Nothing wrong with Oshawa Real estate at all.
The start of the thread was for tips on where to buy in and around Oshawa and as someone who has lived out here all my life save a couple of interludes, I can say Oshawa has finally reached the point where it has been discovered by the great majority of people looking for a way out of that libreal over taxed hole that is Toronto.
First off, as you get farther out in Durham Region, the prices drop. Out here in Bowmanville things are saner than in Pickering and Ajax. Oshawa is the fastest growing city for its size class in Canada, and prices are going up. The talk of GM laying off wont affect this much since much of the layoff's will be retiring workers who might take packages to get out. Half of the plant commutes in from farther out anyhow. My first house in Oshawa I owned for 15 months, and I gained 20% of the original purchase price after all my fee's were paid for the sale and moving into my house here in Bowmanville. No where else can you say that in the GTA where the average working guy can afford a house. Understand also, that house was in a slightly less attractive area compared to many in Oshawa.
Oshawa gets a bad rap, but it has its rough edges. Downtown is not there but few Ontario cities have escaped this problem. Overall though, avoid south of the 401, find a good neighbourhood, and settle in and the city will not disapppoint. Ya people here are down to earth and not looking for a Starbucks on every corner, but if you are honest, who wants to live amongst a bunch of phonies anyhow?
Oh ya, as for the "hobby", it is coming along here slowly. Things are better now than they were, and hey, Toronto is 45 minutes away ( to downtown too ) so you aren't missing much by living out this way....