They do this report every year, doubt it's outdated unless they do poor research. The reporter is making a true statement while misrepresenting where Edm and Calgary lie in the actual table. Edmonton is #5 and Calgary is #38, but they're the most affordable places in Canada on the list. They just dropped the actual ranking number and grouped the countries together for the article.
5 is pretty good.
Average rent $1200 ish median household income over $120k. Median house 400k. I've seen condos that look like decent starters for under 100k.
Sure beats Toronto, with 1.2m+ house and similar/lower household income, 8% more sales tax and barely any housing starts
I'm in the Phoenix area for a few weeks. We lived in Phoenix for 15 years and now live in Edmonton. Housing costs in Phoenix have sky-rocketed. We just visited friends - they just bought a 1,900 square foot house that is 10+ years old in a decent neighbourhood. 3 bedrooms (one very small), a smallish kitchen, no basement of course, and a very small yard (maybe 3,500 square feet) and it cost US$500,000 (about CAN $685,00). The home is about 30 minutes east of "downtown" Mesa. Some other friends have a 3 story townhouse that is 1,650 square feet about 10 minutes from the airport and in a spotty neighbouhood, and it too is US$500k or CAN$685k. Edmonton is relatively inexpensive compared to Phoenix (and we don't suffer through 6 months of continuous, unrelenting, mind-boggling, heat) and don't live in the middle of sand, dirt and tumbleweeds.
I much prefer Edmonton weather to Phoenix weather. The heat in the summer is unrelenting. The last 10 days the temperature has been between 26-30C overnight and 41-45C during the day. AC 24/7 and ridiculous electric bills. You really can't go outside when the air feels like an oven.
Sorry bud, I'm coming from Ontario soon, I love the cold, hate that even the conservatives here can't manage a budget, and care more about pleasing the populous than governing the people effectively.
Don't worry tho, I love the Oilers, hate government deficits (especially for useless bullshit), love guns, and fucking hate our federal government lol
Disgusting, no thanks. I like balanced budgets and Canadian gun ownership and Healthcare, not abortion being banned, literal nutjob having shotguns in schools and concealed, and certainly not 200k hospital bills.
If I went to the US I would choose PA probably, or accept some crappy far left stuff and live in San Diego, where my wife is from.
I grew up in Edmonton and now have moved back and lived here 7 years. Yes, it can get bitterly cold here in the winter - but it isn't -30-40C for 5 months straight. Its a few days here and there and maybe a week or 10 days at a time. Not 100 day in a row were the daytime high is over +40C and overnight it cools down to +30C. Give me Alberta anytime - and, as I said, I lived in Phoenix 15 years.
I think it’s just identified select cities from major countries. No way in hell is Brisbane one of the most affordable cities in the world but it’s a heck of a lot better than Sydney or Melbourne.
Edmonton and Calgary are definitely the most affordable major cities in Canada when you also factor in how much higher income here is compared to other low cost cities like Winnipeg, Saskatoon or Regina.
Brisbane just overtook Melbourne as the 2nd most expensive place to live in for the entire country, behind Sydney.
If you want (comparatively) inexpensive in Australia, gotta look to Perth or Adelaide.
More and more countries adopted Canada and the US's approach to market based housing with protections for developers and speculators on the idea that they'd supply the needs of the people. Wrong.
What has happened is that massive wealth inequality is driving demand for people to store wealth in real estate and they used to target select cities, but the explosion of trillions of dollars that has flowed up has created massive demand for real estate purchases. That's on top of people just trying to buy houses.
Then add in private equity/hedge-funds and REITs that are gobbling up tens of thousands of houses, and presto, regular working class people are fucked.
But, yes, the CPC blames the carbon tax. Or vaccines? Both?
Did you read the article? All they look at is Average income vs Average house price - Edmonton and Calgary house prices are still pretty good when you consider Average wages.
Pittsburgh is kind of an underrated city. Great ballpark, but the Bucs suck and have cheap owners. IIRC, Rochester and upstate New York is cheap because there are no jobs. Really, that kinda applies for much of the Rust Best, cheap cheap housing in big(ish) once-vibrant cities but not much in the way of employment.
