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If you are thinking about moving to Mississauga, Ontario then you may be wondering what Mississauga has to offer you. It's always a good idea to do your research and make sure you make an informed decision before moving to Mississauga. We will explore the true pros and cons of living in Mississauga, Ontario so you can get a better idea of what to expect while living here.
Pro #1 - Mississauga Is A Diverse And Multicultural City
So the first pro is that the city is very diverse. Around 50% of the people living here are immigrants. There’s a very strong multicultural presence in the city of Mississauga. There are people from all over the world that live here and we all live in harmony.
This is great because you get to meet people and make friends that are very different from you. They come from different backgrounds, they have different traditions. And you can learn about other cultures just by being around them. You’ll be exposed to different points of views and I truly believe that this type of exposure will make you a more well rounded person. Just by being around people that are from a completely different place than you can change your perspective on things. You’ll get an idea of what life is like in other countries and how that compares to your life.
I think that because Mississauga is so multicultural, everyone is so accepting of each other and we all get along. Mississauga is a very welcoming place and generally, no matter where they are from, people are awesome.
Now aside from the people, the communities are diverse. Each community in Mississauga is a little different from the next, with different kinds of houses, different shops and amenities, and just a different vibe.
The city centre area is obviously the downtown core of Mississauga. That’s where most of the condo buildings are, square one is there, there’s lots of restaurants and bars there and it’s usually pretty busy.
Port credit is a beautiful area by Lake Ontario with lots of historic buildings, some nice bars and restaurants as well, some beautiful parks and some of the higher end neighbourhoods are around there.
Streetsville is a cute little town with some local shops, historic buildings again, and it’s right by the credit river with a bunch of walking trails. They also usually have a bunch of events in Streetsville.
Con #1 - Weather In Mississauga
The first con I would say is the weather in Mississauga, specifically the winters. If you don’t like the cold or you don’t like snow, then Mississauga (or even Canada) is probably not for you. Mississauga does get milder weather compared to other parts of Canada, but the winters are still pretty damn cold. We also tend to get a decent amount of snow every year, so you’re gonna want to get a good shovel or better yet, a snow blower.
Some people love the winters so they probably can’t relate but I’m not a huge fan of the cold. Honestly, I don’t mind the winters that much, especially when they are more mild like they have been the past few years but you know, when it’s -20 with wind chill, which it sometimes gets like that, it’s not really fun and if you enjoy that, I honestly can’t relate. I’d much rather it be warmer where you can go outside, go for a walk or a hike, without freezing your butt off.
But some winter activities are fun and if you gotta suffer through some colder weather, so be it. The snow does look nice too, when you’re sitting inside of course. If you’re from a place where it never snows, then the snow might be a nice change for you.
Pro #2 - Food In Mississauga
Because the city is so diverse, there are literally restaurants for everything. Whether they are franchise restaurants or mom and pop shops, any sort of food you want, you can find it in Mississauga.
If you’re like me and you love food, then this will be a huge pro for you. If you want awesome Thai food, greek food, Mexican food, Lebanese food, there’s literally restaurants all over that’ll curb those cravings. I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a cultural meal that isn’t in Mississauga.
Speaking of food, is anyone hungry right now?
No for real though, speaking of food, a lot of the grocery stores will actually sell groceries from all over the world. Every store I go to in Mississauga has an international section where you can find some foods that come from all these different countries.
To be honest, I don’t know how common that is around the world to have an international food section in the grocery store, but I think that’s pretty cool.
Con #2 - Cost Of Living In Mississauga
The next con of living in Mississauga is that the cost of living is pretty high. Homes prices are high, property taxes, car insurance, it’s all pretty high. I actually did a video of breaking down the cost of living in Mississauga, if you’re interested in that topic check out my youtube channel here.
Everyday items aren’t too bad but definitely the home prices are the big issue. The average price for a home in Mississauga is $1,024,461. That’s across all property types. For example, the average detached home in Mississauga costs $1,518,393.
