Mortgage Free in Alberta – Macleans.ca

Odette Karlsson, a 45-year-old group home supervisor, and her children: Lily, 17, and Cody, seven.

In 2018, Karlsson was living the life of a single, working mother. Lily and Cody lived with her in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse in Kitchener, while Jaidyn, Karlsson’s adult son from another relationship, had just left the nest to attend university in Ottawa. To support her youngest children, Karlsson juggled three jobs: as an educational assistant during the school year, at a halfway house for people with brain injuries in the evenings, and as a relief worker on weekends. Money was extremely tight, and then two meniscus tears occurred, sending Karlsson on long-term disability leave in the summer of 2022. “She was financially destitute,” she says. “I used my credit card to make purchases and only paid the minimum each month.”

By the end of the year, Karlsson decided that life in Ontario was completely unsustainable: he had already visited his bank several times in search of loans and a second mortgage to stay afloat. “She was nervous all the time,” she says. After losing a lot of sleep, she concluded that the only possible way to pay off her debt and achieve her long-standing goal of being mortgage-free was to find a new home in a less expensive market.

Like many Canadians, Karlsson was the first to consider the idea of ​​moving to the Atlantic, where houses were exponentially cheaper. But after some exploring online, he discovered that most of those low prices came with another expense: long travel times to major cities. Last spring, during her research phase, Karlsson phoned a former co-worker who had just moved her family to Spruce Grove, Alberta, a bedroom community on the outskirts of Edmonton, located 15 minutes from downtown. city. A quick Google search revealed tons of affordable housing options between Edmonton and Red Deer, where Karlsson already had two cousins.

For Karlsson, life in the west offered the expansion he longed for. If your Kitchener home sold for $730,000, as anticipated, you would still have $300,000 left to spend on a new home, one in a quieter town with better full-time job prospects, and maybe even a bedroom in the main floor for his elderly father. , Denis, who at the time was living alone in Oakville. Karlsson could even afford to go out some nights on the town with friends for dinner and dancing. A little freedom, finally.

In May, Karlsson told her cousins ​​about her impending arrival and booked a solo flight to Edmonton (and a week at a local Airbnb) to begin her search. After some frustrating delays with real estate agents, she decided to rent a car and explore available listings on her own, starting in Red Deer. A three-bedroom house, listed at $300,000, caught her eye, but it turned out to be a 20-year-old model with old carpets and dated wood fixtures that Karlsson didn’t yet have the budget to replace.

From there, Karlsson headed north to clean, quiet Lacombe, population 13,000. He quickly spotted a three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse. It had a few things going for it: it was located in a new subdivision (built in 2020), a nearby plaza had some attractive restaurants, and most importantly, it was for sale for $260,000. “I thought I’d like that $40,000 to go into my bank account instead of my house,” Karlsson says.

During a showing the next day, Karlsson told the listing agent that he didn’t love some of the finishes in the home. In response, the real estate agent told him about a corner unit, with the same number of bedrooms, that would be more to his liking. He was about to go on the market. Karlsson loved the new unit. He adored the Spanish-inspired tiles in the front entry, the open-concept living room and the back deck, which he imagined he could one day overlook a fire pit. It had less living space compared to his Kitchener townhouse, but the home’s high ceilings and modern decor made the space feel spacious. “We all hang out in our rooms anyway,” says Karlsson.

Karlsson submitted a bid of $260,000, approximately $5,000 less than requested; The back lawn was patchy and half-dead, thanks to the current owners’ dog. They countered with $262,450, which Karlsson accepted. He would take office in August. “He was ecstatic,” says Karlsson. He celebrated the deal with a dinner in Red Deer with his cousins, soon to be fellow Albertans.

Karlsson returned to Kitchener and quickly tied up loose ends. His house sold for $700,000 a week after going public, and he hired a moving company to ship the family’s belongings to Lacombe. He also took Cody and Denis on a couple of short road trips around Ontario, one to visit Jaidyn in Ottawa and another to visit family in Thunder Bay, before heading to Alberta with Cody by car. (Lily was scheduled to fly a few days later.)

Karlsson planned to buy beds on the day of Lily’s flight, but his plans were interrupted by a phone call from his sister, telling him that Denis had died. Karlsson knew that Denis was ill, but he did not expect him to pass away so soon after their time together. “His attitude was great during the trip,” he says. He left the keys to his house in Lacombe with one of his cousins ​​and flew back to Ontario with Cody to attend Denis’ funeral. He had given his Toyota Venza to Lily, so the three of them returned to Alberta as a family.

The Karlssons quickly put down new roots in Lacombe. Karlsson found work as a group home supervisor, a job whose salary allows her to save a considerable amount of money each month. “I’m making more than I’ve ever made in my career,” she says. “When I got my first paycheck and realized I had no debt or mortgage, I thought, ‘Woohoo!’ “It has been a total relief.” Lily found her own job (a part-time job at Wendy’s), while Cody’s big project has been skating lessons at the local sports complex.

Karlsson has some fun ways to spend his new free time: going out at night, dancing with friends on ’80s nights, going to family-friendly restaurants, and relaxing with the kids watching Nintendo Switch games or on day trips to the numerous Alberta attractions. . On a recent visit, Jaidyn accompanied them to Banff and Lake Louise. “I hope that one day he will come here too,” says Karlsson.