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Thread: Buying Home Outside Calgary

  1. #1
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    Default Buying Home Outside Calgary

    We are looking to buy a place and while we wish to stay in Calgary, our budget and needs just makes it difficult.

    We are interested in buying in Okotoks, Strathmore or Airdrie.

    We would like to end up in Okotoks but seems housing is outside our range. We are looking at Strathmore but then you have a fair commute. And then there is Airdrie.

    From what everyone says the commute into Airdrie is rough at end of the day, but I am fine with a 30-40 minute drive if necessary.

    As our budget is around the 325,000 mark we have found a few places in both Strathmore and Airdrie, but I guess what I asking is this.

    In Airdrie in our price what are areas that would be considered bad or less desirable? There are a few houses in the area called Airdrie Meadows, Big Springs and Silver Creek.

    Silver Creek is pretty far north compared to the other areas.

    Thoughts?

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    Are you working downtown? Commuting during core hours? If yes and yes, it's more than 40 minutes in a regular day, and 90 when it snows.

    The real joy is deciding if you should get off deerfoot at 64th to use centre street because deerfoot is fuxked. Same decision in the afternoon too. Some people enjoy the challenge of finding ever-shifting traffic bypass routes. That stresses me out though.
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    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

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    Beside there being houses with attached double garages in airdrie and strathmore in that range I don’t really see a huge difference in property specs compared to being in Calgary... detached garages are not crazy money to build and you can do a purchase plus improvements mortgage too if paying for it outright isn’t an option

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    Quote Originally Posted by ExtraSlow View Post
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    Are you working downtown? Commuting during core hours? If yes and yes, it's more than 40 minutes in a regular day, and 90 when it snows.

    The real joy is deciding if you should get off deerfoot at 64th to use centre street because deerfoot is fuxked. Same decision in the afternoon too. Some people enjoy the challenge of finding ever-shifting traffic bypass routes. That stresses me out though.
    We both work from about 7-4 so right in the midst of when most are leaving either way. I work downtown but park near the music center. Girlfriend works in the Foothills area so she can avoid deerfoot for the most part.

    Quote Originally Posted by ercchry View Post
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    Beside there being houses with attached double garages in airdrie and strathmore in that range I don’t really see a huge difference in property specs compared to being in Calgary... detached garages are not crazy money to build and you can do a purchase plus improvements mortgage too if paying for it outright isn’t an option
    Yeah the issue is finding properties in Calgary with detached garages at least double in size. We have only found one place so far in Calgary and the house is older and would need a lot of work.

    We can move to Airdrie or Strathmore and check all the boxes of what we are looking for easily.

    We just keep hearing about the Airdrie traffic horror stories and deciding which route to go.

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    What I can tell you about the strathmore commute, is its boring, but way better than being in calgary or airdrie. It takes me 30 minutes to the foothills industrial.

    If you want to know more about strathmore, let me know.

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    I'm a big fan of saving money on your home. Just need to understand the tradeoffs.
    Next snowy day, at 4pm, just drive to Airdrie after work. Meet your wife there for dinner. Do that five or six times. That'll tell you how much you mind. Some people don't.
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
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    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

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    Yeah I dunno... I think the effort to build a detached garage is far less than the extra hours driving and lack of amenities in those satellite towns.

    I mean even this just had a thread about getting out of strathmore!

    Quote Originally Posted by 03ozwhip View Post
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    What I can tell you about the strathmore commute, is its boring, but way better than being in calgary or airdrie. It takes me 30 minutes to the foothills industrial.

    If you want to know more about strathmore, let me know.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 03ozwhip View Post
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    What I can tell you about the strathmorecommute, is its boring, but way better than being in calgary or airdrie. It takes me 30 minutes to the foothills industrial.

    If you want to know more about strathmore, let me know.
    Hmm did I not see you wanting to move? Cause of wife? I think for the most part we would end up in the NE area of Strathmore near RR 244.

    We went out there last weekend and drove around and definitely has that small town feel and small town mentality. But like you said the drive can be boring lol.

    What is your preferred method for travel? Main highway or through Langdon?

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    Quote Originally Posted by ExtraSlow View Post
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    I'm a big fan of saving money on your home. Just need to understand the tradeoffs.
    Next snowy day, at 4pm, just drive to Airdrie after work. Meet your wife there for dinner. Do that five or six times. That'll tell you how much you mind. Some people don't.
    Hmm idea will think on that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ercchry View Post
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    Yeah I dunno... I think the effort to build a detached garage is far less than the extra hours driving and lack of amenities in those satellite towns.

    I mean even this just had a thread about getting out of strathmore!
    Unfortunately that would mean finding something under 300 for that. Seems most detached are around 25-30k to build.

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    Quote Originally Posted by firebane View Post
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    Hmm did I not see you wanting to move? Cause of wife? I think for the most part we would end up in the NE area of Strathmore near RR 244.

    We went out there last weekend and drove around and definitely has that small town feel and small town mentality. But like you said the drive can be boring lol.

    What is your preferred method for travel? Main highway or through Langdon?

    - - - Updated - - -



    Hmm idea will think on that.

