Work in Calgary, live outside city

[Slick Fork]

I think the key is WHY. As others have said, if you Live and Play outside the city then it's one thing, but if you're only going for the cheaper housing then you have to consider that the increased vehicle costs REALLY add up.

I just moved from a smaller community outside of Red Deer to right inside town. My daily Kilometer Toll went from 110 to 6. I don't care that the mileage goes to crap in town, I'm doing less than 5% of the Kilometers, factor in Oil changes, useful life of the car etc. and it doesn't take long to rack up considerable $$$.

A couple of things I'm loving... if I need groceries, want to go to a movie, etc. I don't have to book an hour plus for travel (round trip). + Small town amenities suck. You get a lot more in terms of public works in city vs a small town.

Keep in mind too, that while the extra dollars you would spend on housing in Calgary may seem like a lot right now... you'll get that back when you sell the house. Money spent on fuel and vehicle maintenance simply disappears.

Make sure you're comparing apples to apples with your commute. If you can leave for work early and get home early, you'll still be there sooner if you live closer. Don't make the mistake of comparing a Sunday drive out of town to a hectic rush hour logjam to a Calgary house. Plus make sure it's right to the road you would like to buy on, not to the off-ramp.

One thing to consider might be to buy a place in Calgary, and rent it out while You rent in the small town you're thinking of. This way you get to buy now while the market is down and you SHOULD be able to rent it out for more than a similar place in a small town rents for. If you decide after renting for a while that you really like the small town life and commute... sell the Calgary house and buy in your small town. But if you don't like small town life after a year then at least you're not stuck with a hard to sell house in a little town (which is exactly where my brother in law is)

Just my 2 cents, good luck!

[sphelps]

Why? I say why not? City life isn’t exactly great, we currently rent inner city and our commute to work is great, takes me 10-15min. However it’s noisy, expensive and fairly dangerous. Last night for example someone shot up the KFC across the street: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Sh...megadrop_story
The outskirt communities aren’t always much better, buddy lives in Bridlewood and 6 cars on his street were broken into recently in one night. I’d rather raise kids in a quite secure community.

In Calgary it’s pretty hard to live 6 minutes from where you work and even harder to accomplish this when I work SE and the wife works in Airdrie. Like I mentioned from what I know so far the commute time may be very comparable to that of newer communities within the city. There are plenty of people I work with who live within the city but still drive 45min on an average day and close to 2 hours on days like last week. The extra kilometers will not add up to significant maintenance costs on our vehicles as they are cheap to maintain as it is. If I lived in Country hills for example I would still have to drive 50km per day for work, in Lyalta it would be 100km per day which is 13000km a year or half an oil change on my car ($50). Things like brakes will actually last longer and other parts will also be less stressed from eliminating most of the start and stopping you find within the daily city drive.

In addition a gas station and grocery store is being built in the community as well as a restaurant or two. Strathmore is 10min away for most things so when we do need to go into the city we’ll just make a day of it.

I get the trying things out first idea but it’s not really possible. I would never buy a house in the city right now if there was even a slightest chance of us not making a long term home of it. House prices aren’t exactly going up and with all the houses currently on the market it’s difficult to sell and after realtor and lawyer fees I’d loose my shirt. You also can’t rent in the community.

Honestly I love everything I can think of about living in this community, I’m just concerned about the daily drive to work, specifically in the winter. Before we put the offer in I’m going to make the drive during typical commute times and see exactly how it is.

Thanks all for the feedback.

[muck]

Time to start engineering that transporter steve.

What do you currently drive Steve btw? That can make a big difference too.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by muck

Time to start engineering that transporter steve.

Only if you test it first.

[Delphinus]

One of the guys I work with built out in Dalroy which is not far from Lyalta. Think it takes him about 25 minutes to get to work (we don't work downtown). On really bad traffic days he just works from home or takes a sick day or whatever but 99% of the time it's fine.

It's workable out east if you don't mind flat, windy, and saltyish dirt .. but on the flipside, a mere mortal stands a chance of buying property out that way compared to anything west or south. I actually looked at building too out that way, would love to be able to build a greenhouse or park my assortment of summer toys somewhere .... only problem is I'm not moving out of the house I'm in now unless it's a chance to flee Calgary and Alberta altogether. Man I hate the thought of moving!!!!!

One thing to consider out that way though is check into the proximity of sour gas wells out that way. I'm not sure if it's as big an issue as it was in the past (I imagine a lot of them are just shut in right now anyhow) or in what areas specifically where they are ... just a passing thought though of something you might want to check into further before deciding on anything.

Good luck man. I can't imagine trying to buy a house nowadays. I got into mine in the nick of time - there's no way I could afford my own house if it were on the market today. Not without a 99 year amortization !!

[michika]

We house sat for a week in the area we originally considered purchasing in, and the commute sealed the deal for us. The cost of both of us having a vehicle, combined with higher insurance, maintenance, and earlier burn out, just wasn't worth it. Also if you drive into town, but take transit into the core, you can also add that cost into your monthly fees. At the time we were looking, 2008 we had a car that was extremely reasonable on gas; we were filling up every 5 days.

My sister in law lives in the little community we were considering. She never comes out to social activities unless is a very special occasion. They always want guests to come out there, but nobody wants to make the commute. She frequently complains about how she forgot to buy X, Y, or Z while she was last in town and then has to pay the inflated cost at the local corner/grocery store. Also they've now written off two cars in 4 years due to road conditions; spin outs, animal encounters, etc. Essentially her home cut her off from everyone.

In the summer my commute from home (inner city) to work (downtown) is 15 minutes, tonight it was 45 minutes, and on both Monday and Tuesday of last week it was well over an hour. I have multiple routes I can take, and they were all bad.

I am not a fan of cookie cutter houses, and so we took a bit of a different approach to buying a home. We purposefully sought out the ugliest/worst house in the best neighbourhood we could afford. We purchased our house at around 50% of the cost our two neighbours paid (they moved in 3-6 months after we did). Yes, there was a lot of work, but the bulk of it was/is cosmetic. We did have to wait, we viewed numerous properties, but in the end we ended up with a charming little 1950s home that required landscaping, paint, new appliances, and updated light fixtures.

[Coleus]

It usually only took me 22 minutes to get to work ( downtown) but on snowing day, I just stay home because i know it will take me over an hour to get to work so I can't imagine how long would it take for those who live outside of the city.