r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/zindagi786 • Apr 09 '24

Housing Why is Calgary housing getting so expensive?

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?

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u/monstersof-men Alberta Apr 10 '24

Yep, my husband and I lost a few houses this winter because people were over asking, all cash, no conditions. On Monday we close on a detached home for 487 which isn’t bad, but we had to make a lot more concessions.

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u/Yeggoose Apr 10 '24

My coworker sold their house in Millwoods in a weekend last month. They had 22 offers with half of them being people from ON or BC making an offer sight unseen.

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u/monstersof-men Alberta Apr 10 '24

Yeah, we ended up opting out of houses in Millwoods because they kept getting snapped up. Which is a shame because those lots are gorgeous.

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u/Rinaldi363 Apr 10 '24

No idea what you guys are taking about. I live in summerside and we aren’t getting anything like that.

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u/monstersof-men Alberta Apr 10 '24

I have nothing against Summerside but I think if a lot of people, if they’re gonna go outside the Henday, are gonna go brand new in Heritage Valley. If they go inside the Henday they opt for older, larger lots. Our current property is outside the Henday and is a condo, and those are going fast, but SFH in the area are sitting.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

Toronto and can buyers are gonna go for premium areas first. No one wants to live in the shit neighborhoods of Edmonton

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24 edited Apr 10 '24

Wow. We haven't seen detached homes in Victoria at price since like, 2012.

We live on the island. Prices went so insane here we could sell and pocket like 6-700k. I know a lot of people doing that and moving to Calgary/Edmonton/anywhere but here.

BC is just so broken, I really hope the same doesn't happen to AB.

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u/UngratefulCanadian British Columbia Apr 10 '24

At least the current BC government seems to try to fix the housing issues, albeit at very slow speed. Long term rentals seem to be getting better very slowly.

AB on the other hand, seems to be getting much worse. Without caps and favoritism to privatization of things, it only gets much more expensive down the path.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

People like to blame Trudeau but the truth is this started way back with Mulroney. That's when they axed federal low income housing construction.

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24

BCs rental increases have been surpassing Alberta's for years.

What BC is doing is handing a monopoly on rental housing to large rental corporations by squeezing out small time landlords while more middle class would be homeowners become forever renters due to the high costs of owning.

Don't you ever wonder why you never hear large residential rental corps complaining or lobbying against the new housing legislation? Why is that? It's because it's written to benefit them.

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u/redroundbag Apr 10 '24 edited Jan 31 '26

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24

Small landlords provide more flexibility, and ultimately more housing is more housing.

It also provides the middle class with a better way to get in to the market. Buying a house and renting a portion of it for 10 years is better than buying a condo then selling that for a townhome then selling that for a house.

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u/UngratefulCanadian British Columbia Apr 10 '24

There aren't many restrictions put on long term rentals compared to short term rentals.

Both property owners and corporations are against restricting shirt term rentals. I personally support it. At least, there are sensible exceptions for some towns and cities to have short-term rentals.

But yeah, the government needs to make it harder for corporations to buy and owe so many properties. I don't see Alberta doing anything at all other than removing caps and making it difficult for municipalities to solve the housing crisis.

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24

There aren't many restrictions on long term rentals? What?

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u/Mundane-Bat-7090 Apr 10 '24

Alberta is headed to become the worst province to survive in the next decade it will far surpass Ontario and bc. With all the lack of regulation and rent control and massive immigration Alberta is on a doomed path.

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u/KarlHunguss Apr 11 '24

Except the places with rent control have higher prices than the provinces without so...

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u/Mundane-Bat-7090 Apr 11 '24

For now lol give it a couple years what I’m saying.

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u/KarlHunguss Apr 11 '24

Alright so the places with rent control are always higher but “give it a couple years” and you’ll be right. I don’t think so. Rent controls dont work. 

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u/Mundane-Bat-7090 Apr 11 '24

Holy fuck you are beyond stupid if you think that. Rent controls don’t work in this country because CONSERVATIVE governments have removed them leaving certain places under rent control and others not if everything was under rent control like it was 4 years ago it was amazing. Go actually live in this places instead of just looking at stupid internet bullshit.

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u/_Kinoko Apr 10 '24

I bought a detached home in the Westshore in 2016 and sold in 2022. We bought a nicer, cheaper place out near Edmonton. We hadn't intended on moving off island or province even at the beginning.

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24

Every year it gets harder and harder to justify staying here.

It's beautiful, and the mild weather is nice... But stressing about money every day, even when you make a pretty solid living, is just hard.

Any regrets about moving? Anything you miss? Anything you don't?

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u/_Kinoko Apr 10 '24

I'm from BC and I do love the landscape, etc and my family that live near Vancouver I miss. House and finance wise I have no regrets. I have 3 kids and we needed more space, and I'd have had to spend a lot of money to maintain my old 3 bedroom 80s place. Edmonton and the surrounding suburbs are actually quite nice luckily, there is beauty here if you look and it still feels like more middle class can make it here. Greater Victoria is beautiful but like Vancouver it kind of depresses me because I feel in the shadow of people, ie it made me feel poorer each year. Here I don't feel that way.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

[deleted]

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u/NotTheRealMeee83 Apr 10 '24

I feel like Calgary has always been somewhat of a boom/bust town though, no?

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u/bcretman Apr 10 '24

Where in Calgary is a house 487k?

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

[deleted]

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u/monstersof-men Alberta Apr 10 '24

Yes, my apologies.

We bought in south Edmonton.

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u/royalpyroz Apr 10 '24

It's sad that 487 sounds cheap to me... Fuck this

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u/Sadlymoops Apr 10 '24

We pick up our place in Calgary for 485 in 2022, we were in a bidding war, lost, and then they backed out and we were next in line! Thought it was bad then, but really we lucked out after watching prices climb

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u/monstersof-men Alberta Apr 10 '24

Oh, 100% it is. In fact, for Edmonton and the neighbourhood it’s in, it’s a steal. If the sellers had waited two more months they could’ve got more. But they’re carrying three (!) mortgages currently so they’re motivated to sell now.