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Have you ever thought to yourself, "How much does it cost to live in Mississauga"? Have you ever wondered how expensive Mississauga is compared to some of the other major cities in Canada? Is Mississauga cheaper to live in than some of the other major cities in Canada? We're going to find out today as we will explore the cost of living in Mississauga, Ontario.
Cost Of Living Index
We’re going to be taking a look at the cost of living index for Mississauga in relation to some of the other major cities in the country. This will give you a general overview of how expensive or cheap Mississauga is in various different categories compared to some of the other major cities.
So what’s the cost of living index? Basically it looks at how much money you need per month to cover all the basic necessities in a given city. It incorporates the expenses of various everyday items and gives you a benchmark number that you can then compared to other cities.
The way this particular index works, and the one we're going to be using, it takes New York City and uses it as the baseline. So across the board, New York is going to have an index of 100 in all of the categories.
If another city has an index of 120 in one of the categories, that’s telling us that that city, on average, is 20% more expensive to live in than New York. Conversely, if a city has an index of 90, that means it is 10% cheaper, on average, to live in than New York. Follow me?
So we're not going to be using New York as a comparison but we are going to be comparing some of the bigger Canadian cities to Mississauga to see how they stack up against each other. But before we do that, let's do a quick break down of each of the categories we are going to be looking at.
Breakdown of the Categories
Here is a breakdown of each of the indexes we will be looking at and comparing.
Cost of living index is the overall index between the two cities, but does not including housing or rent. It does factor in things like grocery costs, restaurant costs, clothing costs, transportation costs, some leisure activity costs and utility costs. It gives you a general idea of which city is more expensive to live in on average, without the housing element.
The rent index is an estimation of rent prices between the two cities.
Cost of living plus rent is the relative cost to live in that city factoring in that housing cost.
The grocery index is an estimation of grocery prices between the 2 cities.
And finally, the restaurant index is a comparison of the prices of meals and drinks in restaurants and bars.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's start doing some comparisons.
1. Mississauga vs Toronto
Population matters so we've included that in the chart. As you can see, Toronto has a population of 2.93 million compared to Mississauga’s 720k.
Across the board, Mississauga is generally a cheaper city to live in than Toronto. On average, it’s almost 3% cheaper to live in Mississauga. Rent costs are about 7.5% cheaper. Cost of living plus rent is 4.59% cheaper. Restaurants are over 16% cheaper and groceries are relatively the same in Mississauga and Toronto.
These stats are definitely true as I’ve found things to be a little more expensive in Toronto. Things like rent, restaurants and bars are generally more expensive in Toronto than Mississauga. This does make sense though as Toronto is a much bigger city with more people and more things to do, so things tend to be a little pricier.
The good thing is that you can still take advantage of everything that Toronto has to offer while living in the slightly cheaper city of Mississauga.
2. Mississauga vs Ottawa
Ottawa’s population is higher than Mississauga's with almost 1,000,000 people and you can see that everything is, on average, cheaper in Mississauga, with the exception of housing.
We've got a 2% cheaper cost of living, almost 6% cheaper groceries and over 10% cheaper restaurant prices. Of course, the rent index is almost 19% more expensive in Mississauga and, when you factor that into the cost of living, that number makes Mississauga almost 5% more expensive to live in than Ottawa.
This makes sense as affordable housing in Mississauga has been a real issue for a long time. This goes for the Greater Toronto Area Real Estate Market as a whole. There’s just so much demand and not enough supply of houses that the market has appreciated and continues to appreciate significantly. Same thing goes for rent prices.
With Mississauga being a suburb of Toronto, and the amount of people that live in the Greater Toronto Area, it just makes sense that housing is going to cost more here. Especially with all the immigration we see. The Greater Toronto Area gets over 100,000 people moving to the area every year!
Overall though, if we were to remove the housing element, then Mississauga would come out as the cheaper city.
3. Mississauga vs Montreal
Montreal has a population of 1.78M. As you can see, Mississauga is more expensive in general to live in than Montreal, with average rent prices being over 50% more expensive. That brings the cost of living plus rent index up to almost 18%.
However, groceries and restaurants are still cheaper in Mississauga, so it’s really just a housing issue here. And honestly, this is going to be a trend with almost all these cities. Anything to do with housing in the Greater Toronto Area is going to cost more than the rest of the country, with the exception of Vancouver, but we’ll get to that shortly.
