dimedime

I will be attending Carleton this Fall. My plan is to purchase something in the city and I hope to find a room mate or two. I figure rent would be cheaper for the room mates and this would bring my costs down as well. Moreover, this should improve the quality of the location. Living on site, I imagine that I will bring a pride of ownership that is difficult to find in a rental property. I will not be purchasing in the Glebe or Old Ottawa (near campus) due to prices. Median housing is somewhere around $800,000 in these areas. I am, however, looking within a 10-15 minute drive, near transit, and about a 20-30 minute bus ride. My hope is to only rent to grad students. Hopefully this will bring maturity and collegiality to the house. If anyone is interested, I will keep an eye on this forum. I will not be purchasing until late June or mid July. I still have to complete my MA thesis and sell my house where I currently live. Throughout the process of investigating Ottawa, I have compared rental prices, listing prices, transit options, walk scores, and amenities in many of the city's areas. The following are some of my findings: Glebe, Old Ottawa South (West half—nearer Carleton campus), Sandy Hills, and Byward have many rental properties. Glebe and Old Ottawa South (West half—nearer Carleton campus) are close to Carleton. Sandy Hills and Byward are close to U of O. The properties in these areas range from apartment to duplex to shared accomodations. Rent is slightly higher than areas other than City Centre. City Centre is close to lots of action, but professionals drive these prices up. The area is near Parliament, tons of amenities, and U of O. Glebe and Old Ottawa South are close to campus BUT, depending on where your department is on campus, may still be a 30+ minute walk. You may have to bus it to campus. This can be a little circuitous, resulting in a 10-15 minute bus ride. If your department is on the Southern tip of campus (nearer Hog's Back), you may wish to look in the Fisher Heights, Rideau View, Confederation Heights, Mooney's Bay areas. Fisher Heights will have more housing options (including rentals). For those with pets, this will get you a back yard. You will want to confirm that pets are allowed though. Some owners will not want the potential damage from pets. There are two large condos in the Rideauview area that appear to be popular as a Carleton rental. Confederation Heights does not appear to have many rentals. Its proximity to campus and the O-train seem quite nice, should you be able to find something in the area. Mooney's Bay has a couple of condos and apartments for rent. This area also seems to have townhouses and some shared accommodation. Properties in the area are about a 30 minute walk to campus and are somewhat close to the O-train (3 minute ride to campus). I have not visited, but this area looks really nice and is close to the beaches of Mooney's Bay! Three other areas to consider: Billings Bridge, Alta Vista, and Hunt Club. Billings Bridge is just South of Old Ottawa South. It is very close to a transit hub so it will have quick access to Carleton (and I assume U of O) campus. It is also very close to every amenity you could want, with Walk Scores of 90-100. Alta Vista is just East of Billings Bridge. It has many buses heading into the Billings Bridge transit stop so busing is 20-30 minutes depending on how far East you go. Rent becomes much nicer and properties look nicer than the Glebe and Old Ottawa South areas. Lower rent, nicer accommodation, but you have to sacrifice proximity to campus. Ultimately this sacrifice may only be 5-15 minutes transit time each direction. Hunt Club is a short (10-15 minute) drive to campus, but it is close to an O-train stop (6 minute ride to campus). There appear to be some very good buses to the O-train stop. There are also lots of Townhouses and a few apartments to rent or purchase in the area. The area looks nice and is located in the Southern part of the city. It is also close to shopping and Mooney's Bay. One downfall is that the airport is located just below the South-Eastern tip of the Hunt Club area. For some parts of the area this should not be an issue. For some parts, there may be some noise. I am only speculating though. You may have to investigate further. Two final notes. A friend who lived in Ottawa several years ago told me that there is a bus that runs between Carleton and U of O designed for grad students that need to get back and forth. This should open up other parts of the city for the couple attending both schools as proximity to one campus grants a short ride to the other campus. I have not looked into this further, but a visit to the OC Transpo webpage may yield a response. With all of this talk about locations with access to transit, I should point out that student fees at both schools include a U-pass which grants unlimited free riding on all of the city's transits (bus and O-train). If you are bilingual, you may want to consider Gatineau (particularly the Hull area). Due to the already lengthy post I will not go into length about advantages and disadvantages to the area. If you are interested, however, you should definitely investigate this option. I know I have. Good luck to everyone with the move and their academic path that lay before them. Peace!