New Member - Introduction and thanks!

[Cartcanuck]

My wife's office will be in Kitchener and we have been looking at homes in both Kitchener and Waterloo.  

So far the areas we seem most drawn to are Waterloo: Beechwood and Westvale, and Kitchener: Forest Heights, Country Hills, or maybe Stanley Park areas.. The top end of our house budget is $400k and we appreciate the areas with mature trees and yards.    We have even seen some homes in the Chicopee and Breslau areas that look nice.  But so far it's been online shopping for homes.  Wifey has a realtor she is working with and she will be in Kitchener in early July to start work and will be able to look more in person.

Should we be avoiding any of these  communities?

I don't think there's anything on that list to avoid.   In Kitchener, my preference from your list would be Forest Heights (or Forest Hill if you're willing to go older), Stanley Park, and Country Hills, in that order.   You've probably already noticed that you pay a premium for equivalent houses in Waterloo over Kitchener.  Kitchener taxes are also lower than those in Waterloo.  The new subdivisions in Breslau seem nice, but it's a "full car-dependent" kind of place.

If you haven't already seen it, and I'm not sure where to find it, there is a list on-line ranking primary schools in K and W, so you might like to look at that in the context of the neighbourhoods you're considering.

Yeah, I can't remember what it's called, but we've been looking at that ranking.  The schools in Laurelwood seem to rank best, but we can't afford to get what we want for a house in that area  :   Coming from a smaller city, we have gotten used to mature trees and we currently have a HUGE lot (18,000 square feet with an inground pool).   I know we won't be replacing that in KW, at least not within our budget, but we would at least like a decent size yard and some mature trees.  So that draws us to the older, more mature communities.