You can see that the total cost of living index is 4.45% higher in Mississauga and that’s not including rent, but that is factoring in things like utilities, transportation and all that to bring that number up a bit. Mississauga is a more expensive city to live in compared to Montreal.
4. Mississauga vs Calgary
Next up is Calgary, with a population of 1.336M. More people live there but the overall cost of living is cheaper in Mississauga. Again, the housing prices are higher in Mississauga than Calgary, no surprise there as Calgary home prices were on the decline for a while.
Anyways, we can see that grocery and restaurant prices are both cheaper in Mississauga, with restaurants being significantly cheaper at 12.32%, so that’s good news if you’re into food like myself.
5. Mississauga vs Edmonton
Now let’s look at Edmonton. Super brief as these numbers are similar to Calgary. With a population of almost 1M, it’s still just under 2% cheaper to live in Mississauga. Housing in Mississauga is more expensive but other than that, life is cheaper here.
Restaurants, again, with big savings for Mississauga, coming in at 15% cheaper than it would cost in Edmonton to go to your favourite bar or restaurant.
6. Mississauga vs Vancouver
Finally, let’s look at Mississauga vs Vancouver. Although the population of Vancouver is less than Mississauga’s, it is known for being an extremely expensive city. And looking at the results here, we can see that it’s true.
Across the board, Mississauga is cheaper than Vancouver. Housing is a huge issue over there as well and we can see that rents cost 11.5% more in Vancouver than they do in Mississauga.
Grocery and restaurant prices are pretty high as well comparatively. I guess you gotta pay more when you live in a super cool spot, right by the oceans and the mountains. I understand!
So that was looking at the indexes between some of the bigger cities in Canada to Mississauga. I hope that was helpful for you and gave you some insight on how Mississauga compares to some of these cities.
Before we go into the next part I wanted to go over a quick note. If you’re looking at all these charts and you are thinking you might want to live in one of those other cities, you can reach out to me and I can do some of the leg work for you and get you in contact with a really good agent in one of those places. We have a massive worldwide referral network with great agents across the globe so if you ever need someone to help you in your local city, just let me know and I’d be more than happy to help you find someone amazing.
Now let’s jump into what things actually cost in Mississauga.
Home Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
First up is home prices. If you wanted to buy a home in Mississauga, these are the average prices broken down by home type. This data is accurate as of April 2021.
The Mississauga housing market is very hot with an average price of $1,024,461. So this is an average price of a home in Mississauga, factoring in all the different home types. But that’s not real useful so we broke it down a little bit more.
Detached - $1,518,393
Detached home prices are soaring with an average price of over 1.5M. Detached homes are very valuable and coveted. With the way the market has been going over the past year, it seems that everyone wants a decent home with some decent yard space and that’s what you get with a detached home. You’ll definitely be hard pressed to find a detached home in Mississauga that is under $1M. There are a few but most of them are smaller or not in the best areas and they generally get bid to over $1M anyways.
Semi-Detached - $974,375
The average semi-detached home in Mississauga is sitting at around 975k.
Townhome - $933,000
Average townhome sitting just below that at $933k.
Condo Townhomes - $750,000
Condo townhomes are a bit cheaper at 750k. This is similar to a townhome but there are condo fees so that’s an extra expense you need to factor in. The condo corporation will usually take care of some of the maintenance like roof repair and things regarding the land of the property, but it depends on the specific building.
Condo Apartments - $575,000
Finally, Condo apartments are sitting at an average price of 575k. You can definitely find cheaper than this but they will be smaller and some of them will be in older, less desirable buildings.
Rental Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
Next up is rental prices for Apartments. Again, this data is accurate as of April 2021.
Looking at what it costs to rent, on average, we’ve got:
Bachelor - $1,575
1 Bed - $1,830
2 Bed - $2,258
3 Bed - $2,837
Full house rentals usually start in the mid - upper $2000s and you can rent out a room in a house for around 600-800. Basement rentals depend on the size but you can find a nice 2 bedroom for around 1600-1800.
Grocery Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
Now let’s look at how much groceries cost in Mississauga. I’m not going to go through them all but you can see them on the chart above. It’s a little harder to nail down these prices as things fluctuate and it really depends on where you shop, what kind of brands you buy and things like that.
