Looking to move to Halifax- please advise on areas to live/avoid

[ketchudj]

My wife and I are thinking about moving to Halifax for a number of reasons; better lifestyle, nice people, less traffic, less expensive housing.

I noticed the other thread asking for advice about Toronto, so I thought I would post this here.

I would like to live relatively close to the city of Halifax, but want to find a decent priced neirbourhood with good schools. I have been thinking about Bedford. I haven't done any school research yet, but if anyone has anything please let me know.

[kin0kin]

If you'd enjoy staying in quiet area, you could check out:

- The area around Point Pleasant Park (dog park), below St Mary's University. Most of the places are are very dark at night and you most likely don't want to rent the apartments here unless you drive. However, there are some very nice bungalow around this area.

- Area west of Connaught Ave, with Quinpool on the south and Chebucto Rd on the North

- Area around Mt Saint Vincent University. Up the hil.

If you are going to rent, I'd stay away from anywhere around Barrington St, Hollis Street, Lower water St.

I used to live around Clayton Park, on Lacewood Drive, and also around Dunbrack and Main Ave. Most rental here are a few hundred cheaper than areas closer to downtown. But I now stay on South Park Street, although the rental is slightly higher, my 2 years here had been much more blissful than the 4 years in Clayton Park. Mainly because it is closer to everything, building is quiet (can get noisy if you are unlucky and have a bunch of College kids as your neighbor) But the security always takes care of them.

[mjl_toronto]

haha, that's funny. You two should do a house swap :)

[MaDgamEr]

I think you'll be in for a bit of a suprise when it comes to Halifax... My wife and I live in "the Valley", about 100 km away. Valley is nice because its a bit quieter, good water, great air, etc. Having said that, unless you're employed by DND or Michellin, you're not gonna make it here... There's just no good jobs other than those 2.

Now when it comes to Halifax and your expectations there of, you're gonna be in for a rude awakening. My wife and I have lived in Halifax for a couple years previous to where we are now. We have also lived in Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto (High Park) in the past and these are our observations:

Housing: Slightly cheaper at best, but its much of the same BS as TO. You can still pay $500K+ for a 60 year old house in downtown if you like.
Fuel: Get ready ready to pay ~$0.20 /litre more for everything from gas to heating oil. Very little natural gas around here.
Groceries: Insanely more expensive than Ontario. No rhyme or reason, that's just a perk of the Maratime lifestyle.
Insurance: If you're living in Halifax, same old crap as TO/Ottawa.
Traffic: Well, this is an interesting one. Considering the entire proivince of NS has a smaller population than Ottawa, you think it would be ok, right? Wrong! Halifax has one of the WORST road layouts known to North America. Rush hour is still 6-9am, 11-2, and 4-7pm. Add to this the fact that almost all major roads are 1 or 2 lanes, 2 toll bridges join the 2 parts of the city and the imperial (grid) road system is imposed over top of the old Brit (circular) road system... and well, I think you get the idea. We still even have 2 major rotaries in the Halifax Area (HRM). Cute eh? Until you get rear-ended by some moron not paying attention... A very regular occurance in the rotaries.
Crime: Lower numbers per se, but per capita, its a typical "port town"... So worse than GTA.

Now don't get me wrong, its an absolutely beautiful city (esp the lower deck), but there are just so many similarities between HRM and GTA that its not worth it. Now if you get a house in Sackville, Cole Harbour or the Eastern Passage, things are better for the most part... Except the traffic and the fact that you're right in the middle of "Hurricane Alley". A bit of a gamble, esp if you ask some of those that have gone through Hurricane Juan (Late Sept 2003). Many are still trying to rebuild.

Come to NS, its simply beautiful out here... But just do yourself a favour and don't buy in the HRM. Come to the Valley, or even Cape Bretton (expen$ive). But HRM will just be a constant reminder of GTA, except for the scenery of course!

[kin0kin]

MaDgamEr missed something...

Food: It's simply....horrible. Eaton Centre's food court easily beats half of the City if you are trying to find some authentic food in HFX.

It's just as MaDgamEr said, unless you are already employed here, it's very difficult to find a good job. The city is small and saturated, people know each other. Many jobs are given to the next best friend than the next best candidate. I was also once told by a law professor that, unless you are born in HFX in a lawyer family, you can forget about getting into that industry. Not sure how true this is but that's what I was told. Another potential income is running you own business here, and depending on what kind of business it can be very slow. However, there may be less competition, again, depends on what kind of business you are trying to run. Note that, HFX has the highest pub per capita in the whole Canada, and as you would expect, most people are willing to spend half of their income drinking in pubs, but not willing to spend on anything else.

As far as less traffic is concerned, it takes at least an hour to get from Lacewood to downtown during rush hour. Some CRITICAL intersections and merging lanes on Bedford highway has NO road lines, and the hwy easily span across 4-5 lanes with cars coming from everywhere. Even a seasoned driver sometimes feel uneasy driving there.

Road condition is also, bad. Despite having less traffic than TO, there are port holes everywhere and the gov has no interests in fixing them. Driving along St Margaret's Bay road and you will know what I mean, typically one or two in every mile.

People are leaving the city and this is a known issue. The city is poor; the government is trying to encourage people to return but I doubt this is ever going to happen. Most of my friends have left for Calgary, why? you probably guessed it, no jobs here, lots of jobs in Calgary. I'm personally moving to TO, and I enjoy being in the center of everything (not suggesting that I am an attention *****) but just because everything is happening there.

The bottom line is, the city is not as great as some made it seem, but you may enjoy a quieter life here.

[MaDgamEr]

Great points... Just want to reiterate, the province is beautiful, its just HRM that's become very lame.

As for TO and being the center of everything... not quite. Toronto is not quite the center of the Canadian universe like it used to be. The West is now the economic stronghold of this country...

[ketchudj]

Thanks for all the feedback!

The food thing is interesting, I didn't realize some of those expenses were higher. I am checking out prices on MLS, and come accross really decent houses for ~$300k where as you wouldn't find anything like that in Toronto.

Keep the comments coming!

[ketchudj]

Does anyone know of any other forums/websites where I could get more information?