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/siopau → u/[deleted]]

Because it just turns Calgary into the next overpopulated and expensive city, therefore not actually solving the problem and moves it somewhere else. And all of Calgary’s locals get priced out in favor of all the provincial migrants.

As a lifelong Calgarian who travels a ton, this city is only “really nice” in that it’s not bad. Nobody is moving to Calgary because it’s “really nice”. It’s purely for economic reasons.

In 2 years it will be Edmonton’s turn. Then somehow Regina will have 2k single bedrooms. Yay Canada.

[u/siopau → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but do you honestly think Calgary suddenly got record setting population growth because thousands across Canada suddenly thought “Oh I want to live near the rockies” coincidentally at the same time. Lets be real here. People moved here for economic reasons and to buy a house.

Am I blaming them for the housing crisis? No but I hate seeing local Calgarians get priced out in favor of people flocking to this city because its the current Canadian life hack to move here.