dewdrop

we live in ontario Canada, east of Toronto, in a small town...it is close to airports everything that is needed can be got by 401(major motorway) or Go Train links in Toronto...skiing in Barrie is quite nice. never lived there thou, bad winters there...WE live along the shores of lake ontario.
lots of small towns to consider....like:
Port Perry,
Brooklin,
Port Hope,
Cobourg,
Peterborough(city now)
around Ottawa area is lovely.
good luck in the search...
we are moving back the other way...lol

Linda P

Edmonton

Linda

filz

Thanks everyone for all your ideas.

I guess our list is a bit of challenge, particularly around the mountain / skiing piece versus house price range.

Calgary ideas sound good, if a bit challenging on the house price front.

Are prices still rising in calgary and its satellite towns like Aidrie, Okotoks and Cochrane, flat or falling for single family homes.

Sounds like I should scratch Prince George from our list.

We have considered Edmonton area as the house prices look to be 10-20% lower like for like, although it looks a fair drive even to Jasper in winter conditions.

gibsonslanding

judy in calgary; i'm deeply offended!..........joking.....

no, gibsons is a fabulous place if you like peace and quiet, a sence of calm, amazing vista's, cheaper house prices, community spirit, not far from sking (lets be honest 1 to 2 hours or less travel to a slope is alot nearer than trudging down to the alps!!!!!! from the uk......), commuting by a 40 minute ferry ride is a far better way to travel to work than a 4 hour commute on the m25, i live in maidstone and it's a 45 minute drive (on a good day) to the beach and an 11 hour hard slog drive for you guys in calgary to the beach!!!!

And what's wrong with abbottsford? no, no beach, slopes a bit further away maybe (depending if you take the highway or the side roads)......great views of mount baker though.......

my brother lives in calgary......hates vancouver with a passion (although only ever been to the airport!!!!!!), thinks we're mad for considering a move to BC over Alberta......but i'm not unhappy if we have to move to calgary......hey ho; i quess that's why some of us live in the south of the uk and wouldn't consider moveing to the north, right?

in essence, go see for yourselves.....it's all very personal afterall.....

Souvenir

Consider somewhere in the Ottawa-Montreal corridor, such as Cornwall. You'd be within an hour of both cities (both have international airports). You'd have easy road access to the USA. The ski resorts in the Ottawa and Montreal areas would be within easy reach. You'd get the house you want. It snows like hell in winter. I've been wearing shorts since April and will be until late September. Clear blue skies are common, year-round. It's not as mountainous as western Canada but it ticks all the other boxes.

Sam-in-Okotoks

I would say one of the smaller communities 25 minutes outside Calgary, Cochrane, Okotoks, High River. All these places would meet your requirements and are fantastic places to live. Sam

acer rose

There are much nicer places (IMHO) but of the four people I know who live or have lived there, two thought/think it was OK, one loves it and wouldn't move back to the Lower Mainland if wild horses were dragging him, and the other couldn't get back to the Lower Mainland fast enough and would happily never see the place again. It certainly has a reputation for being stinky but the university up there (UNBC) seems to be up and coming (if that is of interest to your teenagers). There are always pluses and minuses so it really depends on your own circumstances.

You have a great opportunity and depending what sort of work you need to find, could use it to go anywhere. If I were you, I'd rank my requirements. Eg if downhill skiing is the number one, look up all the downhill ski locations, then look at which communities are nearby, then look at what work opporunities are there, then look at how much they would pay compared to the cost of living , and so on. If the climate requirements are number one, check out the statistics on the links given, then work opporunities in those locations, ... and so on.

Surrey Expat

You have not done this day on day week on week then. The 40 minute ferry ride does not include the line up waiting to get on the boat (30-60mins each way). This can wear very thin, very quickly. Housing in Gibsons is not that cheap anymore, lots of Vancouver people are buying holiday homes and pushing the price up.

The views depend where you are in Abby, only a few places offer views from the house. Would not quite put Abbotsford as a location that suits the OPs criteria though.

JonboyE

On a sunny summer day it is a ride in heaven, but yes, lining up at 5.30am for the 6.20 on a wet December Monday morning is not quite the same. There is not a lot of work about on the lower coast so it only a place to live if you can telecommute, and maybe go into Vancouver one or twice a week for meetings outside rush hour, or keep a small condo in town for weeknight stays.

Solarfish

Canmore, just double or tripple your budget and you should be fine! Plenty to do around here even if we have nowhere near 'big town' population.

Linda P

It takes us 3-4 hours in winter, that's from Sherwood Park to Jasper.

Linda

AlexInBC

Wow - 3hrs? - I think that'd be pretty quick for the winter time! It generally takes us 5 hrs to drive to Edmonton and we're an hour past Jasper, so it would take us 4hrs to travel between Jasper & Edmonton in good driving conditions. You're upper estimate matches our experience as the roads are generally pretty good, even in the Winter.

wallace

We live in a great town called Okotoks which would definately meet your requirements (www.okotoks.ca) It is just south of Calgary and has the first solar community in Canada (http://www.dlsc.ca/) due to the amount of sunshine hours the area gets. The town has a great infrastructure, with fabulous communities, retail areas, schools, sports facilities etc etc. It takes 35 minutes to get into Calgary and 45 minutes to get to Calgary International Airport. The mountains views from the town are fabulous. In the winter the community gets pretty quiet on weekends as so many people head out to the slopes skiing.

Hope this helps.

dthomas

Try a visit to Montreal or Quebec City - both cities/regions meet all of your requirements (well, the Laurentian mountains are not very high, having been ground down 10,000 years ago, but tons of quality skiing). There are over 35 ski hills/regions within 2 hours of Montreal. Both cities are small and well developed (the oldest and most historically significant cities in Canada, next to Halifax). Both are the most culturally developed cities in Canada - possibly in all of N.A. (with the exception of NYC, Boston and Philly - oh yeah, Hamilton too). Tons of job opportunities in many sectors - especially pharmaceuticals, IT, aerospace, rag trade, shipping trade, electrical components, etc. (speaking some French can be very helpful - but not essential; most of the trained anglos fled in the 1970's and 80's to Hogtown). Big demand for persons with post-grad degrees. Lots of Federal and Provincial Gov. work. Wages do not compare to those of TO or Kal-Garry. Properties and land are all very cheap both in Mtl and QC - check out MLS.ca for examples. Summer average is +15-25C and winter is -5 to -15C (5-6 months winter, and, err . . . 6-7 months "other" ). Excellent services provided by the state - although you pay for them through the high taxes (where else can a woman get 12 months paid maternity leave and the father can take 5 weeks paid too ?) Many smaller towns and municipalities surround both Mtl and QC - all between 20-80K pop.
One of the best things about both regions is that there are few Poms - more breathing space and more beer, eh ? The grass is a lush green - and I don't mean the grow-op mojo . . .

dthomas

How do you pull them over your snowshoes?!