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    Unfortunately that would mean finding something under 300 for that. Seems most detached are around 25-30k to build.
    I mean, without the particulars of your situation I couldn’t say for sure what your options ares... but an extra $20k on a mortgage in actual monthly expenses is very little... like easily offset in the wear and tear plus gas difference, especially if we’re talking about commuting separately

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    Are you trapped to 7-4? I’m doing 6:30-3 and traffic is fine, and I’m going all the way from SW airdrie to Blackfoot/42. You can definitely get more home and bigger garage here.. your drive into Calgary for a 7:00 start will be fine, typically 90-110 to memorial. Once you figure out the slalom on the way home at 32 to McKnight, it’s usually 25-30 to south airdrie starting around 3 to 3:10 all-in.

    I will say I get very frustrated if I’m stuck at work till 3:30-4:00, as traffic gets worse by the minute after 3. Is your work ok with you working from home on shitty weather days? My commute today consisted of going downstairs to make coffee.. and really, I think we’ve only had ~3 days all winter that have been kinda shitty
    Last edited by Brent.ff; 03-13-2020 at 07:57 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ercchry View Post
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    I mean, without the particulars of your situation I couldn’t say for sure what your options ares... but an extra $20k on a mortgage in actual monthly expenses is very little... like easily offset in the wear and tear plus gas difference, especially if we’re talking about commuting separately
    Financially right now we can only consider a mortgage of 325k and would obviously pay less. Which is why it makes this all the more challenging.

    But yes the wear and tear is something we are taking into consideration.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brent.ff View Post
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    Are you trapped to 7-4? I’m doing 6:30-3 and traffic is fine, and I’m going all the way from SW airdrie to Blackfoot/42. You can definitely get more home and bigger garage here.. your drive into Calgary for a 7:00 start will be fine, typically 90-110 to memorial. Once you figure out the slalom on the way home at 32 to McKnight, it’s usually 25-30 to south airdrie starting around 3 to 3:10 all-in.

    I will say I get very frustrated if I’m stuck at work till 3:30-4:00, as traffic gets worse by the minute after 3. Is your work ok with you working from home on shitty weather days? My commute today consisted of going downstairs to make coffee.. and really, I think we’ve only had ~3 days all winter that have been kinda shitty
    I technically only work 4 days in the office and 1 day from home and on brutal days could work from home.

    At this point neither of us can change hours

  12. #12
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    If we’re talking true just “qualifying” for the mortgage a second look wouldn’t hurt as I believe you have some self employed income too, right? But if it’s a budgeting number, again, the offset of other expenses would equal out I would think. But change April first for high ratio qualifying as well

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    My 2¢.
    If you work downtown, fuck Okotoks. If you work south~ish, fine. Okotoks has trains. Lots of trains. Lots of trains very close to $325k houses. I think you need to be about $450k to get far enough away from the trains. It also has the whitest white people that I've seen since Scandinavia, so if you're a visible minority, that might be an odd feeling. I only mention this because I think a whole lot of folks on this forum are Asian and I can't keep track of who's who because I'm so fuckin woke and don't see colour, etc.

    Airdrie has a lot more toilet features in comparison and it's also far away from downtown as fuck.

    There's got to be more reasonably affordable areas closer to your work. Barring that, I wouldn't dream of working downtown from a suburb without parking at a train station and taking C-train in. Parking nightmare & cost + traffic would take me from syphilis to AIDS in a month.

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    Talk to Jordan and get on his email list of the ones that are coming on with budget around what you’re looking for...at least then you can see what is out there.

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    $10-$15k less than list as an accepted offer in that range isn’t crazy right now either

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    Quote Originally Posted by firebane View Post
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    Hmm did I not see you wanting to move? Cause of wife? I think for the most part we would end up in the NE area of Strathmore near RR 244.

    We went out there last weekend and drove around and definitely has that small town feel and small town mentality. But like you said the drive can be boring lol.
    No, I'm just tired of the small town, I'm heading more to calgary than I want to these days. That said, I'm staying in strathmore lol I honestly dont know RR's so all I can say is that I live as far east in strathmore as you can go.

    In your price range(ish) there are very nice houses attached at the garage or very nice duplexes with double garages, actually in my area.

    I always drove highway 1 to the Langdon turn off then continued on glenmore. Doesnt matter what time of day, the longest it has ever taken me to get to foothills was during a crazy storm and it was 50 minutes.
    Last edited by 03ozwhip; 03-13-2020 at 08:36 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by firebane View Post
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    We both work from about 7-4 so right in the midst of when most are leaving either way. I work downtown but park near the music center. Girlfriend works in the Foothills area so she can avoid deerfoot for the most part.
    You will hate the drive home. I drive the opposite commute everyday, leave Calgary at 6:15am, and leave Airdrie at 3:30pm and see the opposite traffic. The morning isn't terrible looking, it's moving, not full speed, but moving. Afterwork though? It's a virtual parking lot between Country Hills and 64th, probably moving 20km/h. Between 64th and 16th, faster, but still shitty looking probably around 50km/h. Plus there's Airdrie once you actually get there. The first exit is also a parking lot right to the QEII.

    My wife asked if I'd want to move to Airdrie now that I work up there. I wouldn't ever put her through that, because she works downtown.

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