Kids might not think about the cost of real estate or of the items at the grocery store but they certainly do begin to realize through the years what their family can afford and the sort of things that they will have in terms of material possessions. Some might live in a big mansion on real estate in Vaughan and get everything they want on Christmas morning and another might be quite satisfied living in a small apartment in downtown Toronto. When you're building a life for you and your family and trying to choose where the best place is to live you should think about the cost of living. Here are some of the figures that you will find when looking at the major cities in Ontario, whether it's at Markham real estate or a home in Kingston or Ottawa.

A Cost of Living Index is done every year by Mercer and evaluates over two hundred of the largest cities in the world. The first Canadian city to appear is Vancouver in spot seventy-five, followed by Toronto at seventy-six. The only other Ontario city that made this list is Ottawa at spot number 136. This means that even if you're hiring a custom home builder London Ontario based to construct your dream home you will likely be paying less for the property than someone living in New York City, Los Angeles, or London, England.

Placing Toronto at the top of the chart we can start to see where the rest of the province lies in terms of cost of living. If Toronto were given a score of 100 and Ottawa was at about 83.3 than the next most expensive place to live in the province would be Kingston and Sudbury, which both have scores of about 76. They are followed by Thunder Bay, Windsor, Oshawa, and London, each with either a 75 or 74 rating. This means if you're looking at homes in the GTA you might be paying a lot more for Oshawa over Oakville condominiums, for example.

In the 72 to 73 range are Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, and St Catharines. Many people choose to live in the first two of these as bedroom communities and commute into Toronto during the week for work. This way you have the full range of working within the metropolis, sending your kids to a smaller school and maybe even going to a fitness centre Mississauga based on the way home. The amount that you're willing to commute for a lesser home and living cost is individual to each person. But there are lots of great reasons to buy a home and raise a family in any of Ontario's major cities and all of them are affordable to the average household.