We are thinking about returning to Canada from the UK. We are from Vancouver. I love Vancouver but the HCOL is frustrating.
If you live in Canada do you like where you live?
We would love to move to a MCOL city, somewhere we could buy a decent house for under $500k that was walkable to schools and amenities. DH requires an airport with overseas flights or at least frequent daily flights to a bigger Canadian city with an international airport. Any ideas? If you aren't comfortable announcing where you live PM me.
Post by changedname on Jan 29, 2015 5:52:18 GMT -5
I can pm you my town but its been voted best city to live in by money.sense magazine for like 5 years. I'm about 30 mins from the biggest airport in the country. I think average house prices are $500k. There is the lake, tons of festivals, tons to do with kids. I honestly think its a great place to live and bring up children.
It also has relatively good weather (not like Vancouver but good for the East).
I live in super expensive city. But I think Milton is nice. Aurora, Newmarket are close enough to the city but nice places on their own. Although housing isn't cheap there. Less than Vancouver/ toronto. Ottawa is also a lovely place. But they get worse weather than the rest.
I live in Nova Scotia and it's quite a LCOL province in general. You can check mls.ca for general house prices, but Halifax is probably going to meet the 500k price. The population is about 350,000 people. Beautiful city, right on the Harbour, it has an international airport about 25mins outside the city proper. Winters are quite mild in Nova Scotia because we're surrounded by ocean so it rarely goes below 17°F or so, and we really only get snow in late January and February (we do have random snowfall from November to March but it doesn't stick around). I don't live in the city (I'm pretty rural) but I love NS
Post by bananapancakes on Jan 29, 2015 7:53:27 GMT -5
I live in a town sort of in between the cities that @hannymaren mentioned. My H works at/near the airport and he has about a 20-25 minute commute. Our town is small but charming (~26,000) but we are close to several big cities. We have everything we really need here, a cute downtown, and it's very family friendly. Average house prices are $400 000-$600 000.
I live where changedname lives. The average detached single family home at the end of 2014 was around $480k. There are houses here that range from 300k for a smaller, older 2 or 3 bedroom semi or row home to the multi-million dollar point. There are also smaller condos available for just below 300k. There are houses that are century homes to some built within the last two years. For example, my house was just below 380k when we bought it 2.5 years ago (but it has increased in market value since, probably to at least 440k) but it is small (1100sq ft), older (built in 1961) but has a fairly sizeable lot. changedname lives in a much newer area, more square footage for the house but smaller property.
Other than that…it's safe, had great schools, I can't think of a single store that doesn't exist in our area (oh wait, Target won't be here soon - sad face)…we do get slightly more snow than some areas because of our location on lake Ontario…
We chose to live here (well, I already did, DH moved in with me, so perhaps I should say that we chose to stay here), because we both work in this school board and didn't want to live outside the school board and have to travel longer distances for work.
I like where I live, but the flight connections from SK likely wouldn't work for your DH. Too bad - my house was $300K and we're walkable to two schools (Catholic or French Immersion). It's not the finest shopping destination, but it's very pretty with the river and old trees, people are fairly friendly to newcomers, and it's easy to get everywhere in town. We're here mostly because of family, but I don't think there's anything that would get us to leave.
I live in London right now - I see you used to also. You could buy a beautiful, large home in London for well under 500K. Great schools, university, tons of sports and rec. Two hours to both Toronto and Detroit, very close to two Great Lakes.
But my heart belongs to Halifax. My absolute favourite city in Canada. Housing costs right on the peninsula are a little higher than average but everything about Halifax and the surrounding area is amazing. International airport, tons of universities, awesome parks, great restaurant and bar scene - totally recommend it!
Another vote for London.
Multiple daily flights to Pearson as well, and quite a few new US and international destinations in the past few years. My parents semi-retired here from Oakville three years ago, and my mom takes VIA into Union Station in Toronto twice a week. She says her entire train on those mornings is filled with fellow bankers commuting to Toronto. We both grew up in Oakville and we could not afford the lifestyle and neighbourhood we have here back there. Child care is also more reasonable than my friends pay in GTA, and (in my head) DS can potentially attend university or college either in town or at least a few hours down the 401.
It can be a bit of a trek now that my parents aren't in the GTA to use as hotel, but I still do day/after work trips to Toronto to get together with friends for showers, events downtown, etc. several times a year.
