After living in 15 cities across the United States, Britain and Africa, Katie Fahrland plotted a course to a life in Canada. She didn’t expect that it would lead through Colorado and Florida.
Ms. Fahrland, who grew up in Connecticut and graduated from McGill University in Montreal, worked in software sales before a career pivot to international development work in Africa. Her daughter Zoe, now 9, was born shortly after she moved back to Washington, D.C., for a new job. In 2018, after losing both that job and a trusted au pair, she decamped to Denver, where a brother lived.
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“I’m a single parent and it was a lot to handle,” said Ms. Fahrland, now 44. An experienced world traveler, she got a job with a private tour operator. “I was unhappy,” she said. “I had no friends. My people were in Montreal, where I went to school.”
In 2020, she applied for permanent resident status in Canada, which would allow her to purchase a home despite Canada’s ban on most foreign buyers.
“I wanted to live somewhere that aligned with my values,” she said. “People here are kind, friendly and supportive. And subsidized education, along with national healthcare, was important.”
Ms. Fahrland sold her Denver house and set out for Montreal, only to learn that her residency application had been delayed. Frantic, she made another detour to Jupiter, Fla., where friends had invited her and Zoe to stay. Finally, in 2024, the paperwork came through, and the two landed in Montreal. “It was a project four years in the making,” she said.
Her first stop was a rental apartment in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a leafy neighborhood northwest of downtown filled with century-old brick homes. Zoe enrolled in a school there, and the area enabled a car-free lifestyle. Its main artery, Monkland Avenue, offered plenty of dining, shopping and services.
“She knew exactly where she wanted to be, and had very specific criteria for the apartment,” said Ms. Fahrland’s agent, Monique Assouline of The Agency.
The right place would have at least four rooms — one each for her and Zoe, an office (she now works remotely for a New York-based hospitality marketing firm) and a guest room. Two bathrooms were also a must. But Ms. Fahrland’s budget of 900,000 Canadian dollars (about $660,000) would be a challenge in Montreal’s hot condo market.
“I had wanted to spend less, but realized I wouldn’t find what I needed,” she said.
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