G77

.... you wanted to meet the following criteria :-

* Can buy a 3 bed house (semi or detached) or better for $300K
* Has high speed (preferably cable) internet access
* Has access to an airport with good connections to the US within 1 hr's drive
* Is good for a family oriented life
* Low or minimal crime

Currently on the list is areas on the east of the GTA and Ottawa (Kanata). This is mainly through lack of knowledge of other areas though, so looking for suggestions.

I may have an opportunity on the horizon which allows me to pick a location anywhere in Canada, so I'm looking into potential areas which meet the above criteria.

Thanks for your help.....

welshmountie

I'd say anywhere away from Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Although they are all great cities, they don't really check all your boxes. As a result I would say somewhere on the fringes of Regina, Winnipeg, Halifax or St John for the less well known provincial cities. For Ontario I would say Sarnia, London or Kingston. If you can speak good French, then fringes of Montreal or Quebec city may be an option.

This is just my opinion and I'm sure that others will say that the big three cities mentioned from the outset offer the things you want if you are not fussed on area of city or head far enough from their centres.

comet555

I grew up in Brockville and that pretty much fits that description.
It's half way between Kingston (45 min away) and Kingston (1 hour away). It's a town of about 20,000 to 25,000 people.

If that's too small townish then there's lots of towns just outside Ottawa that would fit the description.

I think the big question is what size of town are you looking for?

G77

Thanks for the suggestions so far - only draw to Ottawa is that the company HQ is there, so would make networking with colleagues etc easier, but it's not a necessity as the majority of the work is conducted in the US anyway.

As for town size - don't really have a preference, currently live in a town of about 50,000 in the UK. Wouldn't mind something smaller as long as it was close enough to amenities nearby.

Dorothy

We lived for 11 years in Burlington Ontario. It's 40 minutes from Pearson airport, we sold our 3 bedroom 3 bathroom house for $275k 18 months ago, so about 300 now, great schools, low crime, family friendly.

iaink

If you can live with 2hrs to the airport (and lets face it, you are going to have to be there 2 hrs before the flight anyway, so what difference does another hour make), then I would head for where I am now. I'm just too cheap to pay for high speed, that all.

But I will admit to being biased.

$300k would be more than enough for a princely pad around here.

Biiiiink

LaSalle, of course

3 bed detacheds in the area from 350k-250k

G77

Thanks for the suggestions - keep them coming!

LaSalle does look good value for money! To fly to the US, is it easier to drive across the border and take a flight from Detroit (and presumably a LOT cheaper - not that I'd be paying )?

Biiiiink

It is *much* cheaper, and a really lovely airport. It was one of our major considerations in coming here Some rellies insist on using Toronto for the charter cheapies from the UK, but even that is only 3hrs away, not a big inconvenience to fetch them there either.

The job outlook isn't great in the immediate area, but you said in your opening post that that wasn't a consideration, so I didn't mention it

Some other nice towns around here to google would be Amherstburg, Kingsville, Leamington...

iaink

LOL, thats canadain p e r s p e c t i v e


I guess compared to life in the praries 3hrs isnt so bad

Biiiiink

3 hrs from Winnipeg got me to the throbbing metropolis of Grand Forks, North Dakota. They had a Target, it was prairie heaven

iaink

Surely thats an oxmoron!

G77

It probably wouldn't be - and cheap US flights may be even a selling point....

However, if I did want to move jobs or got made redundant, I'd be pretty much screwed and would have to move to somewhere else at a guess. Unless you've got a secret hive of IT companies there?

Atlantic Xpat

Cor, What are the job prospects for a Purchasing Manager around your way?

iaink

Do you think you can persuade the big sears warehouse to let you manage for them?

Seriously, there are a few largish businesses around, a couple of automotive suppliers spring to mind, the industrial park has a fair number of businesses, so its not as bad as all that.