If I could be anywhere in Canada though, it would be Vancouver or the island. DH would move to Ottawa in a heartbeat if it was practical for us work and family-wise.
Hey! Ottawa weather is not that bad ?. Winter hits late December and ends late March. November is a drag, winter is on its way but no fun wintery things to do yet. There are tons of festivals, parks, good schools and great outdoor activities. Lots of museums and we now have good shopping!
Kelowna! (i don't live in the city proper, but i'm nearish)
- mild weather, a little worse than vancouver, but 17" of snow completely shut down the city a couple weeks ago. that was a morning snow squall when we lived in northern NB, so i'll take it. - good airport, usually have to connect through vancouver or calgary for international, but great daily options to major airports in canada - awesome outdoor activities in both summer and winter with the lake, local ski hills, tons of hiking, proximity to the Rockies, etc. and it's freaking gorgeous here. - houses range $400-600k, you can definitely get something good for $500k. - wineries
downsides: - shopping, but most people go to vancouver once or twice a year if that matters to them. - infrastructure. it's hard to build roads around lakes and rocky mountains so the roads leave something to be desired. we like to joke that it's part of the charm - public transportation. it's there and it's adequate for a city this size, but i wouldn't live without a car here.
I live in London right now - I see you used to also. You could buy a beautiful, large home in London for well under 500K. Great schools, university, tons of sports and rec. Two hours to both Toronto and Detroit, very close to two Great Lakes.
But my heart belongs to Halifax. My absolute favourite city in Canada. Housing costs right on the peninsula are a little higher than average but everything about Halifax and the surrounding area is amazing. International airport, tons of universities, awesome parks, great restaurant and bar scene - totally recommend it!
Another vote for London.
Multiple daily flights to Pearson as well, and quite a few new US and international destinations in the past few years. My parents semi-retired here from Oakville three years ago, and my mom takes VIA into Union Station in Toronto twice a week. She says her entire train on those mornings is filled with fellow bankers commuting to Toronto. We both grew up in Oakville and we could not afford the lifestyle and neighbourhood we have here back there. Child care is also more reasonable than my friends pay in GTA, and (in my head) DS can potentially attend university or college either in town or at least a few hours down the 401.
It can be a bit of a trek now that my parents aren't in the GTA to use as hotel, but I still do day/after work trips to Toronto to get together with friends for showers, events downtown, etc. several times a year.
If I could be anywhere in Canada though, it would be Vancouver or the island. DH would move to Ottawa in a heartbeat if it was practical for us work and family-wise.
I've also lived in Victoria (I get around!) and while I didn't enjoy it when I lived there, now that I have kids I think I would actually like it.
London was great. I really like how the city is laid out on a grid and it has a lot of amenities while still being affordable.
Lots of great info in this thread. Really appreciate people chiming in. We're probably in Vancouver for year one and if DH's self-employment/business works out we could really move anywhere. Bookmarking this thread.
I do NOT like where I live, lol. But i loved living in KW when I lived there, and DH and i have always said when we retire we would move back there, or to somewhere more interesting like blue mountain/collingwood.
If I didn't have kids and could start fresh I would consider Niagara on the lake or Burlington.
I'm winning you over aren't I Seriously though, if his business is something not dependent on locals for income, and you continue to make an income where paying for a 500k house would be comfortable, you will live like kings here. Halifax is constantly winning various tourist type awards for being a friendly city with lots to do. Just avoid Dartmouth. That's the bad side of town.
I LOVE where we live. City of approx. 120k in SW ON. Close enough to TO if we want the big city experience (1 hr if no traffic). It is starting to become a bit of a bedroom community in the south end, but there's a real sense of community here. It's equal parts aggie/hippy/yuppy. COL is still reasonable and my kid attends the (tied for the) best ranked elementary school in the province. We moved to Quebec in 2005 for 4 years and I was so overjoyed when I was able to finagle a transfer back here.
I'm winning you over aren't I Seriously though, if his business is something not dependent on locals for income, and you continue to make an income where paying for a 500k house would be comfortable, you will live like kings here. Halifax is constantly winning various tourist type awards for being a friendly city with lots to do. Just avoid Dartmouth. That's the bad side of town.
lol. you're breaking h's heart.
it's not all dangerous, but it's not that interesting either. i've long made the stipulation that if we move back that way we'll live on the halifax side. i want a chance to not drive my car everywhere.