An American Takes the Lengthy Path to a Life in Canada

After residing in 15 cities throughout the USA, Britain and Africa, Katie Fahrland plotted a course to a life in Canada. She didn’t anticipate that it could lead by means of Colorado and Florida.

Ms. Fahrland, who grew up in Connecticut and graduated from McGill College in Montreal, labored in software program gross sales earlier than a profession pivot to worldwide growth work in Africa. Her daughter Zoe, now 9, was born shortly after she moved again to Washington, D.C., for a brand new job. In 2018, after dropping each that job and a trusted au pair, she decamped to Denver, the place a brother lived.

[Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]

“I’m a single mum or dad and it was rather a lot to deal with,” mentioned Ms. Fahrland, now 44. An skilled world traveler, she bought a job with a personal tour operator. “I used to be sad,” she mentioned. “I had no associates. My individuals have been in Montreal, the place I went to highschool.”

In 2020, she utilized for everlasting resident standing in Canada, which might permit her to buy a house regardless of Canada’s ban on most international consumers.

“I needed to stay someplace that aligned with my values,” she mentioned. “Folks listed here are type, pleasant and supportive. And backed training, together with nationwide healthcare, was essential.”

Ms. Fahrland bought her Denver home and set out for Montreal, solely to study that her residency software had been delayed. Frantic, she made one other detour to Jupiter, Fla., the place associates had invited her and Zoe to remain. Lastly, in 2024, the paperwork got here by means of, and the 2 landed in Montreal. “It was a mission 4 years within the making,” she mentioned.

Her first cease was a rental condominium in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a leafy neighborhood southwest of downtown stuffed with century-old brick properties. Zoe enrolled in a college there, and the realm enabled a car-free life-style. Its predominant artery, Monkland Avenue, supplied loads of eating, buying and providers.

“She knew precisely the place she needed to be, and had very particular standards for the condominium,” mentioned Ms. Fahrland’s agent, Monique Assouline of The Company.

The appropriate place would have at the least 4 rooms — one every for her and Zoe, an workplace (she now works remotely for a New York-based hospitality advertising agency) and a visitor room. Two bogs have been additionally a should. However Ms. Fahrland’s funds of 900,000 Canadian {dollars} (about $660,000) could be a problem in Montreal’s sizzling condominium market.

“I had needed to spend much less, however realized I wouldn’t discover what I wanted,” she mentioned.

Discover out what occurred subsequent by answering these two questions: