tweed_wearer

My wife and I have been in Vancouver (both downtown and later the GVA) for over 3 years now and we have a son about to turn two.


Even in the 'burbs, we feel home ownership is too much of a stretch for us financially at the moment with absolutely no end to the problem in sight. A 3-bed townhouse (with a $350 a month strata fee) on our (very unfashionable) street recently sold for about $850,000. A 4-bedder was asking a million recently. Bonkers. I also find the prices of booze, food, and other annoying little things to be much higher than in the UK. On top of that, I have a love-hate relationship with Vancouver (other threads on the subject reflect some of my views (both negative and positive)).


As a result, I have started to look into Calgary. Looks like we can get an older bungalow-style 3-bed detached house in a desirable area for under $600k (at a bit of a push). I gather car insurance is considerably lower there too.


Any idea how the two compare in terms of cost? We currently rent a 3-bed townhouse and pay about $2,200 a month. Transit pass (no car at the moment but looking to buy one soon) is about $125. Our son does 3 days a week at a local daycare and we pay $850 a month for that. Any idea if the daycares are horribly oversubscribed in Calgary as they are in Vancouver? We won't move if we can't find a daycare as we went through that nightmare once already.


How is Calgary culturally and socially? I have found Vancouver to be very awkward for socialising, almost moribund. Any different in Calgary?

suzeandmatt

I can’t speak about the childcare stuff or buying costs- my husband and I rent a 2 bedroom good sized house for $1300 a month inc water, heat and electricity in a decent area. We aren’t looking to buy for a while.
But house prices are definitely cheaper than Vancouver.

But in terms of the lifestyle- we both love it. We’re 29 and 30 and we enjoy the outdoors as well as eating out etc. We find the restaurant scene really good here- there’s some fab places to eat! Plenty of pubs and lots of decent cocktail places!
In terms of getting out and about- we enjoy life in the city as well as outside. While we enjoy visiting the mountains and hiking and things (which is super easy to get to), we find the city has enough going on. We enjoy visiting the museum and seeing the different exhibitions. There’s the science centre too which is fun and the Stampede is in my opinion- awesome!
There’s a lot of parks and green spaces within the city as well which is great- and we find it really clean (in comparison to the UK).
Granted we’re originally from the coast right near Newcastle- so the nightlife in Calgary is hardly a comparison- but we’ve always been quirky pub people anyway so it’s fine.
It’s also sunny all the time which is wonderful- this is my first ever winter whereby I’m not suffering with seasonal depression.

Car insurance wise- we insure an Audi A4 V6 fully comprehensive for $200 a month- and that’s on the fact that we’ve only been here a year and isn’t including any no-claims we accumulated in the UK. So we’re expecting it to go down as we know a few people our age who pay a bit less. - I’m not sure how that will compare- I’m sure other people will be along soon enough to share their experience.

Obviously there will be negatives- but I guess that’s all down to personal preference. I can only speak of how I find it- and for my husband and I- it’s certainly a whole lifestyle improvement up on our lives in the UK.

Good luck with your plans. :-)

Photoplex

Which areas are you looking in? What are your requirements for neighbourhoods? Do you have a job lined up and know where you'll be working? Look at neighbourhoods in the west (NW or the near SW). Do not look East (NE or SE). I assume you're looking on realtor.ca?

Probably the best site here to look up rentals is www.rentfaster.ca. You should find plenty of comparable homes to the one you currently rent.

We won't need daycare for a couple of years, but from friends at good daycares, it's about $1500/month for 5 days a week care. Yes, they're really oversubscribed, but you'll be able to get a place somewhere - might just not be the nearest to your home.

The AB government recently started a trial for $25/day daycare in the province. I think there's currently 4500 spaces at that rate in the trial, and they're looking to expand.

Alberta in general is more conservative, but Calgary and Edmonton aren't nearly as bad as the rural parts. Work driven culture, people at work early (7am or earlier), so they can get home earlier, to spend time with family, or go out and have fun in the snow or sun.

As for socializing, hard to answer without knowing what socializing means to you. Burgeoning craft beer scene, with (I think) something like 35 craft breweries opened/opening in Calgary in the past 2 years, and this year. That's always a friendly and convivial scene.

Shakyuk

I'm not the OP but I land in 2 weeks, beers are on you

Almost Canadian

Let me know when you arrive and are ready for a "Welcome to Calgary" beer. It will be on me.

scrubbedexpat091

Using that rent faster website, seems rents for 1 bedroom apartments start at about 50% less vs Vancouver. Not bad, and some even offer free internet/cable and other incentives, so I take it the rental vacancy must not be super low?

I quite like Calgary, if we could maintain our BC income and relocate there, and pay 50% less rent vs Vancouver we would be there by summer...lol

One problem though is seems that a lot of rentals are owned by Main Street so would have to eliminate them and actually see what real rents are as Mainstreet tends to rent low at first, then come lease renewal jacks up the rent, and overall they are evil to rent from.

Shakyuk

Thanks mate, we land on the 27th, once we've found our feet I'll send you a message. We don't really know anyone so would be nice to meet someone

We have arranged a room in a house share to keep bills down whilst we look for work. We had a Skype interview with the owner, as much us interviewing him as him interviewing us. Over Skype it all seems alright but I'll reserve judgement until I'm there!

There does seem to be a lot of rentals around, near the C-train is pretty convenient. There's a new-ish hospital in the south too as I know that's a factor for you but what facilities the new hospital has though I'm not sure!

Photoplex

I could be in for that

Photoplex

Calgary had ridiculously low rental vacancy rates (in the 0.5% available of all rental stock) for a long time, and rents were high. Then the recession hit, and rental availability rates are much higher. Landlords are now throwing in all kinds of incentives to make their property stand out from the crowd.

Mainstreet does indeed suck, but they don't have any kind of monopoly here.

Photoplex

The new South Campus hospital is fantastic - everything's brand new, lots of space etc. Hospitals don't get built very often, so when you see a new one it's usually so far advanced of the ones you normally use that were built 50+ years ago.

It's actually half empty. They built it way larger than needed, so when the communities way down south keep expanding, they can open more of the hospital to match increased demand.

Shakyuk

It could be the beginnings of a Calgary meet.


I'm hoping my girlfriend could maybe get work at the hospital doing something close to nursing until her nursing registration happens but we'll see!

Almost Canadian

I'm happy for more to join the fun and frolics.

Shakyuk, I suggest we meet as soon as possible so that, if you don't know anyone in the city (I don't recall if you already have friends here) you have a point of contact that you can speak to that will be able to make suggestions to you as to where you should go to obtain things as you likely won't have a clue and may end up spending way more than you need to simply because you don't know any different. When we arrived, we knew no-one and we arrived in the middle of January so didn't really meet our neighbours until the thaw in the Spring.

I also have a truck and, if you need assistance with moving stuff, you can avoid having to pay delivery charges.

cheeky_monkey

i had a friend of mine move in the opposite direction from Calgary to Vancouver because there was no work in Calgary.

Shakyuk

I really appreciate that thank you.


We don't know anyone in Calgary and so friendly faces would be great. When we land we'll arrange something, we don't have jobs so our calendars are entirely open.
It would be nice to get some advice from people and hear how people get on. I can imagine the first few months being like a child, not even knowing what shaver I should buy or washing up liquid

dbd33

I can answer that... the ones they currently have at Costco. You need local knowledge to find the Costco and a kind person to provide the means to bring a year's worth of shavers and washing up liquid home.