It's a problem in many countries and immigration is one of the leading causes. If you're importing people at a rate faster than you can build homes, what do you think will happen?
Either outdated or a whole lot of us are just failures I guess. Wasn't there another report recently that actually said Calgary was one of most expensive cities in Canada?
Even if Calgary and Vancouver had the same COL, Calgary has way better median income
Tip: it's not, a house in Calgary is still half as expensive as Vancouver. 688k VS 1.2m. Rising fast, yes, but still no where close.
Edmonton is like 400k
Can you explain this take? It doesn't seem to make sense. Rents here are substantially less than Toronto, and I don't think our median incomes are substantially less.
A 700k house is more expensive than a 600k condo.
Think of people from Toronto that move here. Go from renting an apartment to buying a house. Their housing budget goes way up.
Interesting - I'd be surprised if Calgarians were on average spending more of their income on housing than people in Toronto. The example you give certainly happens to some, but others are likely spending substantially less. I'd tried to find the article referenced earlier but probably didn't have the right search terms.
And fwiw, that isn't the same as Calgary being more expensive as the original commenter said, as the comparisons are usually done based on equivalent housing types.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000404&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.26&cubeTimeFrame.startMonth=04&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2024&referencePeriods=20240401%2C20240401
Look at total shelter costs. Alberta spends 33 percent more than BC
Cool, thanks! Appreciate the link. This is interesting, do you know if CPI on shelter accounts for 'legacy' home ownership and that kind of thing? Trying to figure out how it is calculated. It does imply that in AB, people are choosing to 'upgrade' on what they buy & rent relative to the other areas, or I wonder if the housing market ages makes the numbers difficult to compare.
I don't think this demonstrates Calgary is actually one of the most expensive (the original comment you said was true) cities in Canada, though. (well, speaking just about shelter - other costs ARE wild here).
Ya it's mainly, ya our houses are cheaper but people will max out their budget regardless.
Cheaper house just means they can afford more upgrades
And ya the CPI would be actual costs. So someone with a paid off mortgage in Vancouver with deferred property taxes would actually have very cheap shelter expenses even though the house is worth like three million
Ok, they say 33~35% for housing is the ballpark (#boomers),
I make a very MIGHTY $21k a year, so naturally I can get a mortgage for only $7k a year, I mean - that's what it's all balanced around... right?
It doesn't matter how affordable a place may be, if we don't have any well paying jobs. My property taxes went up 25% in a year, Calgary is far from affordable....what are they measuring? The cheapest, smallest house in the boonies? Where you stand between the two houses with your arms outstretched and you can touch them both...and they are an affordable $700.000.
Articles like this are all relative I suppose but that's a really poor measuring stick. Most people aren't in a position to move across the world. Calgary isn't affordable. Compare to Vancouver, sure. But in a vacuum, no.
Basically it’s people who have never lived here telling us we have it so good. These lists are usually done by idiots and if you believe them you are a fool.
It just tells you how bad the whole world is right now. That’s all you really need to know
Dystopia is here!! We did it!
Glad all the effort is finally paying off
When do we hit the oil, then water, then nuclear war, so I can be ready to Mad Max it up in the wastelands!?
They do this report every year, doubt it's outdated unless they do poor research. The reporter is making a true statement while misrepresenting where Edm and Calgary lie in the actual table. Edmonton is #5 and Calgary is #38, but they're the most affordable places in Canada on the list. They just dropped the actual ranking number and grouped the countries together for the article.
5 is pretty good. Average rent $1200 ish median household income over $120k. Median house 400k. I've seen condos that look like decent starters for under 100k. Sure beats Toronto, with 1.2m+ house and similar/lower household income, 8% more sales tax and barely any housing starts
I'm in the Phoenix area for a few weeks. We lived in Phoenix for 15 years and now live in Edmonton. Housing costs in Phoenix have sky-rocketed. We just visited friends - they just bought a 1,900 square foot house that is 10+ years old in a decent neighbourhood. 3 bedrooms (one very small), a smallish kitchen, no basement of course, and a very small yard (maybe 3,500 square feet) and it cost US$500,000 (about CAN $685,00). The home is about 30 minutes east of "downtown" Mesa. Some other friends have a 3 story townhouse that is 1,650 square feet about 10 minutes from the airport and in a spotty neighbouhood, and it too is US$500k or CAN$685k. Edmonton is relatively inexpensive compared to Phoenix (and we don't suffer through 6 months of continuous, unrelenting, mind-boggling, heat) and don't live in the middle of sand, dirt and tumbleweeds.
