Living in Okotoks

[JiriHrdina]

My wife and I are considering a # of options when it comes to buying our next home - including moving out to Okotoks where we can can more "home for our buck".

Just looking for feedback on how people find living in Okotoks. Positives/Negatives?

[Regulator75]

In before the word "parasite" rears it's ugly head...

[Madman]

We moved to Okotoks about 6 years ago and would never go back to Calgary.

I think the more home for your buck is a thing of the past, but the lifestyle is what we love the most.

Some quick notes from our experience:

- Every major shopping need is filled in town, we only head to Calgary for work now
- Schools are outstanding
- Traffic is a thing of the past (although some areas of town do get busy during the morning and afternoon work rushes)
- Quiet
- Rec programs and sports for the kids are really good
- Appreciate the mindset the Town has in terms of recycling and water conservation
- Easy to get out of town and head camping for us

[Sliver]

IMO, a home isn't just about the four walls you sleep in. It's also about the community and town/city into which you're buying. From that perspective, I don't understand how somebody could buy anywhere within a 30 minute drive from Calgary, that isn't in Calgary. Restaurants, malls, businesses (work opportunities), University, arts, Heritage Park, Calaway Park, Science Centre, etc. etc. are in Calgary. Maybe you'll have a bit bigger house, but you'll have way less opportunity for a higher quality of life. Can't for the life of me imagine how moving to a parasite community could make sense to anybody.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by madman

i think the more home for your buck is a thing of the past, but the lifestyle is what we love the most.

Some quick notes from our experience:

-driving north on deerfoot
-driving south on deerfoot

fyp

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Madman

We moved to Okotoks about 6 years ago and would never go back to Calgary.

I think the more home for your buck is a thing of the past, but the lifestyle is what we love the most.

Some quick notes from our experience:

- Every major shopping need is filled in town, we only head to Calgary for work now
- Schools are outstanding
- Traffic is a thing of the past (although some areas of town do get busy during the morning and afternoon work rushes)
- Quiet
- Rec programs and sports for the kids are really good
- Appreciate the mindset the Town has in terms of recycling and water conservation
- Easy to get out of town and head camping for us

Thanks, great info.

It still does seem like you can get more home for your buck - we have looked pretty extensively in Calgary and I would say we can get the same home out in Okotoks for 10-20K less. Or get significant more square footage for what we would pay here.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Sliver

IMO, a home isn't just about the four walls you sleep in. It's also about the community and town/city into which you're buying. From that perspective, I don't understand how somebody could buy anywhere within a 30 minute drive from Calgary, that isn't in Calgary. Restaurants, malls, businesses (work opportunities), University, arts, Heritage Park, Calaway Park, Science Centre, etc. etc. are in Calgary. Maybe you'll have a bit bigger house, but you'll have way less opportunity for a higher quality of life. Can't for the life of me imagine how moving to a parasite community could make sense to anybody.

Okotoks is close enough that you can still access all that stuff. The difference between living in Okotoks and a suburb like Chapparel is negligible in terms of access to those things.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

fyp

Sure, but how is that any different than living in Cranston? (15 more minutes - wow)

Like I said, we don't go to Calgary for anything other than work, so we don't care that it's a 15 minute drive there.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Thanks, great info.

It still does seem like you can get more home for your buck - we have looked pretty extensively in Calgary and I would say we can get the same home out in Okotoks for 10-20K less. Or get significant more square footage for what we would pay here.

10-20k is $50-$100 per month on a 25 year mortgage at 3.5%.

If you're going to be commuting to Calgary, and you figure it'll take you 15 extra minutes each way, the math works something like this.

(4 weeks/month)*(5 days/week)*(15 minutes/day)*(2 people)/(60 minutes/hour) = 10 hours per month of extra commuting time.

So if your gas and vehicle maintenance was free, you'd be paying yourself $5-$10 hour to commute.

Those are all just estimates, but you probably get the extra money back when you sell your place at some point, so the extra principal in the monthly payment comes back to you eventually.

