Where to Live in Calgary

As Calgary has boomed, migrants have flooded in from Europe, Asia and other Canadian cities. 

Suburban development has boomed too. 

Calgary's house prices are still affordable compared with Vancouver but are almost as expensive as Toronto's. 

The city's preferred residential areas lie in the North West and South West suburbs. These are closest to the Rockies with attractive mountain views. 

The North East, where the airport is situated, and some rather industrial parts of the South East are often thought of as less favored locations. 

North West: we'd recommend Tuscany, Edgemont, Country Hills, Dalhousie and Rosedale as good places to begin your search for a home. 

South West: we'd recommend West Hillhurst, Westgate and Springbank Hill as good places to begin your search for a home.

South East: we'd recommend McKenzie Lake and Midnapore as good places to begin your search for a home. 

Each of these areas has lower than average crime rates and offer residents an above average quality of life. 


Summing Up 
To some migrants, Calgary feels isolated - an island city in the middle of a vast prairie. Unlike Toronto, there are no other sizeable towns and cities nearby. It's also a long way from the sea or sizeable lakes. 

Most migrants, provided they can cope with the cool climate, find Calgary offers an extremely attractive lifestyle. 


Calgary's Negatives 

 The long, cold winter. 

 The rapid thaw and slush when the warm Chinook wind blows in winter

 The short summer. 

A lack of history, historical buildings, and culture. 

 Expensive housing compared with most other Canadian cities. 


Calgary's Positives 

Low taxes

Low unemployment. 

 Salaries above the Canadian average. 

Clean and beautiful, with a modern, attractive downtown, a good-sized meandering river, and the rocky mountain backdrop

 The Rockies are easily accessible by car from Calgary. 

 Clean air. 

 A sunny climate - one of the sunniest in Canada - with low rainfall

Chinook winds bringing mild days in winter. 

Fantastic winter sports - with Canada Olympic Park 

Friendly people

 It's easy to "get away from it all" into a huge province with a small population. 

Living in Edmonton, Alberta

Guide to Living in Edmonton 
Edmonton is the capital of Alberta. Its population is 780,000, somewhat less than Calgary. Metropolitan Edmonton's population is 1.1 million. 

Like Calgary, Edmonton is a river city, lying on both sides of the North Saskatchewan River. 

Edmonton has earned the title of "The Festival City" of Canada and is a centre for many world class gatherings and celebrations, particularly in summer. 

The city is also the home of West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping mall, not just in Canada, but in North America. 

Character 

Edmonton is located in Alberta, Canada's low tax province. Its residents pay significantly lower taxes than residents of other Canadian provinces. 

Most people who move to Edmonton are impressed by the friendliness of Edmontonians. Money Sense magazine ranks Edmonton as the 31st most livable location in Canada in terms of its economy, amenities, real estate market, weather, and attractions. While this figure is hardly flattering, Edmonton enjoys its status as a "green city". 

The landscape around Edmonton is flat. The Rocky mountains, although available for recreation, are too far away to see. The town of Jasper, in Jasper National Park, is a four hour drive from Edmonton. Edmonton's river valley is home to the longest stretch of connected urban parkland anywhere in North America. There is over ninety-seven kilometers (61 miles) of biking, hiking, skiing, walking and snow-shoeing trails. 

Edmonton's "Ribbon of Green" is reinforced by neighborhood parks throughout the city yielding 27,400 acres of parkland. Edmonton has Canada's highest area of parkland per resident. 

The city has an advanced bus network and light rail system that stops frequently in major central and downtown points of interest. 

Edmonton is a major oil and gas centre, attracting many migrant workers. As a result of this, the city is ethnically diverse with about one-quarter of the local population belonging to a "visible minority" - mainly Chinese and other Asian ethnicities. 
First Nations aboriginal people account for just over 5% of the population. 

Nearly 90% of Canadian-born residents report that English is their primary language and 88% of the immigrant population report conversational knowledge of the English language, which includes 60% speaking English as their at-home language. 

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Business and Jobs

Business and Jobs 

Edmonton boasts a favorable job market relative to most other Canadian cities, with labour shortages (2011). 

The city and the Government of Alberta hope to fill the vacancies by advertising the city's appeal to foreign migrants and skilled laborers. 

The largest major industry is petrochemicals. The region is rich in oil and natural gas, which has given Edmonton the title of "Oil Capital of Canada". The potential oil supply from the region's tar sands is second only to Saudi Arabia's. However, recruiting skilled workers in these fields has been difficult. 

Local colleges offer a wide syllabus of courses related to the oil and gas fields, but Edmonton still experiences a shortage of professional and skilled workers in these sectors. 

Edmonton benefits from a wide range of other employment sectors. There are significant opportunities in information technology, banking and biotechnology; employers includeAfexa Life Sciences, BioWare, IBM, Intuit Canada, Canadian Western Bank, Telus, General Electric, Stantec and TD Canada Trust. 

The city has also given birth to many successful retail businesses, including Pizza 73 and Booster Juice. 

New migrants to the city of Edmonton frequently report that they spend very little time in job hunting and usually receive offers of employment very quickly. 

Employment vacancies tend to be offered on a "first come, first served" basis due to the lack of available workers in the city. This is especially true in the retail sector where prospective workers can apply in-person with their resumes and can receive offers of employment immediately. 


