Welcome! It's not cheap to live here, but it's safe (just avoid Jane/Finch area lol) But looks like you make good money. Assuming you want a good house with two car garage etc... you got options. There's a lot of car theft lately. They like to target SUVs and nice cars. Park you car in the garage. I do.
If you really got good money, you can do the core Toronto high end stuff like near Yonge/Eglinton, Forest Hill etc... But it looks like you already scouted and prefer the burb cities. I never lived or knew much about east of Toronto, so your pre-scouting fits with what I know which is Toronto or west. So I'm assuming you already want something west.
Here's the lowdown IMO:
Healthcare. There is some kind of policy where every newcomer gets approved for OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan). Everyone born here gets it automatically. But as a newbie, there's going to be some kind of process or qualification or duration of stay before you get (I think). Look into it. Once you get it, certain medical stuff is free. You get a OHIP card. And every time you see a doctor or hospital you show them your card and they handle everything. When you're done, you dont have to do anything. Just walk out the door. Doctors visits and surgery being the two main ones. Not everything is covered though. A good employer benefits plan will cover most/all dental and eye care and drugs. So really at some point you'll have most stuff covered except some small deductibles you pay or some obscure drug the company doesnt cover some reason. At my company, I got to pay $50 a year for dental coverage. I can get as many tooth cleanings, xrays and cavity fillings I want. Its costs one flat fee of $50 the first time I visit. Prescription drugs are covered by my work I think 90%.
Price of home will vary a lot. But in any place below, a good sized family home that is nice, has a yard, two car garage etc.... will be minimum $1.5M. As Peru said above that $1.5-2M range sounds about right for something decent. Just note that $1.5-2M in Toronto will get you some small, old crusty place. pick a place 20-30 km away and it'll be bigger, newer and you'll guaranteed get a front and backyard and your own driveway and garage. In Toronto, there's lots old school neighbourhoods you got to park on the street and get annual permits. Or you get that shitty shared parking lane and you and your neighbour share it parking your cars in the back. You dont get that hassle in the burbs.
Mortgage, Property tax and Land Transfer tax. Mortgages are done different here than the US. You buy a mortgage based on terms (length of years). After it's done, you got to renew again at whatever the going rates are. Most people I think do 5 year terms. If you break the mortgage, you'll pay penalty fees so watch out for that. Mortgage interest is not tax deductible in Canada. Your annual property tax will be roughly 0.7% of government assessed value of your home. Not the market price. Market price is always higher than what they value your home. From my experience, the market value is probably like 25% more than the assessed value. Land transfer tax is a one shot fee you pay buying a home. It's a weighted scale, but budget the full 2% to play safe on the market/sale value of the home. The second link says as a first time home buyer, you get a $4000 rebate. So look into any government rebates.
Property taxes are often an overlooked element in the homebuying process, sometimes resulting in unexpected surprises on the cost front.
storeys.com
Calculate land transfer tax for Ontario, including specific rates that apply only for Toronto. Find out about rebates for first-time home buyers and speculation tax for foreigners.
wowa.ca
The GTA has shit public transit. So if you really care about busses, trains or subways it's limited. The subway only services some parts of Toronto. Something called a GO Train hits more places (kind of like a shittier version of Amtrak I guess). It spiderwebs out from downtown Union Station. Other than that, GTA is a car town. It helps if you're kind of near a main highway like 401, QEW, 403 etc... We got winters here, so make sure you got all season tires for year round driving (I prefer this). Or some people swap in winter tires in November prepping for snow. Your choice. Just avoid year round performance tires.
To me, since Toronto is the hot spot for stuff to do downtown, it comes down to how much you give a shit about that or if you and fam prefer the suburb life. If you guys really crave downtown busy living, you'll hate commuting there since highway traffic can be terrible and there's only a handful of exits. So if it's busy that night with a Jays or Leafs game, good luck getting there fast. You'll have to either leave extra early or just take a GO Train downtown, do your thing and find a late train back to the burbs (assuming there is even a late bus or train at midnight). But youre lucky that a bunch of construction finished lately on highways so you missed like 5 years of gimped lanes we had to go through. The burb cities are basically strip malls, power centres and most have their one main shopping mall.
Anything near the water = high prices
Milton. I know people who live there. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and the only way to really get anywhere is taking 401 east. Its the total definition of a suburban place to live. Growing a lot. I dont think it's that cheap to live there. Its used to be though, but starting maybe 15-20 years ago everyone started moving there (including coworkers). That $300k big family house they bought off the floorplan in 2004 is probably worth $1.5M now.
Toronto is almost all old homes. So the farther out you go the newer the homes and developments. The key exception is Toronto has tons of new condos going up. Toronto streets and roads are way different than the burbs. It's a lot more cramped, windy, less grass, and pending where you are paid parking. Typical metro city. The burbs are more grid like, spacious and almost zero street parking needed.
West Etobicoke. Burbs of Toronto. Older houses. High prices. Mostly white people
Mississauga. The sweet spot for being near TO and prices. The biggest city aside from TO so you got options as it's a big plot of land. The biggest mix of ethnicities outside of TO
Oakville. Pricey. Unless you got tons of money or grew up in the upscale area I mentioned above where your family already had a house for 50 years, most people I know with decent coin live in Oakville. It's a drive east down the QEW to get downtown. Oakville is nice, relatively newer homes. Pretty sure Oakville and Burlington skew more white people.
Burlington. West of Oakville near the golden horseshoe bend towards Niagara Falls. From what I know from people who live there it's like Oakville but just farther out west
Brampton. Is north of Mississauga. For pure value for your dollar, it's probably the best place in the GTA that isn't way far out. Getting downtown takes longer as you got to wind your way to different highways. Also, to be perfectly honest many people avoid it because it's known to be Brown Town (tons of Indian people). Every strip mall is indian places, grocery stores skew to Indian food etc... Depends how much you care about this. Some do some dont.
Woodbridge. North of Toronto (above Steeles Ave). Historically a lot of Italians live there but I dont know if that stereotype holds true anymore. Pricey area. Very suburban feel. I know family who live there and they like it. But they moved there 10 years ago. It's a super busy area in that Hwy 400/Hwy 7 area. Crazy expansion. They still like it there but hate that it's become so busy now. That intersection is one giant power centre area with tons of new condos and roads under construction to alleviate traffic.
Markham. East of Woodbridge/NE of Toronto. Heavy in Chinese/Asian people. Every strip mall has Chinese restaurants and signs you cant read from whatever store that is. Not cheap place to live either as tons of immigrants move there with money. Aside from downtown Chinatown, if you crave real Asian food and a big mall called Pacific Mall known for knockoffs Markham is the place to be.
. Don’t think it’s very prevalent anymore at all though, this was back in probably 2011 or 2012.