomes. In other words, capital cities have a lot of mid-level government (or contractor) jobs that pay pretty well but the highest levels of income and wealth (starting at the lawyers and other professionals making many hundreds of thousands a year) are usually in the financial centres.
@@OhTheUrbanity OK, I'll have to check on that further but in either case (public/private sectors) those high-earners are going to effect house prices and the cost of living more than teachers/nurses. Also some 'key' or 'essential' workers (rendering the rest of us expendable presumably) are entitled to considerable financial assistance for housing in many countries/states and that must also be taken into account when considering the cost/benefit of moving.
Honestly Ottawa’s transit system and bike network r pretty decent for a city of its size. I found it way easier to live in Ottawa car-free than Toronto (GTA)
I live in Toronto, yes it cost more but it's the only city in Canada I would live in. I would be very bored living anywhere else in Canada ( accept maybe Vancouver ) I love big city life!
Walking away from walkable Canadian cities sadly, so many mentally ill ppl on the street. Car-dependent places at least offer you safety.
More like the illusion of it, given how many people are killed by cars.
4:19 the airport of my city Recife-PE in Brazil 😂😂😂
I think the conclusion that generally renting is financially preferable to home ownership is a bit misguided. I live in Dublin, here average rent payments are sometimes 2/3x higher than the mortgage repayment for a same value property.
The cause of this is the continued shrinking pool of rentals on the market (nationwide there is on average less than 1000 properties available to rent).
The result is would be first time buyers who otherwise would be able to meet the criteria required for a mortgage are unable to do so as their housing costs are preventing them to save up for a deposit. This in turn locks people into the rental market further inflating demand and costs.
Your cost of car ownership is way, *way* overstated. 2280 / yr in maintenance? About $3600 / yr in insurance? Have you guys ever *owned* a car? I will gladly provide you my cost of ownership breakdown but the last time I calculated it, when I figured in everything it cost me less than $2k / yr for a used car over the 14 years I've owned it. I've also never seen anyone account for the value of your time when taking public transit. That's a whole other factor that is totally overlooked when a ~ 30m drive turns into a 90m bus ride.
Maybe be they are taking the average car rather than the cheap cars. They must be factoring rich people in their calculations, who drive the least reliable cars.
Let me guess, you're a hundred years old? 😅 Insurance is heavily affected by age. Among 30-somethings, the cheapest insurance that I've heard of among my friends is $250 (downtown Toronto). It's more typical to pay $350 instead.
I agree, driving should not be heavily subsidized at the expense of public transit rider's time. Your bus ride is 90 minutes because it's probably stuck in traffic.
@@ChasmChaos I'm in my 40's in the US, so you're close. I find it hard to believe the average canadian in toronto is paying $250 / mo. The reason my bus ride is 90m is because there is no direct route. I have to take a train 10mi south, and turn around and take a bus 14mi north. It's completely asinine. If I value my time at even a third of my pay that extra 2h / d added to my commute is worth ~ 14k / yr. That's just my potential commute! That doesn't even count the amount of time wasted trying to get groceries or traveling to see family.
@@w1ngnuts I think one reason that Ontario has a higher insurance premium than usual is because the province requires insurance to cover medical procedures more rigorously. So healthcare related to soft tissue damage is fully covered. If that's true, then the rest of North America is under-insured.
I'm not arguing that you should put yourself through that torture. You don't have an option not to drive. Perhaps the citizens should demand better public transit and change.
This is also what annoys me in those channels that compare the cost of owning a car vs biking everywhere - somehow they assume we must all be financing lexuses.
I also live in a city where an 8 minute drive turns into a 50 minute bus journey - if you want to get home on public transport past 7pm on a Sunday... Good luck!
In Ney York for example you can spend 600 Dollar a month for parking spot
is that your layout at the end?
The patterns? We generated them from pattern.monster
@@OhTheUrbanity The trains.
@@BoBandits Ahhh. No, just a cool display that we saw at the Ottawa VIA Rail station a few weeks ago
I think that the move to work from home might reverse the 'Great Urban Migration.' Some businesses still required coming into the office even if just sometimes, but a lot are not requiring it at all and can be done from anywhere.
Why can’t affordable areas with vast amounts of land build car optional developments instead?
Great video! I guess I'm one of those "Crazy People" who live in a crazy expensive city like *Beautiful San Francisco!* 😅😜 Although for me I live in San Francisco mostly because I'm born and raised in San Francisco🌫🌉
Still would not live outside of the city. Once you have lived in big city you will miss all of the amenities and perks.
Toronto isn't even the most expensive city in Canada. It's Vancouver with higher housing prices and lower wages.
It's the 2nd most expensive city in Canada.
as a sydneysider... Sydney has a ridiculous market for renting and due to government policies such as negative gearing, investment property owners are more willing to hoard housing.
