In the last episode, we were ready to leave the super busy New York City.
After a 5 hours’ drive from Manhattan, now I’m at a more relaxing city, Boston.
You can think of Boston as the Vancouver in Canada and Toronto, of course, the New York in Canada.
Boston is said to be the most European city in the United States.
Narrow streets filled with bars and restaurants.
This one is a must try for oysters and lobster rolls.
In Boston, many nice neighbourhoods were built around the public park, Boston Common.
You can think of it as a much smaller version of Central Park in Manhattan.
We’re now on the Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay area.
It feels like Paris, doesn’t it?
With a tree lined walking street in the middle of a wide avenue.
Townhouses like these ones are around 1,600 square feet and they start from $3.2 million Canadian dollars.
That’s the Boston Common park right in front of us, so this apartment has a very nice view onto the park.
The penthouse is a 3,600 square feet 2 bedroom unit with a huge terrace overlooking the park and the Charles River.
It was sold in October 2021 for almost $21 million Canadian dollars.
Let’s go over to the other side of Boston Common.
And this is the most expensive neighbourhood, Beacon Hill.
This apartment here was built in 1899.
2 bedroom units are around $2 million Canadian dollars.
What about this much newer building just completed in 2019?
1 bedroom units start from around $2 million Canadian dollars and prices go up to around $10 million dollars for the large 3 bedroom units.
One of the biggest attractions around Boston is, of course, Harvard University.
Let’s check out some student rentals.
1 bedroom units here are renting at around $3,800 Canadian dollars per month.
And 2 bedroom units around $5,000 per month.
It’s definitely not cheap to study at Harvard.
This concludes my Boston trip.
Next, I’m heading to Montreal.
Montreal is the second largest city in Canada.
It has a very European feel, isn’t it?
How’s the real estate market comparing to Toronto?
I really enjoyed the vibe here in Old Montreal.
And I found this special place where it keeps the historical facade on the outside and turns the inside into an outside cafe with live jazz music!
Let’s head to St. Catherine Street, the most famous street in downtown Montreal.
It’s like Yonge Street in downtown Toronto.
Here’s an iconic condo development at a super prime location in downtown Montreal.
58 and 61-storey towers.
1 bedroom units start at around mid $500,000.
And 2 bedroom units start at around mid $700,000.
As expected, prices are lower than in Toronto.
One thing to pay attention to…
In Toronto, when you see a pre-construction price, the 13% HST is already included in the purchase price.
In Montreal, tax is not included in the price. You will need to add 5% GST and 9.975% QST, that’s 15% on top of the price you see in the price list.
Let’s walk along St. Catherine Street.
2 bedroom units in this condo built in 2013 are around $800,000 here at Phillips Square.
You can see that Montreal is also having a boom of modern condos to satisfy the population growth that’s happening across Canada.
So here’s my last station before heading back to Toronto.
So what is my experience?
It is awesome!
It does tell me where to charge and when to charge.
I really enjoy this journey.