Looking at Eastern Canada and Ontario (real estate, apartments, condos)
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We currently live in Quebec City. For various reasons, not the least of which is the language issue, we're looking elsewhere. I'm originally from Toronto and have no interest in being anywhere near the GTA every again. But my wife and I do like what we know about Eastern Canada and maybe parts of Eastern Ontario (not Ottawa). This is an incredibly personal question with countless variables of course that you couldn't possible answer on our behalf, but let me try to keep the question simple, we want a place that fits the things we like about Quebec City...
So where in Eastern Canada should we explore for things like this...
- a sizable population, so not a town or village but it needn't be a million either.
- the historical element (obviously needn't be French)
- interesting cultural establishments
- a good food scene (we work in hospitality)
- weather isn't an issue because we love winter
- affordable real estate and not in the middle of nowhere but rather in a safe downtown
- good public transit
- if the place were friendly to ethnic communities, all the better
I feel like Saint John, New Brunswick is the only thing I know of. Any help here with others to look at?
I feel like Saint John, New Brunswick is the only thing I know of. Any help here with others to look at?
Thanks!
Affordable: Kingston, but away from the downtown core; Queen's University causes property prices to be higher there due to its proximity to downtown. (Brockville could also be worth a look, but it's small and it has stagnated.)
Less affordable, but not without their charms: Fredericton -- it can be a bit church-y and provincial, though -- and Halifax. Charlottetown has really developed in recent years, but it started from a low base and I have no idea what people do there during the winter months.
Do note that with the possible exception of Halifax, public transit in all of these cities is likely to be a bit underwhelming.
Affordable: Kingston, but away from the downtown core; Queen's University causes property prices to be higher there due to its proximity to downtown. (Brockville could also be worth a look, but it's small and it has stagnated.)
Less affordable, but not without their charms: Fredericton -- it can be a bit church-y and provincial, though -- and Halifax. Charlottetown has really developed in recent years, but it started from a low base and I have no idea what people do there during the winter months.
Do note that with the possible exception of Halifax, public transit in all of these cities is likely to be a bit underwhelming.
Thanks so much for the great info. I really like what I've seen about Kingston. The major difference if only aesthetically is that here in Quebec City for less than 500K you can be very centrally located with no need for a car and have a lovely early 20th century apartment. Those seem hard to find in downtown Kingston. The only thing that comes up is small houses further away or modern condos. A quick scan of the downtown area suggests there are apartments like that, but I'm not finding them. Maybe I'm not looking on the right sites or they're just far more expensive than 500K.
Harsh weather, though, and it's hard to make a living there. It's also quite isolated.
Good points. Despite how lovely it is. Kingston appears to make more sense for us although New Brunswick ticks a lot of boxes as well. Ottawa would be fine if it didn't get so crime-ridden as you went further out from the downtown area. And it looks like the kind of neighbourhood we're looking for is completely unrealistic in our price range.
Kingston feels right, there's clearly a lot of tourism and hospitality so working and the possibility of opening our own place seems doable at least far more there than the prospects here, that's for sure. It's in a great corridor of Ontario I grew up visiting a lot on day trips from Toronto. Very historic, very pleasant and not crazy expensive. It also puts us closer to several friends which begins to have more weight as time goes on. The draw of New Brunswick is the area geographically, historically, a little (more manageable bit) of French remains, and weather-wise are all more up our alley. But Kingston is right up there as well.
I was basing it off their "weather isn't an issue we love winter" and "we work in hospitality"
Even people who claim to like winter would find a winter in St. John's to be a bit much, I'd guess. I'm willing to bet my beer money on that, actually.
And as for working in hospitality, that's a much tougher go in St. John's than in other parts of Canada, I'd expect. Realistically speaking, restaurants in St. John's are busy for only about six or seven months of the year, maximum, from what I observed over the years. And between the slowdown in oil development and the impact of COVID, I'd guess that the last few years have been darned near impossible for restauranteurs. (I'm guessing that they're not in the bar business -- and I'd warn them off getting into that in St. John's if they were -- and I haven't heard anything about bed and breakfasts, so .... )
St. John's isn't that bad if you prefer snow over cold.
The weather doesn't bother me as much as the distance east. I think New Brunswick is as far as we'd be willing to go. Somewhere between there and Kingston.
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