Missed that your offices were on Preston. Not sure why you'd be focused on Kanata or Stittsville. Plenty of other locations which is why I'd consider getting a feel for the city before buying.
Moving to Ottawa from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
- Thread starter Sharkando
- Start date
I do not know much about Ottawa but yes will rent something for initial days. but even renting, where should i concentrate more? if not Kanata or Stittsville then where?
If you are on Preston Street, you are near to the downtown area. This area you can walk, bus or ride your bike to the downtown, Hintonburg or Westboro areas. Lots of condos/rentals in these neighbourhoods. Also lots of restaurants, coffee shops etc.
would suggest renting for more than the initial days. Buying a home is a very expensive longterm commitment so you want to be happy about where you buy. Would really suggest renting for 6-12 months to get to know the city, make friends, determine where your wife is likely to be employed, get a sense for commute times, determine what type of home you want, get a sense of your expenses, etc. How did you narrow your search down to Kanata or Stittsville? Would start researching all the different areas and looking at the differences in home prices per sq ft. Would also look at school rankings. Don't believe that the Fraser institute should be taken too seriously because there aren't huge differences in the quality of many schools and it often comes down to the teacher but I would look at schools rated in the top half or top third. A good school district factors into your property value.
Hi Canuck, I do have a husband.we do not have kids yet but yes schools have to be considered for sure in future. Obviously we will be looking out to rent for 6 months is the plan for now.
Also expenses looking for something cheaper side. i got to know today that in the month of june offices are goin to open and my manager says today can be preston or kanata. so if kanata then is it cheaper ?
Not necessarily. There are very expensive areas of Kanata. Would suggest doing research on communities in Ottawa while looking at a map. Would also look at listings on realtor.ca. A good school district is important even without children because your property will become more desirable if you ever want to sell. Would also look at crime statistics if you are unfamiliar with the city and the safer neighbourhoods. Would personally avoid some areas like Vanier. Your salary and job opportunities may be better in Ottawa but real estate is also more expensive.
we do not have kids yet but yes schools have to be considered for sure in future. Obviously we will be looking out to rent for 6 months is the plan for now.
Also expenses looking for something cheaper side. i got to know today that in the month of june offices are goin to open and my manager says today can be preston or kanata. so if kanata then is it cheaper ?
Ottawa's real estate market is crazy right now. Single houses/Townhouses are going for +$150k to the asking price. A small mid-row townhouse in Kanata would probably start around $680k+, which means that the asking price would be around $500-$550 and you can expect waiving all conditions other than financing (although even this might be an issue).
Be prepared to participate in bidding wars with no conditions. It seems that no one cares about good or bad areas as even Vanier is seeing fierce bidding wars.
We have just bought a house in Aylmer, which is over the river and even there it's insane.
Be prepared to participate in bidding wars with no conditions. It seems that no one cares about good or bad areas as even Vanier is seeing fierce bidding wars.
We have just bought a house in Aylmer, which is over the river and even there it's insane.
Yes many are sick of GTA prices are both people and businesses are favouring Ottawa.
Right now yes even in rural areas outside Ottawa. There are multiple bidders and houses are going over the asking price by over a hundred thousand. As said above, people are buying these houses as is with no conditions. So you could be buying a lemon and need to put in a lot of worK and money. It is crazy.
I guess that's the case. Many people have permanently move to remote work, there is no reason for them to overpay.
Pretty much. We were looking for a single family home within 300-400k in Gatineau. It's pretty much impossible to buy a single family house in anglophone Aylmer and Hull under $400k. You can buy something within that price range in francophone Gatineau-Gatineau. But even this place has huge bidding wars. We fought for several properties there and in Gatineau-Gatineau we saw from 8 to 20 offers per property in our price range with $40-60k in addition to the asking price + no inspections condition.
In Hull and Aylmer it's $60-120k over the asking price.
A semi-detached down the street from the one we bought in Aylmer was listed at $300k and went for $415k within 2 days. We were extremely lucky to find the sellers who had no idea about the current real estate market, were selling without a realtor and needed to sell asap to close another mortgage. Otherwise, I'd say finding a single family home in Aylmer with our budget is not real.
Now, this is Quebec.
If you want to find something in Ontario (Ottawa), it's even worse. Within $400k you might be able to get a single family property within 70km from Ottawa in Ontario. If you have $700k to spend, then you can get a townhouse in Ottawa area and for single-family houses, you'd probably need to have $850k + to spend. But that's one hell of a mortgage.
You can take a look at realtor.ca for Ontario or centris.ca for Quebec but keep in mind that listing prices have nothing to do with what these properties sell for.
Ottawa has had a hot real estate market for a few years. Many relocating from Toronto. What was a more affordable city is slowly becoming unaffordable. Like Australia, this is only setting up future generations for problems unless they have an intergenerational wealth transfer. That or a housing crash. Neither great.
Thank you for the info. I thought properties in Ottawa r lower when compared to Vancouver. Looks like the prices r same. Well have to rethink on moving now