Ottawa and Surrounding Area Real Estate market discussion

fogetmylogin wrote: ↑ Only if you want to live in a soul crushing suburb. The family above you cite probably makes at least $150k and if I was them I would live in Wetsboro where they should be able to afford a SFH where they can walk to restaurants. Reverse commute for dad and easy LRT to downtown for mom. Good schools and recreation.
To each his own. The house in Westboro will be smaller and older.

BlueSolstice wrote: ↑ If one person in your household works in Kanata, or general west end, (i.e. DND, QCH, etc), it makes sense to live in Kanata and have the other members of household do the commute to downtown or other parts Ottawa. Downtown Ottawa is not exciting enough to justify reverse commutes.

michelb wrote: ↑ You really have to look at all the factors. I've worked in IT since 92 and in all that time, I've worked less than 1 year in Kanata. My commute from the East End to Kanata was about 30 minutes which is shorter than Kanata to Downtown commute so in our case, even if one of us worked in Kanata and the other downtown, total commute time for both of us is shorter by living in the East End (e.g. 30 minutes to Kanata + 20 minutes to downtown = 50 minutes total). (As it stands, I work downtown and this morning, my commute on Google Maps was 16 minutes). (Just out of curiosity, I just checked and right now, commute to downtown from my friend's in Morgan's Grant is 39 minutes (taking Carling) or 41 minutes (taking the 417). From my house (Beacon Hill), it's currently 18 minutes to downtown according to Google Maps).

dc200 wrote: ↑ What are three bedroom detached homes going for right now in Orleans? Resale or pre-construction both.

Was wondering if I might be able to get something in the $500k to $550k range.

Applesmack wrote: ↑ I agree that the commute from Kanata to Downtown sucks as it is very slow right now but hopefully the commute will go down once the highway expansion is complete. However Beacon Hill isnt' really Orleans. If you compare Morgans Grant with an Orleans neighbourhood like Summerside West it is currently 26 minutes to downtown from Summerside West and 36 minutes downtown from Morgan's grant. The parent that works in Kanata can walk to work from Morgan's grant so he/she is lucky. I do think the biggest benefit of living in Kanata is working in Kanata. The idea that it makes sense to commute from actual Orleans to Kanata is insane. The commute right now from Summerside West is 40 minutes with perfect traffic. If you don't have perfect traffic you are looking at up to 1 hour per way.

michelb wrote: ↑ Just looking at resale, there are currently 15 detached residential listings in the East End of Ottawa (excluding what I consider more rural areas (e.g. Cumberland, Sarsfield, Vars, Carlsbad, Navan, etc) $550k and under.

Just looking randomly, the first one that shows up is 4bed / 4bath / 2 car garage in Orleans for $485k. If someone wants to do some work, there's a 4bed / 3 bath / 2 car garage for $350k but sold as-is and needs TLC and no offers until tomorrow so it's likely going to go above.

Honestly, I hadn't looked until now but if you are okay with an older home, you can probably get 3 bed / single car garage for around $400k in Orleans

Applesmack wrote: ↑ That 485k house is a total steal. Bidding war incoming. I predict it sells for over 550k.

michelb wrote: ↑ It's possible but it does not have a clause that they aren't accepting any offers until X date so I suspect if you made a firm offer at $485k right now expiring at noon, you'd probably get it for $485k. As mentioned above, there aren't a lot of them but you can get singles in Orleans for under $400k.

FWIW, I just checked and it's basically been on the market for almost a month total and hasn't sold (they cancelled it and relisted it a few days ago). It started it $495k, was reduced to $485k after a week, went to conditionally sold about 2 weeks later, sale must have fallen through and then they and then they cancelled the listing a few days later (near the end of October). They just relisted it. This makes me think that $485k is probably around the market price for this house.

