After living downtown for 20 years, Erin Mills is now home, just off Folkway. I wasn't looking forward to moving out here, because compared to the other places I've lived it really is a souless suburb!
We looked at around 50 homes and put an offer on one in old Streetsville (outbid by 65k), and was minutes from putting an offer on another one just around the corner from our current place, but got into an argument and decided it wasn't meant to be. A couple days later we lucked out - elderly mom passed away and her kids did not want to do a bidding war and wanted to take first reasonable offer. We saw it at 11am on first day of showing and put an offer immediately which was accepted. Ended up costing us less than the other houses we were interested in and this was much nicer. Unfortunately prices have close to doubles here in 6 years, which hurts newer or younger home buyers.
Now I really like this area - decent sized 40x120 lot, backyard w/ no neighbours and trees, live on a very quiet court, garage, basement, 4bdrms, and more. Ended up doing a full inside/outside reno on it, not because we had to, but because we want to stay here a long time. I like that the Folkway area has the Sawmill Valley trail network that can either link up to the Credit River or Erindale Park. Lots of good schools, parks, overall amenities and basically right in the middle of QEW/403/401 for access in and out. Prices are still going up, but it seems there are a bunch of 3-4bdrm towns in the $7-800k range and right around the $1mil mark for detached 3-4bdrm homes.
We looked in the east Mississauga area and I'm not a fan and don't like north Mississauga either. I went to Clarkson High School and never really liked that south side of the city, unless closer to Port Credit. There are some nicer older homes in the Homelands/Thornlodge area, but that area is getting a bit pricey too - maybe just above your budget. I do really like the older big lots of some parts of Credit Woodlands, but you have to be selective of the house and street etc.
