We’ve seen buyers from BC and Ontario moving to Alberta in droves to avoid a housing situation where they’ll be renting indefinitely due to the high cost of housing. With the average price of a home in BC or Ontario currently being just under $1,000,000, finding out that the average cost of a home in Alberta is just under $500K is music to these buyer’s ears. This lower cost of home ownership also means a higher quality of life for these buyers.
My name is Katie Crawford and speaking as someone who moved from BC 15 years ago to upgrade my own lifestyle, I’m going to tell you some of the non-financial benefits of being an Edmontonian.
Edmonton
gets a bad rap for being remote and cold. What I noticed personally when I
moved to the Edmonton area in 2007 is that I still had all of the big city
amenities at my disposal – top notch restaurants, concerts, sports, shopping
and festivals and all with the small town feel that comes with super friendly
people. The people in Edmonton are very down to earth and it’s easy to create a
community for yourself here.
Speaking of
Festivals, Edmonton’s nickname is Festival city, because of the 50+ festivals
that are held here every year. The longer winter means that when the sun’s out,
people love to live it up.
Not that
the sun isn’t out in the Winter! We actually get an average of 321 days of sun
per year, great for the mental health. It may be colder here than in BC and
Ontario, but the dry cold is much easier to bear. It’s hard to explain unless
you’ve experienced it yourself, but you’ll see when you come visit.
The North
Saskatchewan River runs right through the city of Edmonton, and the River
Valley boasts 7400 hectares of land equaling 22 x the size of Central Park in
New York! There is a tremendous amount of greenspace in the city, with 43 dog
parks and hundreds of km’s of walking trails.
West
Edmonton Mall, North America’s largest shopping mall has every store you can
think of, an amusement park, water park, restaurants, 2 food courts, a casino
and hotel all on site plus more. It’s a great place for an outing with the
kids.
Depending
what area you live in, Edmonton is only 3-4 hours away from Banff and Jasper
national parks with absolutely breath-taking sights and tons of outdoor
activities to enjoy.
These are
just a few of my favourite things about living in the Greater Edmonton Area.
Are you considering a move? Check out my previous video on the cost of housing
in the Greater Edmonton area as compared with Vancouver & Toronto. I’d also
love to hear about your plans! Send me a message a let’s plan your move to
Edmonton!