[WCan_Kid]

Originally Posted by Sliver

IMO, a home isn't just about the four walls you sleep in. It's also about the community and town/city into which you're buying. From that perspective, I don't understand how somebody could buy anywhere within a 30 minute drive from Calgary, that isn't in Calgary. Restaurants, malls, businesses (work opportunities), University, arts, Heritage Park, Calaway Park, Science Centre, etc. etc. are in Calgary. Maybe you'll have a bit bigger house, but you'll have way less opportunity for a higher quality of life. Can't for the life of me imagine how moving to a parasite community could make sense to anybody.

All depends on what you want. I couldn't possibly care any less about access to the stuff you mentioned, but I sure like having easy access to the mountains compared my friends in the city. I'm 1/2 hour to 45 minutes closer, depending on where they are in the city, to Castle or Fernie for skiing, Bragg Creek/K-Country for mtn biking and about the same time to Banff .

I can walk to bars, restaurants, shopping, the arena for hockey games, have kindergarten to Gr 12 within a couple of blocks. Apart from the commute I never drive, it's all bike or walk.

I grew up out that way so I approached buying my house a little differently, but when we were shopping I went in and timed how much time I'd save by buying in any of the Calgary suburb type neighborhoods and it turns out the difference is pretty minimal. I hit the highway, they navigate surface streets back to McLeod or Deerfoot.

For someone who really wants the urban lifestyle/arts & culture Okotoks sucks, but it's great if you're more into the outdoors - camping, hiking biking.

[fredr123]

I had the chance to take over a practice in Okotoks a couple years ago and relocate there with my family. After careful consideration, we decided against it. For the most part, we were reluctant to make the lifestyle change and were concerned about missing out on the convenience of the city. It also would have clearly limited my future career options and, at the time, that would not have been a good thing.

In hindsight, I sometimes wish we would have taken the plunge. I grew up in really small towns and once in a while I miss that living in Calgary. On the other hand, I'm happy with where my career is now and wouldn't have got here if I had made the move.

[Yeah_Baby]

Living in a small town like that just feels like settling to me. But then again so does living in Cranston. So really they're not that different from each other.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Sliver

IMO, a home isn't just about the four walls you sleep in. It's also about the community and town/city into which you're buying. From that perspective, I don't understand how somebody could buy anywhere within a 30 minute drive from Calgary, that isn't in Calgary. Restaurants, malls, businesses (work opportunities), University, arts, Heritage Park, Calaway Park, Science Centre, etc. etc. are in Calgary. Maybe you'll have a bit bigger house, but you'll have way less opportunity for a higher quality of life. Can't for the life of me imagine how moving to a parasite community could make sense to anybody.

You basically answered your own question. He's talking about Okotoks, not Vulcan.

I'd happily take on a longer commute to a "parasite" community to get away from the madness that is Calgary. Man this town pisses me off some days. Getting into a smaller, quiter community is very desireable.

[puckluck2]

If you're looking for bang for your buck regarding your home I think Strathmore would be a better option and the highways are a lot less congested than Deerfoot so it would make coming and going a lot easier. Both are pretty similar in travel times.

[Bigtime]

All I know is some good friends of my wife moved to Okotoks, now we barely see them because of it. When you are trying to plan get-togethers around kids schedules (naps, bedtime, etc) the added driving time there and back (for both parties) makes the actual visiting time very limited (and for the typical tired parents not worth the effort).

[Table 5]

The best thing about Okotoks is the Eagle 100.9. Great classic rock station....beats anything in Calgary imo.

I'd only move out to the country if I was on a private lot with some trees and away from neighbors. Moving to a small town to be in a neighborhood that looks like any other city-suburb (ie, bald-ass prairie with plastic-siding houses stacked right next to each other) is the worst of both worlds imo.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

All I know is some good friends of my wife moved to Okotoks, now we barely see them because of it. When you are trying to plan get-togethers around kids schedules (naps, bedtime, etc) the added driving time there and back (for both parties) makes the actual visiting time very limited (and for the typical tired parents not worth the effort).

Great point. My friends who live within 5 minutes, I will stop by their house for 30 minutes if we are having busy weeks and just have a quick coffee. No way you do that if they are a 20-40 minute drive away.

