The Winnipeg based Frontier Centre released it’s report on housing affordability recently and proclaimed Calgary was ranked 23rd out of the 28 cities in their affordability index. The number one cities for affordability were Windsor and Thunder Bay.
Can anyone read between the lines here? At first glance this would suggest Calgary wouldn’t be the place to move to, but if you are looking for work, don’t you want to go where the jobs are? Perhaps there is a reason Windsor is so affordable, everyone is leaving as all the automaker jobs are drying up, so all the values are dropping. The future for Thunder Bay isn’t to glittering either.
Calgary, although unemployment is way up, still has significantly better opportunities for the people vacating other economically depressed areas. Even more importantly, the jobs also pay considerably more here, we have no PST and over all aren’t we just nicer people?
The study actually covered 272 cities worldwide and not surprisingly Vancouver topped the list as the least affordable.
The link to the full story is available here, Frontier Center – How Affordable is Your Housing?. Just remember, affordability doesn’t directly relate to desirability to live there. There are always additional economic and emotional reasons for certain locations to be more costly to live and these can be incredibly difficult to measure.
Calgary is definitely still desirable, despite the affordability. The investors I deal with still eat up Calgary deals, and people there still seem to be thriving, for the most part. And you’re right, Calgarians ARE very nice! 🙂
~ Mark
.-= Mark Loeffler´s last blog ..Rent-To-Own: A WEALTH of Opportunity! =-.
Hey Mark, far too many people get caught up in the affordability aspect only. If it was really about affordability we would all move to Detroit and buy a property for $3,500 cash, but we need jobs, lifestyle etc. All the folks I help with Real Estate that are buying in Calgary see the long term positives and have been eagerly picking up properties while the pricing and rates are so attractive.
Side note, I have been hearing great things about your book, congrats!