Applesmack wrote: ↑ That is very surprising. Doesn't make sense to be honest. The house even comes with a finished basement that is kitchen-ready. I think Mattamy's larger 30' single garage homes were going for 480k. Must be something wrong with it? I mean if I wasn't broke AF I'd view it

michelb wrote: ↑ It's possible but it does not have a clause that they aren't accepting any offers until X date so I suspect if you made a firm offer at $485k right now expiring at noon, you'd probably get it for $485k. As mentioned above, there aren't a lot of them but you can get singles in Orleans for under $400k.

FWIW, I just checked and it's basically been on the market for almost a month total and hasn't sold (they cancelled it and relisted it a few days ago). It started it $495k, was reduced to $485k after a week, went to conditionally sold about 2 weeks later, sale must have fallen through and was back ACTIVE and then they cancelled the listing a few days later (near the end of October). They just relisted it. This makes me think that $485k is probably around the market price for this house.

michelb wrote: ↑ You really have to look at all the factors. I've worked in IT since 92 and in all that time, I've worked less than 1 year in Kanata. My commute from the East End to Kanata was about 30 minutes which is shorter than Kanata to Downtown commute so in our case, even if one of us worked in Kanata and the other downtown, total commute time for both of us is shorter by living in the East End (e.g. 30 minutes to Kanata + 20 minutes to downtown = 50 minutes total). (As it stands, I work downtown and this morning, my commute on Google Maps was 16 minutes). (Just out of curiosity, I just checked and right now, commute to downtown from my friend's in Morgan's Grant is 39 minutes (taking Carling) or 41 minutes (taking the 417). From my house (Beacon Hill), it's currently 18 minutes to downtown according to Google Maps).

fogetmylogin wrote: ↑ Only if you want to live in a soul crushing suburb. The family above you cite probably makes at least $150k and if I was them I would live in Wetsboro where they should be able to afford a SFH where they can walk to restaurants. Reverse commute for dad and easy LRT to downtown for mom. Good schools and recreation.
To each his own. The house in Westboro will be smaller and older.

OttawaGardener wrote: ↑ Why is everyone ignoring all the good places between Orleans and Kanata? I'm in Alta Vista, and think there can't be a nicer, more convenient location. Of course, I'm at the Riverside end, and steps from the transitway, so that helps. But there is also Beacon Hill, Cardinal Heights, Rothwell Village, all which are much closer to downtown than Kanata, less expensive, and less bland (in my opinion ).

Applesmack wrote: ↑ Ottawa is already a big suburb honestly the downtown here sucks so much I basically never leave Kanata. Think I went downtown like 3 months ago and maybe I'll go for new years but that's it. When I need to go shopping I go to Tangiers, centrum or Bayshore. Got everything in those places.

I think walking distance to restaurants is nice but that is only possible in certain segments of westboro.

OttawaGardener wrote: ↑ Why is everyone ignoring all the good places between Orleans and Kanata? I'm in Alta Vista, and think there can't be a nicer, more convenient location. Of course, I'm at the Riverside end, and steps from the transitway, so that helps. But there is also Beacon Hill, Cardinal Heights, Rothwell Village, all which are much closer to downtown than Kanata, less expensive, and less bland (in my opinion ).

OttawaGardener wrote: ↑ Why is everyone ignoring all the good places between Orleans and Kanata? I'm in Alta Vista, and think there can't be a nicer, more convenient location. Of course, I'm at the Riverside end, and steps from the transitway, so that helps. But there is also Beacon Hill, Cardinal Heights, Rothwell Village, all which are much closer to downtown than Kanata, less expensive, and less bland (in my opinion ).

BlueSolstice wrote: ↑ Inside greenbelt, you really need to look at specific neighborhoods, with attention to school districts. If you send your kids to a french public school, perhaps that's not important. But if you're like most transplants born west of Kingston, you probably care about the quality of the local English secular public school. Take Alta Vista for example. Alta Vista Public School scored 6.2 on Fraser Institute ranking.

dc200 wrote: ↑ lol, you want us to stroke your ego by telling you something you already know? that the prices are on the higher end the closer you get to the core?

michelb wrote: ↑ I'd be curious to know what others think but personally I put very little value in school test scores. I really don't think it makes any difference in he end.