North York has been called a city within a city because of its self-sufficiency. It has just about all the things that make life in downtown Toronto a place for work, study, and play, but you get bigger properties for your money and cleaner looking neigborhoods. 

Here are some reasons why you might want to buy a house in North York instead of downtown Toronto.

Diverse Real Estate 

According to Houseful, the median price list of homes in North York has dropped from $825.5K to just over $782k in the last six months. 

North York's range of property styles includes everything from affordable rentals in high rise buildings to luxurious homes in Willowdale.

Current listings for North York show detached homes, semi-detached bungalows, two-storey houses, town-homes, and condos.

Family friendly neighbourhoods

This part of the city has also developed a reputation for being safe and family friendly.

Most North York communities are built close to public playgrounds, grocery stores, pharmacies, recreation centres and other amenities.

North York boasts 10 beautiful parks with lookouts to watch sunrises or sunsets, birdwatch, or sit on a blanket and munch on your favourite snacks with friends.  

Malls and attractions 

North York is home to a some tourist attractions like Black Creek Pioneer Village.

If you're working from home like many of us and like to change your environment from time to time, you may find an excellent place to focus and make the most of every workday at the North York Central Library.

If you love shopping, North York has many options to choose from including Bayview Village Shopping Centre and Fairview Mall. 

Easy Commuting

Most of North York is accessible via TTC. It is also easy to commute to the downtown core from North York and back as a driver because the Don Valley becomes the 401. Both the 401 and 404 run through this region. 

Despite push-back from local business, North York has proceeded with changes to make the streets less more welcoming to cyclists and less car-dependent. 

You can view the status of different cycling projects in the city of Toronto here. 

Good Schools 

Some of the city's top-rated secondary schools are located in North York across the public, private, and Catholic boards including Bayview Secondary School and Earl Haig. According to EQUAO ratings, many of Toronto's best elementary schools also happen to be located in North York. 

We can't talk about North York without mentioning Canada's third largest university, YorkU. This is where people from around the world and across the country come to become engineers, lawyers, business professionals, educators and just about anything you can imagine. 

Many of YorkU's programs partner with courses at Seneca College in North York. Seneca offers education and hands-on training in more than 146 full-time and 135 part-time programs.