Toronto's Dating Scene Is Divided Over Going Out With Men Living At Home & It Gets Deep
"Moving out for independence is hard in this economy"
CN tower seen in Toronto. Right: Restaurant seen in Drake Devonshire Inn.
As Toronto's housing market remains heated, a lot of us are stuck living with our parents way past our 20s. So, what does that mean for our love lives? That's what one person on Reddit wanted to know, and the answers were all over the place.
Toronto's dating scene was split over a Reddit discussion, with some finding the situation "understandable" while others wanted nothing to do with it.
Many responses on the Reddit AskTO thread indicate that living at home in one's 30s is not necessarily a dealbreaker for dating, but it can cause problems.
"I found that it created a lot of inequities in the relationship," one person wrote.
"I lived independently, and (my) boyfriend, who lived at home, always wanted to be at my place to get away from their families so we could have privacy. That meant they were eating my food, drinking my drinks, messing up my apartment, etc., and generally, I found they weren't as conscientious as people who lived on their own."
They wrote that living with your family isn't the problem but whether the person knows how to share responsibilities.
For others, it wasn't a problem at all and said that the current housing crisis in Toronto made it understandable. But lack of self-sufficiency in a partner seems to be the real deal breaker.
"In this economy, it shouldn’t be held against someone if they still lived with their parents, but they need to be an independent and responsible person," one person wrote.
"Moving out for independence is hard in this economy, especially if one has a good relationship with their parents. I don't see the issue personally, but they can't be freeloaders," another said.
The topic of culture also came up, with many people bringing up that in some cultures, it is completely acceptable and even encouraged to live with one's parents before marriage.
"In my culture, we don't just leave our parents as soon as we hit 18, but I did move away for university. However, I moved back with my parents once I graduated and had a pretty decent starting job ($75k right out of school). I lived with my parents and helped them," one person wrote.
"It worked great because I was able to save enough money in a year for a downpayment on a townhouse, drive my (affordable) dream car and set myself up for success."
According to Numbeo, a single person's estimated monthly costs in Toronto are $1,366, not including rent.
With the addition of the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment (which Numbeo puts at $2,339.61 as of December 2022), Torontonians are looking at monthly costs of an eye-watering $3,705.
While Toronto's home and rent prices are slowly starting to correct in 2023, it is still considered incredibly expensive for single persons to rent in the city.