You can definitely shop at the stores that have cheaper prices like No Frills, Food Basics, Walmart. You can also shop at Costco and buy things in bulk to save money if you have good storage capabilities.
Either way, this will give you a general idea of what the everyday items cost. When looking at just the basics like meat, fruit, veggies, grains and dairy, depending on how much you eat, you can get by with around $200-$300 per person per month. If you start adding in snacks, alcohol and things like that, that number will be closer to $400-500 per month.
Transportation Costs in Mississauga, Ontario
How much does transportation cost in Mississauga? If you own a car then those prices will vary depending on the type of car you have and how much you drive it. Of course, you have to factor in things like maintenance, gas, insurance and all that fun stuff. Car insurance is pretty expensive in Mississauga so that’s something you should be aware of.
Gas prices usually range from 1.10/L - 1.40/L but of course this fluctuates. This is pretty standard pricing across the Greater Toronto Area. Some gas stations will be cheaper than others and you can use an app like Gas Buddy to see which gas stations near you have the cheapest prices. Also, if you do end up getting a Costco membership, their gas prices are always a few cents cheaper.
For public transit - you can get a MiWay monthly pass for $135, or you can pay $4 for a single fare using cash or $3.10 for a single fare using presto.
What’s presto you ask? It’s an electronic, reloadable fare card that you use to tap on when you’re getting on a bus. You can autoload it so that when your card balance falls below a certain amount, you’ll automatically add more money to your card so you never really need to worry about it if you’re using it a lot. And if you use it for the GO transit, it’ll also discount your fare the more you use it per month.
Speaking of the GO Transit, there’s no monthly pass or anything, but most people just use their presto cards. The fare for GO depends on which station you’re leaving from and where you’re going. It fluctuates depending on the distance you’re going but you can usually get from Mississauga to Downtown Toronto anywhere from $5-$10 per trip.
Utility Costs in Mississauga, Ontario
Next up is utilities. I tried to find the most accurate numbers to give you as this can fluctuate depending on the size of your house and how much you use your utilities.
Utilities include hydro, water, gas, heating and cooling and it’s generally around $250-350/month for a standard 3 bedroom house. Could be more or less depending on, like I said, how you have everything set up.
Obviously, the simple things like turning off the lights when you’re not in the room and taking shorter showers will save you some money. If you have teenaged kids who like to take 7 hour long showers (I’m a little guilty of that sometimes) then the water bill will, of course, be higher.
For heating and cooling, if you have good, energy efficient windows, then that can help keep costs down. Also, having a smart system set up to shut off your heating and cooling when you’re not home or even when you’re asleep can help keep those costs down.
For internet, the big 2 providers are Rogers and Bell. Both of them have great packages that start at $85/month. They do have cheaper, bare minimum options that will cost you $50/month if you would prefer that.
There’s also some other companies out there that may be a bit cheaper but I can’t really speak about their reliability or anything like that as I have no experience with them!
Restaurant Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
Almost done here, restaurants is next. As you can see, casual dining around Mississauga will cost you around $15 for a meal. A fast food meal at McDonald’s or whatever is usually around $10.
If you’re going out for a date at a mid range restaurant, a 3 course meal will cost you around $75. And If you want a beer with your meal, it’ll be around $5-$8 depending on the place. Wine prices are similar to beer, maybe just a bit higher.
Entertainment Prices in Mississauga, Ontario
This is the last thing we’re going to touch on. You can see the various prices of different things you can do.
Movie tickets were around $13 before 2020. I’m not sure if that changed as I haven’t been to a theatre in over a year due to obvious reasons, so I’m not sure what the prices are like anymore. I tried to figure it out and it looked like the prices did go up, but I cannot confirm. Either way, if you can make it out on a Tuesday, the ticket prices will be cheaper.
Bowling varies by time and place, but on average it’s around $30-45/hr to rent a lane. You can gather some friends together and split that cost. Make sure you factor in shoe rental if you don’t have your own pair.
If you’re looking to stay in shape, there are a ton of gyms in Mississauga, both big and small. A membership will cost you around $30-80/month depending on where you go. Of course things have kind of shifted to online training since 2020 so there’s a lot of programs online, paid and free.
On top of all that, there are tons of things you can do for free. There are lots of parks throughout the city, free events and things like that.
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