QV said:
Thats not too bad at all. I live in Cold Lake and paid a hair under $200,000 for an 18 year old home 1300 sq ft, city lot. Nice neighborhood though. Some old retired guys were telling me about when they were posted from Alberta to Ontario (Ottawa) they took a loss in take home pay and their wives couldn't find work and blah blah.... so I wonder about that.
Those stories are from the distant past. There should be no way that you will take a loss on a Post these days. Those are stories from back in the Eighties when the Housing markets collapsed and there was no 'protection' provided by DND on a move. Times have changed.
You can buy a house in Orleans for $40K less than the same house in Kanata. Kanata (and also Stittsville) is notorious for being the home of the Carp Mountain and numerous power outages. Kanata and Stittsville are cashing in on the High Tech workers. Vanier is a more rundown and seedy area. Barrhaven to the South has a lot of crime. Spread throughout the city you will find areas of 'Refugee Slums/Slum Blocks/Apartments'. There are many nice neighbourhoods as well as those that are not. Orleans has a very good Transportation link to Downtown with OC Transpo.
Outside of town you can find places in Carp, Stittsville, Carleton Place, Almonte, Arnprior, Rockland, Vars, Kempville, North Gower, Navan, Embrum, Manotick, Greely, Metcalfe, Richmond, or go across to Gatineau in Quebec. You will find a wide variance in house prices, for the same style of home, depending on which community you look at.