Best Neighbourhoods | Ottawa Magazine

Articles Tagged ‘Best Neighbourhoods’

20 Best Neighbourhoods: Five great options for first-time home buyers

By Laura Byrne Paquet

First-timers, I assume, are concerned mainly about price. If a neighbourhood offers lots of housing close to or under the average February 2012 sale price, that caught my attention. But price doesn’t mean merely the price of the house. If it’s a steal but it’s so far out that you have to spend hundreds of dollars a month on gas just to get to work and the grocery store, it’s a bit of a false economy. So I also took into account such variables as car use and nearby amenities.

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Laura Byrne Paquet | June 11, 2012 at 11:00 am

20 Best Neighbourhoods: Hot real estate picks aimed at the family demographic

By Laura Byrne Paquet | Photograph by Dwayne Brown | Statistical graphics by
Aesthetic Intelligence

Old Ottawa South

For families, my main focuses were good schools and community services. Neighbourhoods with arenas, pools, community centres, parks, a library branch, and other kid-friendly facilities scored highly here. Reasonably priced single-family houses also factored into the mix — I suspect most families of four aren’t interested in squeezing into a 600-square-foot apartment. When you’re paying for braces and hockey school, it never hurts to save a bit of money on gas, so I’ve also noted the percentage of people in each neighbourhood who go to work by private vehicle (the rest walk, cycle, or take transit).

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Laura Byrne Paquet | June 4, 2012 at 9:30 am

20 Best Neighbourhoods: Appealing to the DINKs

By Laura Byrne Paquet | Photograph by Dwayne Brown | Statistical graphics
by Aesthetic Intelligence

ByWard Market: If you dream of living in a city that never sleeps, this is as close as you’ll get in O-town

DINKs were possibly the hardest group to classify. For every couple sans kids that fits the yuppie paradigm — lattes, yoga, art galleries, and posh restaurants — there are countless others who would rather be hiking, woodworking, or watching the complete works of Jim Carrey on DVD than at the symphony. For the purposes of this article, I focused on central neighbourhoods where DINKs’ extra disposable income could buy easy access to urban pleasures — even if they rarely take advantage of them.

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Laura Byrne Paquet | May 28, 2012 at 10:10 am

20 Best Neighbourhoods: Cost is no issue

By Laura Byrne Paquet | Photograph by Dwayne Brown | Statistical graphics by
Aesthetic Intelligence

Alta Vista

For the cost-is-no-issue crowd, I tried to find a range of neighbourhoods — urban, suburban, and semi-rural — where money might not buy you happiness but could score you original Tiffany chandeliers, an indoor saltwater pool, or floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a Gatsby-like estate. Heritage house, mid-century modern pad, or 21st-century McMansion: there’s something for everyone in this category, as long as you have a million or more to spare. I assumed most folks in this crowd have kids. Heck, they can certainly afford them.

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Laura Byrne Paquet | May 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm