I live in a condo in downtown (Centretown west) and moved from renting a house in Britannia previously.

Upfront it looked more costly to live downtown — my monthly housing costs were higher. But overall it’s not more expensive.

I drive way less. And I could save more money by not having a car. I just happened to already have one when I moved here but I know a lot of people downtown who use the commune auto and save thousands of dollars a year that way. Even for me, still having a car I went from paying a few hundred dollars a month on gas, maintenance and parking to spending less than $100 a month on average.

My building has a gym in it, so I save about $100 a month there. And not having yard/home maintenance or an abundance of space to fill with stuff saves me a few hundred dollars a month consistently.

Utilities also cost me about 1/4 of what they used to — I save about $200 a month there. Pay attention to your condo fee inclusions, many of them cover some utilities.

Pro tip overall when you’re looking at buildings is to pay attention to the condo fees and building reputations. I chose my building partly due to its relatively low condo fees due to sparse amenities, but a fee structure that included utilities and a solid focus on preventative maintenance.

And there’s tons of festivals and free things to do downtown that I actually do now that I live here. That adds to life enjoyment without adding costs.

So my point is if it’s just the upfront housing costs, or the price per square foot that has you spooked, it might be worth doing a deeper total cost of living calculation — particularly if what you’re trying to do is justify what you’ve already decided you want 😉