Yellowknife... - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

shane_c · 11-20-2006, 10:56 AM

Has anyone lived in or visited Yellowknife?

shane_c · 11-20-2006, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

Ran out of things to buy in Calgary?

Never been, heard it is quite nice.

Ran out of money in Calgary is more like it. We're tired of working like mad just to be able to own a house here. It leaves no money for anything else. I realize housing is expensive up there too but wages are a lot higher. It's just somewhere we're considering right now.

peter12 · 11-20-2006, 11:08 AM

I think if you could land a good job and if you enjoyed the outdoors you would have a great time. I hear the mosquitos are devilish though.

My parents have some good friends from Whitehorse and I think they love it up there. There are a lot less commodities in the North and prepare for any extras (ie. Kraft Dinner) to be wildly expensive.

Sylvanfan · 11-20-2006, 12:14 PM

Yeah, at least in Calgary things like gas and food are relatively cheap. In Yellowknife you pay $5 for a bag of chips. If you want to live somewhere cheap I hear from my boss that Moncton New Brunswick is pretty cheap. Even looking on the MLS site, my crappy house that is work like $380 in St.Albert would cost half as much there. Anywhere that the wages are high, the cost of living will be higher. If you want to save money, you need to look to go somewhere cheap where you can keep your current wage or take a small paycut.

Nicole · 11-20-2006, 12:31 PM

Food is super expensive there. A friend of mine had an email showing the cost of food in Yellowknife and a 12 can case of Coca Cola was $22 or something outrageous. A tub of margarine was $10. There were a lot more but those are the two I actually remember. It was insane.

Mean Mr. Mustard · 11-20-2006, 12:31 PM

Worked in the general area for a while and the winters are bitter cold (worst I was in was -43 C w/o wind chill) and the summers have some of the worst mosquetoes, deer flies, horseflies, anything that flies and bites known to man. The fall is supposed to be really nice though.

shane_c · 11-20-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Yeah, at least in Calgary things like gas and food are relatively cheap. In Yellowknife you pay $5 for a bag of chips. If you want to live somewhere cheap I hear from my boss that Moncton New Brunswick is pretty cheap. Even looking on the MLS site, my crappy house that is work like $380 in St.Albert would cost half as much there. Anywhere that the wages are high, the cost of living will be higher. If you want to save money, you need to look to go somewhere cheap where you can keep your current wage or take a small paycut.

Lived in NB for a while prior to coming here. Sure the cost of living is much lower but so are the wages. I had 2 degrees and could only get a call centre job paying $11/hr. I'm also not bilingual so that screwed me over in NB. We'd love to move back east (i.e Halifax) but there just are not many decent jobs.

Sylvanfan · 11-20-2006, 01:55 PM

^^^
Well I don't know what you do for a living.....but can you possibly work out of Calgary but set yourself up to live somewhere else? I know the company I do most of my work for is looking very seriously at setting up an office out there just because there is a good supply of workers that doesn't exist out here. Some companies who think a bit more progressively are open to that idea, you'd be surprised whats out there if you just ask around.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 11-20-2006, 03:52 PM

Want decent wages and low cost of living? Move to Winnipeg. My rent was ridiculously cheap there and I lived close to downtown. Also, my wage was only slightly less than I'm making now and that even factors in the whole AHL/NHL thing. On a monthly basis, I saved way more money living in Winnipeg than I do now.

ken0042 · 11-20-2006, 04:00 PM

That was about 2 years ago, right SCH?

Just because when our house brices started to boom here I looked at moving back, and found that house prices had gone up there.

Watching the Winnipeg news the other night they were talking about how there was a shortage of vacant apartments. Because of Manitoba's rent control laws (landlord can only increase your rent X percent; usually 3 or 4%) nobody was moving out of their current place because that would leave them vulnerable to rent hikes.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 11-20-2006, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

That was about 2 years ago, right SCH?

Just because when our house brices started to boom here I looked at moving back, and found that house prices had gone up there.

Watching the Winnipeg news the other night they were talking about how there was a shortage of vacant apartments. Because of Manitoba's rent control laws (landlord can only increase your rent X percent; usually 3 or 4%) nobody was moving out of their current place because that would leave them vulnerable to rent hikes.

I last lived there in August of '05 so just over a year ago. I could have bought a really nice condo there in a great location for just over $100k. A part of me wishes I went for it because in 2-3 years there will be some great return on that investment.

These days you can still buy a very nice house for about $200,000. My house in St. Albert is now worth something like $400,000 but in Winnipeg in a similar location (say, St. Vital) it would be about $180,000.