Yes, a single house is hard, but after that the second is easy... causing prices to skyrocket. Renting is also a pain as there are higher initial prices to offset for landlords, and the rent further fuels the ability for landlords to invest, fueling prices.
basically in Sydney... you are screwed either way.
I live in a cheap city where you can lease a house for under a thousand dollars, but you absolutely need a car. It is at least better to walk some places than to bike anywhere. Businesses are far apart and quality of life is minimum..
But I like the city because I don't have to spend a lot to live better. I'm never under pressure to cut back or spend less.
So even with NYC public transportation (the city I was born), I like Fayetteville better (the city I live now).
I don't have dress to impress or dress in style, because no one cares.
danm my career, I have to move to Burbank
People tend to obsess about the differences in rents as a means of comparing costs between places but they don't consider that many things don't change in price. A Macbook still costs $3000 wherever you are in the world. A hotel in Tuscany costs the same regardless of whether you're flying in from Houston or NYC. Further, when you save $1000 in the bank, that $1000 is the same amount no matter where you are. At the end of the day, living in expensive cities earns a much higher salary and actually significantly decreases the relative costs of consumer goods, travel, and savings. That's why you'll see loads of people wearing designer clothes in NYC -- a $500 pair of pants is insane to someone who's rent is $650, but if you live in a $4000 Manhattan studio apartment, then the purchase isn't so big of a deal. In sum, if you value price inelastic things (consumer goods, travel, savings) more than having lots of space, then the big city is a good choice (not factoring in lifestyle of course), while if you value large space above these things then living in a small town or rural area would be more your cup of tea.
I have been living in Toronto for 19 years, and I never felt the need to own a car
god those rent vs buy comparisons are so depressing... homeownership just feels more and more out of reach and we have to 'settle' for renting.
This video just makes me annoyed that the UK left the EU, cos as much as London is an amazing city for public transport and walkability (and ok for biking - better than most north American cities), it's super expensive to live here, yet if we were still in the EU, I could easily move to Amsterdam, and somehow get: a cheaper cost of living (marginally), a pay increase (at least according to Glassdoor), and a dramatic increase in walkability and bike ability (although a slight drop in public transport quality although the walkability and bikeability more than makes up for that).
I'm living in NY, and it's better to buy a home here as it will sharply increase In the real estate. Live outside of city and you're fine
Sorry, I love walkable cities, and it would be amazing if every city in North America was like that.
But I'd rather OWN a home in a car-dependent city than paying $2500 to rent a terrible 1-bedroom apartment in a city like London, Sydney, Toronto or San Francisco, and then tripping over homeless people left and right while stepping on needles during my commute to work...
We need walkable cities with less zoning and building regulations so we can actually build houses and people can actually live in those cities!
One solution is housing cooperatives like the Benny farm coop in NDG in Montreal. They at least give some working people a chance
But suffers from poor maintenance and lack of funds.
The future is high te h small towns or small cities.
I was forced out from Montreal because of prices. I now need to live in my friend's basement. It's not a great situation and I miss sunlight dearly, but I can't really afford to live in the city.
Once my cat dies, I will have much more choice in apartments, so when that happens I might be able to find a decently priced apartment in the city, but until that happens, I don't see how I can go back there.
Why don't you sell the cat?
@@Moses_VII Have you never had a pet? I would die of starvation before selling my cat.
@@Moses_VII he could eat the cat one day if he needs to, so selling it would be a waste.
Nobody likes a waster
Are you sure it’s Toronto and not Vancouver 😅
Toronto includes cities more than 100 km (60 miles ) away from downtown to get the title of the biggest city in Canada . the niagara region is included in Toronto and it takes more than 90 minutes by car . Non sense .
The Niagara region is not included in any definition of Toronto, or the GTA, or the GTHA. The grouping that includes Niagara is called the Golden Horseshoe. The population of greater toronto (GTA) is almost 7 million people who all live within 60km of the center of Toronto.
Why you listed Toronto when Vancouver is way more expensive?
Because Toronto is the only city in Canada most non-Canadians heard of.
Don't forget to bike and subscribe. I liked that.
Living near family can give financial benefits if they can help with child care
Renting means extracting your wealth to a landlord. Wealth and generational wealth is from property ownership. You’re quality of life is not going to drastically change in North America if you go to a smaller city. You are allowed to travel soooo rather than people stuck in one place like an island you can go visit places. Hartford CT is the cheapest place between Boston and NYC and it’s about 1.5 hours between both. In addition its 1 hour from the green mountains of vermont and 35 min from the shore. And what do i lose hmm a sports team… which is a hour away hmm china town which i can go back to anytime hmmm so i get home ownership and a low cost of living in exchange for not pretending to be trendy