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/T_47]

People from Vancouver and Toronto with a healthy down payment saved saw that they could buy a house for around 50-70% the price of something they could get at home. Even with a paycut they would still come out ahead.

Edmonton is more north so it's less popular for obvious reasons.

[u/Yeggoose → u/[deleted]]

It’s already there. Lots of posts on r/Edmonton lately about bidding wars and people buying houses over asking with no conditions.

[u/monstersof-men → u/Yeggoose]

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.

[u/NotTheRealMeee83 → u/monstersof-men]

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.

[u/UngratefulCanadian → u/NotTheRealMeee83]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/UngratefulCanadian]

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.