Any One Ever Emigrated?

[Miss Wiggle]

thanks for all the help everyone, it's really really appreciated, and to any mods that have read this, I know it's not fish but thanks for keeping it open, helping us out a massive amount!

told our respective mum's last night that were thinking about it, safe to say neither of them is exactly thrilled but they understand

while I would ideally love to be in a really small town I'm conscious of the fact that we'd be moving to a country where we know a handful of people (you lot) from a forum scattered across the country. I wouldn't want to end up isolated cos there's not enough people around of a similar age or things to do so we can meet people and make friends. So I think at least initially it would be best to move somewhere a half decent size, then maybe in a few years when we've got ourselves established a bit we could move somewhere a little bit smaller.

also remember the towns were looking at are basically from looking at google maps and comparing it to real estate websites over there, so we're probably mostly turning up larger towns. If anyone's got any suggestions of nice communities within that region please let us know and we'll check them out.

one more tax question (promise we'll stop with them soon!) when we've seen houses advertised for sale, they also have a tax price. What's this for? is it a one off when you buy the house or a yearly/monthly/quarterly fee? thanks

 

[SamUK]

who ever sed getting in to canada was easy couldnt be more wrong.


i kno a few people who have applied and theyve all been turned down.


they dont jus let anyone in like we seem to do.


even my mate who had lived there for 6 months and is trained as a qualified ski instructor was turned down.


theres a guy at work who had the same problem.


you have to have X amount of cash in the bank and theres alot of other rules.

dont wanna put a downer on it alice and ian but jus wanted to warn ya!


having sed that tho its a great idea!

few more years and there will probably be more brits abroad than there is here!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aye, we're well aware that there's a chance we'd be turned down. but we more than fulfill the basic criteria and we should have plenty of money in our pockets to go over there with, not gonna post all my finances on a public board but I'm pretty confident we'll have enough cash to make us seem like an attractive prospect over there!

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not certain about Canada but the property taxes in the US are collected to help pay for the government infrastructure such as schools and are the primary source of revenue for state and municipal governements. In the county I live in, that tax is roughly $.89 per $100 of property value. So if the home had a property value of $100,000, the annual tax would be $890. There would also be city taxes most places (an additional $.45/$100 in my city). It is generally included with your mortgage and escrowed by the mortgage company who pays it each year when the notice comes out.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I'm not certain about Canada but the property taxes in the US are collected to help pay for the government infrastructure such as schools and are the primary source of revenue for state and municipal governements. In the county I live in, that tax is roughly $.89 per $100 of property value. So if the home had a property value of $100,000, the annual tax would be $890. There would also be city taxes most places (an additional $.45/$100 in my city). It is generally included with your mortgage and escrowed by the mortgage company who pays it each year when the notice comes out.

ok cool, we pay council tax for similar services, have to pay it direct to your local government though rather than it going through your morgage. allgood if it does though, as far as I'm concerned if I've got 1 less thing to have to remember to pay it's good!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Kitchener/Waterloo is a nice area, close to everything and right now the local economy is doing rather well. (Too densely populated for me though) I nearly moved to Stratford several years ago, it's a beautiful small town. I live in the Niagara Region in a small town on Lake Erie. Niagara is a great area to look into as well. Just curious as too how large a community you want to live in? In southern Ontario, you can find some very nice small towns (20,000 or less) but which are situated a very short distance from a large city. You generally get a tighter community, a quieter place to live, and bigger building lots in these places plus more green space.

been looking up population sizes for towns/villages that i know to get a rough idea of size. i think around 20-30 thousand people would be a nice size, wouldn't want to go much smaller than that i think

 

[Griz]

Property taxes are just as rdd1952 said.

Here's a neat little tool that allows you to calculate property taxes in the Niagara Region where I live. http/www.regional.niagara.on.ca/governme...calculator.aspx
Click on one of the municipalities, enter an amount (property value) and it will calculate the property taxes. It also give you a very detailed breakdown of where the Regional portion of the money goes. Where I live, the Regional government gets just over 50%, 18% goes to education, and 31% goes to the municipality (town) I live in. In Niagara, you would be looking at housing prices in the $150K to $250K range, although you can find a nice place for less in some areas. We have plenty of levels of government here. Many would say too many. There is the Federal Government, Provincial Government (Ontario), Regional Government (Niagara), and Municipal Government (the town). Lot's of hands in your pocket.

20-30 thousand is a nice sized community IMO. It will generally have enough services but still have a small-town feel and fewer of the problems one associates with larger cities. I'll have a look for some nice towns I've been to in that area and give you a list. A bit premature for you perhaps but you need to create the dream in your head before you can make it happen, right?
Here's one just off the top of my head. I very nearly moved there several years back. Population is about 30,000 I believe http/www.city.stratford.on.ca/

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i know were way ahead of ourselves thinking of locations, but were just trying to plan our holiday over there really. if we can get a short list of towns to visit when we're over there then hopefully we can find some we like the look of. and if we can get a list of towns now we can check out real estate and see how far our money would go in different locations.

but yeah there's a big part of it is building the dream

i'll check out those links, thanks for all your help griz