Work in Calgary, live outside city

[MitchM]

We can leave between 5:30 and 8:30 depending on what day it is.
5:30 is great because it's always clear sailing, 8:30 is alright except when you hit the city because that's when some people that purposely avoid rush hour venture out and they are not always the best drivers.
(get in one lane and stay there, leave their turn signal going and going, tunnel vision, below speed limit...)

Mitch

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by MitchM

(get in one lane and stay there, leave their turn signal going and going, tunnel vision, below speed limit...)

Haha, I know the type. Thanks for your comments.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Phanman

Not bad if you actually plan to "live + play" where your house is.

That's my plan if all works out, we have really good friends moving to the same community and family can come to us but there's not a whole lot of family in Calgary anyway and we hardly see them.

[Rbacchiega]

when I lived past Strathmore it would take me about an 45 to get into downtown....but that was with me...um, going a tad faster than the posted speed. Even during crazy winter storms it only took about 30 minutes for me to get from my house to the city...

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

when I lived past Strathmore it would take me about an 45 to get into downtown....but that was with me...um, going a tad faster than the posted speed. Even during crazy winter storms it only took about 30 minutes for me to get from my house to the city...

Good news as Strathmore is close to the same distance and I'll be using the same roads, although I think I might take it a little slower in the winter

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Magma

well I was born and raised here in calgary and I never understand why people would live outside calgary and commute every day.

1. Traffic always is hit or miss even if you live in the city
2. Does the Lower of the price of a house really matter when you end up spending the extra on gas anyways?

Not to mention higher property taxes etc.

I have never seen the point it and for me why would I want to live another 20-30min out of town when it already can take upwards of an hour to get home when the bad weather hits. (even though its only a 10min drive normally)

Yeah but where do you live and have you bought a house or looked into buying recently? To get anything decent for your money you're looking at either far north like Country Hills, Far South like Cranston, or Far west like Valley Ridge although Valley Ridge isn't exactly that cheap either. These are the places you get the most for your money and yet you're still stuck with a smaller lot on a cramped street. You sacrifice privacy, architecture, and space and for what? The commute still sucks, from Country Hills to my work it's 45min, far south around 30 min to get to work but 45min to get back home. The west isn't much better and can be worse depending on traffic.

Outside the city I get way more for my money (almost double), a nicer and quite community, security, more social environment, better view, more space inside and out, and over all more freedom. And it'll still likely take 45min. The property tax is lower, not higher and 45min on the highway is less gas than 45min in the 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.