The city has been growing rapidly over the past few decades and it continues to grow today. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough new homes getting built to meet all the demand of the people moving here and that’s pushing prices higher. Not to mention, there’s not really any more land in Mississauga where you can build housing, so it’s been a real issue.
If you owned a home over the past 10 years it’s been great to see your home almost triple in value. But for those getting into the market, this is a huge con.
Honestly though, with the way homes have appreciated and the way things are heading, the way to own a home in Mississauga is to just get in the market as soon as you can and take advantage of the appreciation. That means the average person will have to buy a condo or a smaller house and living in it for a few years, then as the market appreciates and the loan gets paid down a bit, you sell and upsize.
To give you an idea of the appreciation trends in the GTA, home prices generally double every 10 years or so. Over the last decade, the appreciation has been much faster. But that’s the general trend is prices double every 10 years.
Pro #3 - Mississauga Has Direct Access To All Major Highways In The GTA
The next great thing about Mississauga is that we’re the only city in the GTA that has direct access to all of the major highways. This is great if you want to get out of the city quickly to explore Ontario or maybe go to a neighbouring city for an event or to see friends or whatever.
It’s definitely really nice that no matter where you are in Mississauga, you can pretty much be on a highway within about 10 minutes. You can take the highway up north to a cottage or to Algonquin park to go camping. Takes about 2 and half hours to get to Algonquin.
You drive an hour and half and be at niagara falls to see a natural wonder of the world, go to the casinos there (there’s actually a casino on the edge of Mississauga) or cross the border to go shopping in the states. It’s about a 30 minute drive to get downtown (without traffic) if you want to do something in Toronto. Or maybe you want to go to wonderland and you can get there in 30-40 minutes.
It’s pretty awesome that we have that access to all the highways so we don’t have to go out of our way to get on a highway that will take us to our destination. Another great thing about Mississauga is that it’s right by the airport, so if you do a lot of travelling, the airport is not far at all.
Con #3 - Mississauga Traffic and Transit
Now a huge con about Mississauga is the transit and the traffic. There’s no subway system in Mississauga, so all the public transit is by bus. There is the GO train, but that’s generally for travelling to other cities as the fares are higher and you could just take a bus when you’re travelling within Mississauga.
The not so great thing about the bus system in Mississauga is that it doesn’t reach all the corners of the city. SO there are some places where you’d have to walk a bit to get to a bus stop. Also, the buses don’t run as frequently as they do in say Toronto, so even when you’re at the bus stop, you may be waiting a bit.
I remember when I was younger before I started driving, I would bus everywhere and I can remember all the times I had to sit at a bus stop for 40 minutes waiting for the next one. Most routes show up every 20-25 minutes or so, but some of the out there routes have brutal waiting times if you miss the bus.
All that being said, Mississauga is definitely a car centric city. It is much easier to get around if you have your own car. The only problem with this is that everyone has a car and everyone is on the roads. So the traffic can get pretty bad, especially during rush hour.
Now in the city, the traffic can get bad but it’s definitely better than the traffic in Toronto. Don’t even get me started on the highways during rush hour.
Oh man, the highways during rush hour are BRUTAL. People talk about LA traffic like it’s the worst and I don’t know, I’ve been to LA and drove around there and it wasn’t that bad. It might have been time of day and all that but I feel like the 401 is very comparable (arguably worse). I don’t know, I remember the highways in LA had many more lanes compared to the 401 so maybe that’s why. Either way, the traffic can get pretty bad on the highways here. So that’s a huge CON.
You definitely have to budget your time and give yourself some extra time to get to your destination especially if you’re driving during rush hour. But when you do catch the highways without traffic, you can get to other cities fairly quickly.
Pro #4 - Mississauga Has So Much To Do
The next pro is that there’s so much to do in this city.
