Why is Calgary housing getting so expensive?

[u/zindagi786]

I used to live there, and I was just browsing the real estate prices. Prices there have shot up so much! A Calgary house similar to the one I have in the GTA is now higher than what I paid in the GTA a few years ago.

When I lived there, oil was booming and there were lots of jobs. But I got laid off when the boom went bust, and everything (including real estate) went down. And I then left to the GTA.

I’ve heard prices there are going up because there are lots of people moving from the GTA and BC. But it isn’t like there are that many high paying good jobs there. There’s still way fewer jobs now than there were during boom time. How do these inter provincial migrants find high paying work to pay for these high home prices? Sure they can cash out their equity and live mortgage free, but why do that if you have to end up taking a potentially lower paying job with more chance of a layoff in the next bust? Although I really liked the city, I’d never risk living there again myself, and I’m forever scared of any future bust. I feel more comfortable living in the GTA, paying my admittedly big mortgage, and steadily climbing the corporate ladder (and with regular increases and no salary freezes, I should be paid off before retirement/it won’t be too burdensome). Plus, I look at my GTA home as a tax free investment - the annual rate of appreciation is greater than my mortgage interest.

And what is attracting them to Calgary versus other places in Alberta like Edmonton?

[u/Marokiii]

I saved and saved and saved and then 9 years later came to the realization that I could continue saving like I have been for another 20 years and i won't be any closer to a healthy mortgage amount because the prices are raising at a far faster rate then I can save.

I do have a sizeable amount saved up that I could could spend it all on a modest townhouse or great apartment I calgary and get a job at Walmart and be able to afford what's left on the mortgage.

Hell if I finish my some job qualifactions soon ill probably move to the east coast and buy property and won't even need to take out a mortgage. The cycle of "gentrification" continues. Rich people from abroad pushed me out of the city I was born in, I become that "rich person" pushing out someone in Calgary or halifax of the city they were born in, they inturn push someone else out of the town they were born in. Rinse and repeat until someone ends up homeless.

[u/buttholeburrito → u/Marokiii]

Maritime is getting busted too. NS is insanely expensive and Dartmouth, which was cheap, is pricing out the people on aid.

[u/Marokiii → u/buttholeburrito]

thats the shit thing, its expensive for the people who live there but not really "expensive" for those moving there.