ottawa_home

Looking for a more urban, cultural setting, where you can still afford a spacious house with a rolling green lawn? Check out Ottawa. It not only made No. 1 on this year’s Best Places to Live ranking, it did so for the third time. And even though house prices have risen steadily—up 19.2% in the last four years—Ottawa is still a great place to buy. It has high discretionary incomes (thanks to all those federal government jobs), steady population growth, a low unemployment rate and housing costs that average a respectable $307,000. Couple that with a vacancy rate of less than 1% and average monthly rents of $1,065, and you have a good bet for both real estate investors and residents alike.