@dougthebicycle Buy? Minimum $700k for a townhouse, you’d need a lot as a down payment in order to qualify for the mortgage. In a 3 bedroom house where would you work that’s noise free? Having kids that age I know, it’s challenging. Best place to live in Canada for your situation would be southern Ontario. Try Windsor, super cheap buy a 3 bedroom house for under $200k. Will give you money to save for the kids education and save for retirement.
@dougthebicycle It’s pretty tight I in my opinion. You can get by, but you would be working just to pay bills. I seriously doubt you would be able to build your savings or investments. Your wife working will be necessary but then day care costs are through the roof as well. I would recommend Alberta. Specifically Calgary. You can live a little more comfortably with 100k gross. You would actually be able to own property there with a decent down payment and start building equity l. Comparatively, owning any property is Vancouver on 100k will be extremely difficult. Hope this helps. It’s just my opinion. I grew up in Vancouver and currently live in Calgary. So speaking from experience. Feel free to message me if you need anymore insight. Good luck!
@tedpolaris Thanks a lot, I might actually message you I accept the offer.
I know I have to land to BC because of the permit I will get, but once in Canada I can move anywhere I want, and Calgary seems like a fun place to live with my family, I will consider that option.
@dougthebicycle Hey no worries at all. Your dollar will go A LOT farther in Alberta. Consider something simple like tax…BC tax is 5% GST AND 8% PST. Whereas in Alberta it’s only 5% tax. Good generally cost less here too. When you do buy property…Alberta also has no land transfer tax. That will save you thousands of dollars and instead you can put that towards a down payment.
@tedpolaris I was just taking a quick look to Calgary info and it looks really good.
I don't care about most of the cons, kind of messy traffic to go to downtown.. my city is a chaos on traffic so Im use to that, I don't plan to go out a lot anyways, the weather.. that could be a bit hard to get use to but working at home so..., maybe finding a spot a school could be one of the things we will struggle with but for the rest... looks like a more affordable place to live, no need to say beautiful of course.
@dougthebicycle The traffic situation has improved a lot with the opening of the new ring road - stony trail. It takes about 20 minutes to get downtown from the extreme south end of town. Weather wise, yes it gets cold in the winter. However Calgary also gets “chinooks” all throughout the winter so it warms up sporadically to positive temperatures. Last week was -20 C, this week its +4 to +8 C. In my opinion, overall Calgary would have better weather than Vancouver. A lot more sun, longer summers with little rain. Calgary is also set up in a way where each residential area will have its own schools so that’s easy to find. If you want an even cheaper alternative, Edmonton …even cheaper Regina and Winnipeg, but in my opinion Calgary would be the best medium. It’s also a booming city now so lots of opportunities in many fields.
@dougthebicycle Calgary is heavenly traffic wise. I didn’t appreciate it enough until I moved cities and I’ve realized that it’s great. But yes, generally tagging on to what Stompede is saying. Calgary is a bit of a hidden gem as you have a city with a relatively lower cost of living, new infrastructure, lots of nature and scenery nearby (including the Rockies), a lower tax burden than other provinces, cheaper fuel/resources, cheaper housing, a fairly sizeable corporate HQ presence and the highest wages in Canada still. Downside is obviously weather and the dependency on oil & gas. If you can make it work, it’s awesome. But I’d look up job prospects as some sectors can be a bit dependent on geography in Canada. For instance…in my field in finance, there’s not much to do outside of Toronto downtown (Calgary has some options and so does Montreal) so that severely limits my geographical choices. I’d do some research for yours.
@dougthebicycle Wow. What a huge decision! Canada is so big. I don't even know where I would start other than by ruling out Vancouver. You could survive here, but why when you can thrive somewhere cheaper. More expensive does not mean better.
I know you aren't looking to buy right now, but realtor.ca is a good site to see the relative price differences from place to place.
Lots of smaller cities and towns are all great places to live - and possibly better for families.
@dougthebicycle Southern Alberta would definitely be something to consider. Lethbridge has 100k people so not huge but not small either. Nice and close to the Rockies. or Red Deer but I'm a wimp and it's getting really cold up there!
I like northern Vancouver Island a lot. Coastal weather (rain not snow). Nanaimo, Courtenay, Comox, Campbell River. Bit more expensive than Alberta.
Alberta leans a bit more politically conservative than BC. Not like Texas conservative, but more right leaning and BC leans more left. Don't know where you are coming from but one or the other might be more attractive.
but to each their own I guess!