Say what you will about Winnipeg, I actually prefer it to Edmonton in terms of what the cities have to offer.

ken0042 · 11-20-2006, 04:24 PM

Hmmm, would I rather live in Winnipeg, or in Edmonton. That's actually a tough call.

The other thing to factor in is the wages. When I looked at moving to Winnipeg I looked at what my current job pays. Based on what Monster.ca had for postings in both cities; I was looking at a $10/hr pay cut. While I could be Mortgage free in Winnipeg, I would also be bringing in about $1600/ month less, or about $1100 less after taxes. $1100 happens to be about what my mortgage is right now.

Then I had a look at taxes. Property tax in Winnipeg for a house like mine was about 2.5 times what I am paying now. I confirmed this with my parents and my sister as to what they are paying. My brother in law had me log into the city of Calgary website to show him how little I was paying in taxes; he didn't believe me.

So Shane, look into how much taxes are too. Could be in a small territory (population wise) that you'd have to pay more in property taxes.

shane_c · 11-20-2006, 04:28 PM

Winnipeg was another place we considered for a day or two until we read alot about their high crime rates. But there seem to be an ample amount of jobs and housing prices are very appealing.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 11-20-2006, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shane_c

Winnipeg was another place we considered for a day or two until we read alot about their high crime rates. But there seem to be an ample amount of jobs and housing prices are very appealing.

Crime rates in Winnipeg are actually misleading. It's a very safe city with the only exception being some communities in the north end.

ken0042 · 11-20-2006, 04:36 PM

The thing with Winnipeg's crime rate; aside from car theft , is that most of it happens within certain areas of town. If I were to move back I would move to Crestview or Westwood in St. James; Charleswood, (heck, anything with "wood" in it is good.), St. Vital, or Fort Garry.

Sidney Crosby's Hat · 11-20-2006, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

The thing with Winnipeg's crime rate; aside from car theft , is that most of it happens within certain areas of town. If I were to move back I would move to Crestview or Westwood in St. James; Charleswood, (heck, anything with "wood" in it is good.), St. Vital, or Fort Garry.

Those are the exact areas I would recommend (though I lived in Wolseley for about a year and it was great, it's a little too close to Langside for some people's liking).

St. Norbert is also not too bad if you don't mind a longer commute - not that any commute in Winnipeg is all that long. I miss my five minute drives to work, or 20 minute walks depending on the weather.

ken0042 · 11-20-2006, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I miss my five minute drives to work, or 20 minute walks depending on the weather.

Or being able to ride your bike anywhere because there's no stupid hills to get in your way.

And I like Wolseley too; but as you said, too close to some bad areas for some.

Sylvanfan · 11-20-2006, 04:52 PM

The other thing to keep in mind too, is what is the upside on the value of your house. Oil won't boom forever, but I still think there is good potential growth for house prices in places like Calgary and Edmonton if interest rates stay relatively low for at least another 10 years. Do you have that growth oppurtunity in a place like Winnepeg?

At the end of the day, I say pick a city where you want to live, not because of work, but because you like the place and go there. I'm going to move back to Kamloops in the spring myself. Now I'm luckey that my job won't change, but my wife will likely take a 60% pay cut to do so. But at the end of the day we'll be living somewhere that we think is a nice place to live and that's the most important thing.

Money and jobs are nice, and I was as guilty as anyone for thinking that way. But after my father passed away suddenly and I hadn't seen him for the last 9 months of his life, my perspective on things changed a lot. Now I'd rather be closer to family and things that are important to me than bring home $150k a year in hopes of retiring at the age of 40.

shane_c · 11-21-2006, 09:04 AM

Thanks for all the replies. To anyone who has lived in Winnipeg how is it nature wise? Are there more trees and woods than in Calgary. How close is it to those 2 big lakes in Manitoba and any other natural bodies of water that we could kayak or canoe in?

ken0042 · 11-21-2006, 09:09 AM

Lake Winnipeg is less than an hour away from city limits, and I think there are around 10,000 lakes within a 2 hour drive. Everybody I know in Winnipeg either owns a cabin, or has one at their disposal.

Winnipeg is prairie, but once again within an hour drive you are getting into forest as you head east towards Ontario. I'm sure a google search for West Hawk Lake or Falcon Lake will show you what I'm talking about.

You will miss the mountains though. I remember thinking my ex was a freak for saying that when she moved to Winnipeg, but then when I went back to go to school I found myself saying the same thing.