Moving/buying a house in Ottawa or Gatineau?

Hello, My family and I will be relocating to Ottawa from the United States in September. My husband will be working at the university of Ottawa. He is from France, and we are a bi-lingual family. We also have 3 children. Thus, the french/school/housing options in Gatineau seem to be a draw. However, the taxes are high there and we are not sure whether to just buy in Ottawa. Any recommendations on best living option would be great. Our kids will likely be attending a private Catholic school in downtown Ottawa anyway, once old enough. But what we liked about Gatineau (Aylmer, Dote d'Azur, etc) was that it seemed more small-city charming. Everything that is affordable in Ottawa seems to be sprawled out into cookie-cutter type suburbs. We like old houses, varied architecture, a main city street, etc. The university is working on our visas, and we are not sure how long we will have to wait before buying a house. Will we have to go through a whole extra set of immigration paperwork to buy a house in Quebec? Any tips on places to live and how to go about buying a house would be appreciated!