Where to live in Edmonton 

The city of Edmonton has experienced a decline in real estate prices since they peaked in May 2007. Home prices in early 2011 averaged $312,000, down from $317,000 a year earlier. 

Edmonton is relatively stable in economic downturns, but the global economy's recent plunge has been a driving force in the reduction in real estate valuations. 

Regarding the best places to live in Edmonton, we'll consider family-friendly neighborhoods offering a good quality of life with low crime rates. (These might not necessarily be your choice if you're a young single person looking for inner city nightlife and entertainment.) 

Edmonton's residents often identify the city's south western neighborhoods as some of the most desirable and affluent - neighborhoods such as Haddow, Henderson Estates, and Ogilvie Ridge have very low crime rates and their residents are very affluent compared with most other neighborhoods. Neighborhoods such as Blackburne and Falconer Heights are affluent areas with similarly low crime rates. Neighborhoods such as Lendrum Place and Steinhauer are more middling for affluence levels and, although they suffer a little more crime than the neighborhoods mentioned previously, still have low crime rates. 

In South Edmonton, Windsor Place and Bearspaw are good neighborhoods, while in the South East Wild Rose, Cloverdale and Larkspur are great places to live. In the South East, parts of Mill Woods have a reputation for higher levels of crime; some residents of Edmonton warn people not to live in Mill Woods. This is rather unfair, given the size of the area - over 100,000 people live there. A minority of Mill Woods areas do have problems, while other neighborhoods offer a high quality of life with low crime. The best places to live include Jackson Heights, Greenview and Menisa. 

Sherwood Park, on the Eastern boundary of Edmonton, with a population of slightly over 60,000, has a very low crime rate and is also favored by many people seeking an improved quality of life. 

There are plenty of excellent, family friendly areas in West Edmonton. (Some of these have only been built in recent years as the city expands.) Some of the best you could consider are Dechene, Gariepy, Glastonbury, Jamieson Place, Laurier Heights, Potter Greens, Quesnell Heights, Rio Terrace, Wedgewood Heights, and Westridge. 

In North West Edmonton, Cumberland and Oxford are great choices, while in North Edmonton, consider Canossa, Elinsore and Klarvatten. 

A good choice in the north could be St. Albert, a town with about 60,000 residents, just outside Edmonton. 

Crimes in Edmonton tend to be concentrated in some north eastern neighborhoods and these are overwhelmingly drug related. Some areas with a reputation for higher crime levels in the north east are Abbotsfield, Beverly, Hermitage and Norwood. (The downtown area also has problems after dark - particularly in the east - Chinatown and McCauley.) Good choices in the North East include Matt Berry and Hollick-Kenyon. 

Crime rates in Edmonton are above average for Canadian cities - about 40% higher than Vancouver, and 80 - 90% higher than Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. The neighborhoods we've identified all have much lower than average crime rates and should offer an excellent starting point for families relocating to Edmonton. 


Climate 
Edmonton's climate is continental, with large seasonal temperature variations. Snowfall is extremely common and can occur between September and May. 

The snowiest months are December and January, which see monthly average snowfalls of over 20 centimetres (8 inches). December, January and February can be bitterly cold. 

Average daily maximum temperatures exceed 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) in June, July, and August. 

The combination of summertime heat and precipitation tends to create violent thunderstorms, which have occasionally led to tornadoes. While rare, an F4 tornado struck Edmonton on July 31, 1987, killing 27 people. 

More common summertime storms tend to include hail. 

An extreme summer storm struck in 2004 with over 100 millimetres (4 inches) of recorded rainfall within one hour. This storm caused extensive damage to the West Edmonton Mall and led to mass flooding throughout critical intersections in the city. 


Education 

Residents in the city of Edmonton have a selection of three major school boards for kindergarten through to twelfth grade education. 

The majority of schools are a part of the Edmonton Public Schools board, which provides a standard non-denominational education. 

There also exists the Edmonton Catholic School District and a Francophone school board providing immersion education for primarily French speaking children. 

Placement in K-12 (i.e. primary and secondary) education is dependent on personal preferences, available space, and location. School placements are based on "catchment areas" with students placed according to their home address. It is usually best to avoid neighborhoods which are perceived as underachieving. 

The city of Edmonton is home to more than ten post-secondary institutions. 

The largest of the universities is the University of Alberta, one of Canada's top universities, which provides education for over 36,000 students each year. The university has approximately 3,500 academic staff and about 10,500 support staff. 

Edmonton is also the site of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, offering applied technical courses in a variety of undergraduate programs and certificate or diploma based study. Like the University of Alberta, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is a large campus with over 48,500 students enrolled per academic year. 


Environment and Getting Around 

Residents of Edmonton enjoy the lowest gasoline and diesel prices in Canada. 

Cars are the primary mode of transportation for the great majority of residents. 

Edmonton also has a well-connected system of public transportation. The Edmonton Transit System incorporates a light rail network that joins major central and downtown points of interest and a bus system that connects the entire city. 

However, residents don't usually regard the local bus network as a viable option for work related transportation as a journey that connects the downtown core to a more remote western location can take up to 92 minutes with three transfers on a one-way trip. 

Edmonton is not routinely seen as a bike friendly city for work. Its expansive network of bike paths is seen as more recreational, taking in some scenic locations such as a riverside journey throughout Edmonton's parks. 

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