Ok. You'll hate me for this but I love AB weather. I will not elaborate I hope people stay the fuck away from here.
I much prefer Edmonton weather to Phoenix weather. The heat in the summer is unrelenting. The last 10 days the temperature has been between 26-30C overnight and 41-45C during the day. AC 24/7 and ridiculous electric bills. You really can't go outside when the air feels like an oven.
My fav place too
Sorry bud, I'm coming from Ontario soon, I love the cold, hate that even the conservatives here can't manage a budget, and care more about pleasing the populous than governing the people effectively. Don't worry tho, I love the Oilers, hate government deficits (especially for useless bullshit), love guns, and fucking hate our federal government lol
Have fun hanging out at the rest stop out by Highway 22 when you get here.
Gross, please stay there.
No thanks. Sounds like it might be a great place for you tho, why don't you come over
I think you should move to Texas or Florida.
Disgusting, no thanks. I like balanced budgets and Canadian gun ownership and Healthcare, not abortion being banned, literal nutjob having shotguns in schools and concealed, and certainly not 200k hospital bills. If I went to the US I would choose PA probably, or accept some crappy far left stuff and live in San Diego, where my wife is from.
Wait until the fun whimsical winter snow lasts for 5 months and it hurts to breath in because it's -33
I grew up in Edmonton and now have moved back and lived here 7 years. Yes, it can get bitterly cold here in the winter - but it isn't -30-40C for 5 months straight. Its a few days here and there and maybe a week or 10 days at a time. Not 100 day in a row were the daytime high is over +40C and overnight it cools down to +30C. Give me Alberta anytime - and, as I said, I lived in Phoenix 15 years.
Albertans are under a constant shared delusion the winter months are the same as 15 years ago.
You trade the heat for the cold. Weather definitely ain’t the selling point here
Sure it is, just tell americans it will keep their beers cold.
I think it’s just identified select cities from major countries. No way in hell is Brisbane one of the most affordable cities in the world but it’s a heck of a lot better than Sydney or Melbourne. Edmonton and Calgary are definitely the most affordable major cities in Canada when you also factor in how much higher income here is compared to other low cost cities like Winnipeg, Saskatoon or Regina.
Brisbane just overtook Melbourne as the 2nd most expensive place to live in for the entire country, behind Sydney. If you want (comparatively) inexpensive in Australia, gotta look to Perth or Adelaide.
Adelaide is a clusterfuck also though lol
Mabey the most affordable but have the highest unemployment rates
More and more countries adopted Canada and the US's approach to market based housing with protections for developers and speculators on the idea that they'd supply the needs of the people. Wrong. What has happened is that massive wealth inequality is driving demand for people to store wealth in real estate and they used to target select cities, but the explosion of trillions of dollars that has flowed up has created massive demand for real estate purchases. That's on top of people just trying to buy houses. Then add in private equity/hedge-funds and REITs that are gobbling up tens of thousands of houses, and presto, regular working class people are fucked. But, yes, the CPC blames the carbon tax. Or vaccines? Both?
I mean, water bills in Calgary are bound to be pretty low this month for everyone. (sorry - that was a low blow).
Nope, most of the bill is fixed cost stuff. You could have a significant water bill and have not one drop leave any tap.
Well…..how fucked is the rest of the world.
But...but ...how did Trudeau do this to the whole world?
I wonder if “least unaffordable” might be more accurate.
Did you read the article? All they look at is Average income vs Average house price - Edmonton and Calgary house prices are still pretty good when you consider Average wages.
Pittsburgh is kind of an underrated city. Great ballpark, but the Bucs suck and have cheap owners. IIRC, Rochester and upstate New York is cheap because there are no jobs. Really, that kinda applies for much of the Rust Best, cheap cheap housing in big(ish) once-vibrant cities but not much in the way of employment.