If you like shopping, there’s a bunch of malls and outdoor shopping centres. Square one, which is located in the city centre, is the 2nd biggest mall in Canada with 330 stores inside, ranging from some budget friendly shops to higher end shops. There’s also Heartland Town Centre which is a huge outdoor shopping centre, one of the biggest in Canada as well and has a ton of options for shopping as well.
If you like to play sports, there are several community centres, gyms and parks all across the city where you can do everything from playing basketball, soccer, hockey, go swimming in the various indoor and outdoor pools, golf. Honestly, whatever your sport of choice is, there’s somewhere in Mississauga you can play. It’s good for kids too as there are tons of leagues you can join for various sports.
If you’re a fan of being in nature, Mississauga has plenty of spots for that. There are over 480 parks all across the city. There’s some nice dog parks as well if you want to take your little buddy out to play.
The credit river runs through the city as well and there are a ton of walking trails along the river. No matter where you are in Mississauga, it’s quite easy to find yourself in a forest with just a short walk or drive.
There’s also 22km of waterfront on Lake Ontario that has plenty of nice parks where you can go hang out in the summer. There’s boat launches there if you have a boat and want to get out on the water.
Mississauga also has a ton of other things you can do with the kids or for date night. There’s a bunch of movie theatres, arcades - playdium for the kids (or the adults, who am I kidding), rec room - definitely for the adults, at night anyways. There’s libraries, an art museum, go karting, indoor skydiving, lots of bowling places, rock climbing gyms. There's just so much to do!
Con #4 - Nightlife In Mississauga
Now a con of Mississauga, is that while the nightlife is ok, it is not as good as Toronto. Toronto is where all the cool trendy bars are. Mississauga does have some bars that are cool but Toronto definitely takes the cake on that one.
Another thing that Toronto has that Mississauga doesn’t is all the concerts and sport games are in Toronto. If you’re a big concert goer like me, this is definitely a negative as you have a longer commute to go see a show. It’s not too bad but it would be nice if there were concerts in Mississauga.
If you’re a big concert goer, sport fan or trendy bar person then you’re going to have to commute a bit to Toronto if you want to do all that stuff. Like I said before, its not that bad of a commute but if you’re taking public transit then it can take a little while. Once you get to the subway though, it’s quite fast to get there. Of course, if your budget allows for it, you could take an Uber.
One thing I would do when going downtown to a bar or a show, is I would take the bus to the subway and then take the subway to the bar or the show. When I was done, I would take the subway all the way as far west as possible (Kipling) and then grab an uber or a taxi home.
Another thing I would do is just take the subway to union station and then grab a GO bus or train to Mississauga (as they run quite late) and then I would take an uber from the station in Mississauga. The total fare for the night out there and back would be approximately $25, which isn’t great but that’s the price you pay to not be closer to all the nightlife.
Of course, you could just stay within Mississauga as the bars there aren’t bad! They’re just not as “poppin” as the young ppl would say!
Pro #5 - Mississauga Is A Very Safe City
I’m going to end this post with a pro. Mississauga is a VERY safe city. The crime rate is very low and has been for a long time. Mississauga has been rated the safest city in Canada for a number of years.
You can pretty much walk around anywhere and not feel scared or threatened. Of course, like any large city, there are some neighbourhoods that you probably shouldn’t be walking around alone at night but the chance of any violent crime happening to you is pretty low throughout the city.
If we compare Mississauga’s crime rate per capita to some of the other big cities in Canada and the national average, you can see that Mississauga is well below all the other cities. And like I just mentioned, violent crime is very rare.
Just like anywhere in the world, if you’re just minding your own business and not getting involved with sketchier people then you will be more than ok. I’ve lived in Mississauga pretty much my whole life and have walked through less desirable neighbourhoods by myself as a teenager plenty of times and I’ve never had any issues with anyone and I’ve never felt unsafe. So again, Mississauga is very safe and that’s a huge plus.
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