not2old

right, I'll go take a look

from the £1 = $2 thread ......

scrubbedexpat091

Are there job's in Moncton?

Seems to a low housing place based on some of the houses I see for sale.

A whole house in better shape, and cheaper then a 50 year old condo or falling apart mobile home...lol

BristolUK

Contrary to what some will have you believe, yes.

NB gets a bad rep, often with good reason. The unemployment figures were just announced and are high compared to the rest of Canada. But Moncton bucks the trend and the u/e rate is, I believe, slightly under the national rate.

There's a ton of new build apartment blocks (Condos and rentals) and new retail centres cropping up and new schools are regularly announced.

I read the other day that the housing market is still thriving.

There might not be the range of jobs that many on this forum crave, but then they tend to be able to 'choose' what they want because they are in demand. That's why many are here in the first place.

Of course, the lower population does mean there are fewer people going for the fewer great jobs.

But for those used to the sort of employment that most people do, there's plenty here.

We have the busiest airport in NB - more passengers than the others all together, universities, colleges, hospitals including specialist units, a ton of government offices, CBC, CTV and Global have centres here; flying school, the retail centre that pulls in people from NS; Loads of call centres, restaurants are booming, hotels have sprung up....

Either the place is thriving or there's a spectacular bust on the way. But the way money is king are those with it really investing in all this stuff without some expectation they'll get a return on it?

scrubbedexpat091

Unemployment based on service Canada website is about the same as here, only a 0.3% difference and of course larger, about 47,000 more people there then here.

Probably wouldn't be any harder there, does the province cover medications?

That would be the biggest issue for us, it's not really the disability income that keeps us from leaving BC, but the medication coverage, my wife's medication cost a small fortune, in BC we get full coverage, otherwise we would not be able to afford it.

BristolUK

It's too complicated to go into here but if meds are very expensive in relation to income coverage is possible. My wife had everything covered as one of her meds was $7k every 6 weeks. Not just the expensive one, everything else too.


There is also a good scheme where the sole consideration is income. There are premiums and co pays but not expensive on low incomes. I pay $16 monthly and then $5 for each one.

Purely from a simple financial point of view - Rent costs against wages - I think you could actually do better here.

Plenty of good rentals 1 bed for $500/2 bed for $600 without being out of town. Less for an apartment building.

Your problem would be continuation of the health services you are getting and you wouldn't be so convenient to California. And the snow of course.

scrubbedexpat091

The snow would actually be nice....lol.... I've not experienced much snow in my time in Canada.

Any move would be in the long term, not anytime in the near future, so we have lots of time to look at places and research, just need basic starting points.

BristolUK

Believe me, when you've just spent up to an hour or more clearing snow - split into two or three sessions to avoid the heart attack, or because all you can feel in your fingers is cold pain - or the guy you pay to clear unmanageable amounts has just cleared it and the city plow passes and deposits a new snowridge-come-bank across your drive - especially one that might include ice boulders that are really hard to budge - it's not much fun.

scrubbedexpat091

I imagine it isn't. Suppose it's not the norm here so it's more a novelty then for those in places where snow is the norm.

We only had 1 day of snow this past winter, about 12 hours straight, then it turned to rain, started at 4am and ended around 6pm, it was a Sunday, city didn't want to pay over-time so they waited until 4pm to actually clear anything and then they only cleared a few main roads.

Stores and strip mall owners are not any better, none of them paid to have their parking lots cleared, they were all mess for several days.


The guy across the street seemed to really enjoy that day, one and only day he got to use his snow blower thinger.

The province is better on the highway, but not great, I'd give them a C+ and the town gov't an F for this past winters snow clearing.

Shard

Any thoughts on leaving NB sometime or is that your final place (so to speak)...?

colchar

It is Ontario that I am used to and I just assumed that other areas of the country would have similar regulations.

BristolUK

If there's ever a need to downsize or sell up for another reason, I suppose the thought might come up.

But housing costs in most other places here would require house and rental to be sold and that's too complicated to face.

However, selling the rental is likely next year, so beyond that, who knows?

Outside of BC, though, there's little chance of avoiding snow.

Jerseygirl

It's a much fairer system. Say I'd been living in my condo for 20 years...I bought it from new...but moved out a few months ago. Due to the low condo fees there was hardly any money in the reserve fund when I left. Suddenly major work is required to the roof...so every owner has to chip in $50K...even the one who bought my condo a few months ago.

not2old

posts @ #52, 54, 56

I look at our situation & life here in Canada & the few other places we've lived.

Snow & cold is getting too us & like Bristol there are periods in the winter when it just gets too much. The summer comes & we whinge about the UV & humidity.

Of course other parts of the country may be better as far as climate, then there is the housing costs in different areas of the country that are more expensive than the East Coast.

We shall not [as of today] be retiring back to the UK for the reason we have been away far too long, we are different people now - they also over there are different, we have no immediate family that is close to us, no UK roots to speak of - so it can be anywhere, even another province, somewhere in Europe, down under... I believe it doesn't really matter to us where we have a roof over our head as long as its safe, has good healthcare, a stable government, effective cost of living & it has to be a place that one can leave in a heartbeat.

Be great to 'always be on the go' as long as our health keeps us up to it would be just fine.

BristolUK

I don't know how I'll feel about winter next time.

The first few years were no problem. Along with my stepson I was fit enough to deal with clearing the snow. Having to pay for a clearance was rare. But then my wife needed a wheelchair from 2009 and that made a difference in getting out and about.

We've certainly had more snowy winters recently and we've had regular paid clearances. But I'm not sure if that was having a bit more cash to play with or protecting my health. Or just making it easier all round.

My wife's health was significantly growing worse round about February and there were more appointments than usual and it was quite problematic dealing with the front steps going out and coming in. That may have been a factor in having a contractor deal with it too.

As much as we curse the snow and the way winter drags on, it's rare to not be able to get out and about when we needed to.

But that doesn't mean you don't fret about whether you can keep that appointment. You can do everything to facilitate it - plan the snow clearing so as to get out. If there's a ton of snow, you might focus on doing enough to get out rather than all of it.

But for all that preparation you might be about to leave and that's when the city plow passes again and the exit is blocked.

It's never happened to the extent that a pathway can't be cleared in a few minutes, but there's always a chance and the fretting about it all causes much stress.

Even the first responder guys had problems getting my wife between house and ambulance with all the snow and ice.

Now she's not with us anymore, we won't be worrying about getting her out to the street for the taxi.

So maybe winter will be stress free and a bit more like the earlier years.

not2old

The past 10 years of winters we've been out shovelling 3x/day during a snowfall throw in the city snow guys that block the driveway also, & it doesn't get any easier, but its not every single day from December to end February. Back 40 years ago the 'snowfall winters' were longer & being that much younger, snow shovelling was a lot easier

With age it gets harder, so all I can say to anyone out there, 'is wait till you get to your mid 60's or older & you are still shovelling snow & are too cheap to get a service to do it for you'

Where we live at present is not all bad other than the cost of property taxes, utilities & the extreme weather changes