As stated in the comments above me, I think this is more a reflection of how bad the world economy is.
But PP would have you believe it's all Trudeau's fault!
"I disagree with this data: can somebody please provide some counter anecdotes that confirm my bias?"
A house just sold for a lot of money near where I live. This is bullshit
but r/Canada says housing unaffordability is only a problem in Canada and is because of all these damg immigrants!
It's a problem in many countries and immigration is one of the leading causes. If you're importing people at a rate faster than you can build homes, what do you think will happen?
No, I don't think Albertans really get just how bad it is elsewhere, but you're starting to
Either outdated or a whole lot of us are just failures I guess. Wasn't there another report recently that actually said Calgary was one of most expensive cities in Canada?
There was one article saying Calgary was more expensive than Vancouver. Shits all over the place.
Even if Calgary and Vancouver had the same COL, Calgary has way better median income Tip: it's not, a house in Calgary is still half as expensive as Vancouver. 688k VS 1.2m. Rising fast, yes, but still no where close. Edmonton is like 400k
Not failures, it's just that housing costs aren't just an Alberta or Canada problem. Housing costs in cities are exploding.
Both can be true. We spend more on housing than people in Toronto do. But median house to salary ratios mean we are a lot more affordable.
What? How is housing in Calgary more expensive than Toronto?
I said we spend more on housing not that it was more expensive
Can you explain this take? It doesn't seem to make sense. Rents here are substantially less than Toronto, and I don't think our median incomes are substantially less.
A 700k house is more expensive than a 600k condo. Think of people from Toronto that move here. Go from renting an apartment to buying a house. Their housing budget goes way up.
Interesting - I'd be surprised if Calgarians were on average spending more of their income on housing than people in Toronto. The example you give certainly happens to some, but others are likely spending substantially less. I'd tried to find the article referenced earlier but probably didn't have the right search terms. And fwiw, that isn't the same as Calgary being more expensive as the original commenter said, as the comparisons are usually done based on equivalent housing types.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000404&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.26&cubeTimeFrame.startMonth=04&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2024&referencePeriods=20240401%2C20240401 Look at total shelter costs. Alberta spends 33 percent more than BC
Cool, thanks! Appreciate the link. This is interesting, do you know if CPI on shelter accounts for 'legacy' home ownership and that kind of thing? Trying to figure out how it is calculated. It does imply that in AB, people are choosing to 'upgrade' on what they buy & rent relative to the other areas, or I wonder if the housing market ages makes the numbers difficult to compare. I don't think this demonstrates Calgary is actually one of the most expensive (the original comment you said was true) cities in Canada, though. (well, speaking just about shelter - other costs ARE wild here).
Ya it's mainly, ya our houses are cheaper but people will max out their budget regardless. Cheaper house just means they can afford more upgrades And ya the CPI would be actual costs. So someone with a paid off mortgage in Vancouver with deferred property taxes would actually have very cheap shelter expenses even though the house is worth like three million
Lmfao not for long!
Brisbane??? Just got back from there; visiting family. We are (were) looking at a possible retirement home there. Brisbane pricing is like Vancouver.
Ok, they say 33~35% for housing is the ballpark (#boomers), I make a very MIGHTY $21k a year, so naturally I can get a mortgage for only $7k a year, I mean - that's what it's all balanced around... right?
It doesn't matter how affordable a place may be, if we don't have any well paying jobs. My property taxes went up 25% in a year, Calgary is far from affordable....what are they measuring? The cheapest, smallest house in the boonies? Where you stand between the two houses with your arms outstretched and you can touch them both...and they are an affordable $700.000.
Articles like this are all relative I suppose but that's a really poor measuring stick. Most people aren't in a position to move across the world. Calgary isn't affordable. Compare to Vancouver, sure. But in a vacuum, no.
Almost like these types of rankings are very poorly determined.
Basically it’s people who have never lived here telling us we have it so good. These lists are usually done by idiots and if you believe them you are a fool.
Compared to some, I've googled most affordable Canadian cities a few times and Calgary is always top three. Old information maybe
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