robjmitch74

Hi,

I have two potential job offers (still early stages but fingers crossed). One in Calgary and one in Kitchener. Whilst I have been able to find loads of information in respect of Calgary and lots of discussion items on this forum in respect of it, I have been unable to find out very much about Kitchener at all.

Can anyone give me any info or point me in the right direction, eg. size of town, house prices, weather, etc?

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Rob

dbd33

It might help to search here for Waterloo or K-W as the towns are joined.

Two references, the latter gives the population as 200,000 but that's probably just Kitchener rather than K-W:

http://www.kitchener.ca/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchener,_Ontario

Kitchener has a large German population (it used to called Berlin) and hosts Oktoberfest and nice alcohol fuelled skating sessions at Christmas. It's not an especially attractive town but there are a range of commutable housing choices, it would be a good place to work if you wanted live rurally.

House prices are available from www.mls.ca, they'll be less than in Calgary. Winter will be less cold in K-W than in Calgary but depending exactly where you live you may have more snow.

Judy in Calgary

It depends how important the Rocky Mountains are to you, robjmitch74. If they're important, obviously Calgary wins.

If they are not that important, then I would say Kitchener-Waterloo wins. I have a few reasons for saying that:

• You'd get more real estate for your money in K-W, as dbd33 said.
  
  
• You'd be within day-trip driving distance for cross-border shopping in the USA.
  
  
• Flying from Toronto to the UK is a bit cheaper and quicker than flying from Calgary.
  
  
• You said in one of your early posts that you were a broadcast engineer. I'm assuming that isn't specifically tied to the oil industry, so why live in more expensive Calgary if you're not dependent on the oil industry for finding a job?

I wouldn't say there was a huge difference betwen these two options. I'm not voting for Calgary at all costs or for K-W at all costs. I'm saying that, looking at what I know of your circumstances, K-W has a slight advantage over Calgary. Just my opinion.
x

Steve_P

As has been said by bdb33 and Judy very little to choose between the two certainly better house prices in Kitchener/Waterloo.

Actually temperature wise the two are quite similar in the winter months Calgary may have more extreme temps at times. In summer Waterloo is a bit hotter and has more than double the amount of rain throughout the year.

Climate normals for Calgary

Climate normals for Kitchener/Waterloo I know it says Waterloo-Wellington but it is actually the Waterloo airport.

Journeyman Electrician

Calgary has got the world famous Calgary stampede, thats gotta edge it above its competition partner.

dbd33

Kitchener used to have the longest stand up bar in the world.