[Hans Landa]

Gotta give the obligatory shout out to Airdrie.

I live on the SW fringe just off of 8th Street where most of the current new development is happening (currently a dusty mess, but this isn't my first new-construction rodeo, so it's not a big deal to me. It will end eventually).

I take 8th & 566 to access The Deerfoot.
6 minutes to Cross Iron Mills / Costco (not that I care about CIM... on the weekend it looks like a refugee camp and I swear not a single person in that complex is actually there to buy anything).
Just over 10 minutes to the Airport (closer than anywhere in SE or SW Calgary)
I work at Deerfoot & Paigan Trail. I leave home at 6:50am and get to work in 22 minutes.
Though coming home sucks if I don't finish work before 3:30... NB Deerfoot is a nightmare until you get past 64th... though relative to where I lived previously (Ontario), the commute is a dream.

Like Okotoks, Airdrie has everything. The only thing I have found myself having to go to Calgary for is good restaurants and select ethnic or higher end imported foods/ingredients that I can seem to find around here.
Most of the restaurants here are garbage. Fast Food with one good Shawarma/Donair place and a bunch of second rate dumps. The Sushi place in town is horrendous. The 'nice' Italian place serves food that isn't much better than Kraft Dinner... but I only eat out once or twice a month, so that isn't a big deal to me to hit up Calgary.

Other than that, it has WalMart (a complete freakshow of low rent pigs and bath salt experiments), Safeway, Sobeys, No Frills, Superstore. 2 or 3 Shoppers Drug Marts, a really awesome mom & pop Butcher Shop, etc. Most car dealerships are represented here.
I lived in a large town of 100,000 people in Ontario (45km from dt Toronto), twice the population of Airdrie, but Airdrie has about 3 times the amenities.

Airdrie is growing. It's infrastructure is growing. Property Tax, at the moment, is relatively low.
It's a bedroom community... hopefully anyone buying here or in any other similar 'parasite community' knows that before they make such a huge purchase.
I think the cosmopolitan city crowd get all bent out of shape because they drive past this towns and think "BORRRRRING!!!"

Yea, exactly. It's nice, quiet and boring. Just what I'm looking for after a 10 hour day of work.
If I'm not working, I'm in the mountains 90% of the time... in which case, Airdrie, Okotoks or Calgary... the travel time is the same.
Looking for night/social life? Stay the hell out of Airdrie/Okotoks. I doubt any such life exists unless you're still into driving your car 2 miles up a dirt road and drinking in the beams of your trucks headlights (which I am still down with, I just recognize I'm too old for it if the cops show up).



Anyways... I would love to have some people expand on the "quality of life" argument.
My QOL in Airdrie is quite good, as I would imagine is the same for those living in Okotoks.
My job requires me to drive about 120km around Calgary all day long, so I see much of the city. Most of my time is spent in the SW (which I love, but would need to fork out twice as much money to get what I have in Airdrie and pay $1500-$2000 more a year in property tax), and it has it's share of Skid Row Alumni lurking around. I fail to see how, when the people I see go back to their homes, their quality of life is superior to mine.

Excluding the SW, even if the other 3 quandrants of Calgary were cheaper than Airdrie, I'm not sure I'd care to live there. It's not what I'm looking for. I moved to Alberta for the fresh air and mountains, not for a social life and glass office towers.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Hans Landa

My job requires me to drive about 120km around Calgary all day long

Which is a good reason to not want to drive another 60km a day to and from work.

Living walking distance from the river, trails on a hill with a great view of the river and downtown and living within 1km of about 15 restaurants all sound like things you could enjoy after spending all day in your car. For you to do anything at night it's back into the car for you, which doesn't appeal to me.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

You basically answered your own question. He's talking about Okotoks, not Vulcan.

I'd happily take on a longer commute to a "parasite" community to get away from the madness that is Calgary. Man this town pisses me off some days. Getting into a smaller, quiter community is very desireable.

I don't think you understood my point. I was saying if you want to live within 30 minutes from Calgary, just live in Calgary. Adding a monster commute to come here on a regular basis is not a good idea.