Edmonton Real Estate Blog

Having a room-mate is not a new concept.  It’s a way of sharing a space and sharing expenses and for some, it’s the only way they can afford to live especially when they’re just starting out in life.

Sharing not only a home but a mortgage with someone who is not a relative or a spouse/partner is another alternative for young people who want to buy a home but find it difficult to do it on their own.

Reasons to co-buy in Edmonton

When people pool their resources they have more power to get in on a good property.  A larger home, a home in a great neighbourhood or an historic property with excellent potential. 

An RBC Home Ownership Poll conducted this year, 24% of younger buyers would likely consider purchasing a home with a relative.  This is in

With the recent opening of Roger’s Place, Edmontonians are realizing for the first time that downtown has transformed.  Twenty years ago, some say the downtown area was a disaster with boarded up buildings and black holes.

The invention of the Downtown Business Association way back when was a step towards revitalization but it has certainly taken its time coming. New life is stirring, starting with the 25-acre Ice District and with it, $2.5 billion in new construction.  The arena was first, with a hotel and beautiful new office towers set to change the downtown landscape in Edmonton even more.

The City of Edmonton laid out its Capital City Downtown Plan in 2010.  The vision was to create a downtown that would be the envy of the country, where

Saturday, September 17 is Community League Day in Edmonton. This city-wide celebration involves all 157 of the city's community leagues which are grassroots organizations of volunteers that keep Edmonton's neighbourhoods safe, strong and secure.

Edmonton homeowners are encouraged to support their local community league and to buy an annual membership which keeps the lights on at the community hall and supports neighbourhood rec programs.

Get out and celebrate with your neighbours on Saturday or check out one of these cool events taking place throughout the city. Follow the hashtag #157 or #yegCLDay2016.

Aldergrove Community League at 8535 - 182 Street will host a Big Bin event from 9 am to 4 pm followed by a barbecue, dance and fireworks from 7

Whether you've lived in Edmonton six months, six years or 60 years, chances are there are neighbourhoods in the city you've never fully explored. There may be people on your street that you've never even met. The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) wants everyone to get out and explore the city's great communities while getting fresh and air exercise, too.

The EFCL recently obtained a grant from the province to start a walking program in various Edmonton communities. To date, 20 community leagues have signed up with volunteers receiving free leadership skills through a training program conducted by Urban Poling, which includes start-up kits. The kits include Nordic Poles which are used in this walking program. The poles aren't required, but

Hotly debated and strongly contested, a 46-unit luxury condo development has been approved for Brander Gardens on the edge of Edmonton's River Valley. Once completed it will be one of the city's most highly sought-after luxury condo developments.

The project will be built on a 3.2-hectare top-of-the-bank site valued at $6.6 million and despite the concerns of local residents, Edmonton City Council approved it by a vote of 12 to one. The land is owned by Dennis Modry, an Edmonton cardiologist who submitted the proposal for six buildings on the site, each four-storeys high.

The homes surrounding the proposed development are single-family homes valued in the millions. Residents say they are worried that property values will fall, their privacy will be

They’re called laneway homes.  You could call them laneway runaway-hit homes because they’re becoming so popular in urban areas where densification is the order of the day. A separate dwelling off the back alley is a new concept for Edmonton homeowners and one local company is capitalizing on the momentum by renovating shipping containers for that very purpose.

Recent changes to Edmonton bylaws mean laneway housing is legal as well as trendy.  A metal shipping container is just the right side and provides instant infrastructure for a suite in the back yard.  The concept of using a shipping container isn’t novel – it’s being done in Vancouver.  However, a local Edmonton contractor, who has been building infill homes for several years, had the foresight

Two cities of over a million people and both are impacted by the oil bust in Alberta.  As much as Edmonton and Calgary are alike, they are different.  In checking the stats on the first half of 2016, a glance at new housing and resale homes activity in both markets draws similarities between the two major centres.

Construction starts

Edmonton and Calgary saw fewer shovels in the ground in the first six months of the year.  Numbers from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp put housing starts in Edmonton at 1,378 compared with 2,140 in the first six months of 2015.  Calgary fared a little better with 1,068 homes so far this year, down from just 1,426 this time frame last year.   In looking at the numbers just for June 2016, Edmonton saw 1,673 detached

Who decides whether your trees can stay or go?

The City of Edmonton wants to enact new laws about tree-cutting on private property and has voted to approach the Province of Alberta to request the authority to do so.  Why is this?

Because the majority of members on council think that in some instances a bylaw is necessary to prevent urban forest destruction on some properties. For example, if someone has applied for a permit to redevelop a city lot, perhaps in an Edmonton inner-city neighbourhood which is likely populated with large mature trees, someone should have the authority to prevent this lot from being cleared.  In other words, these trees should be saved and the City of Edmonton wants the power to prevent them from being chopped down.

Not

We've come a long way from those old Formica countertops of our youth: however perhaps today there's too much choice. How do you decide what sort of counter tops will work best in your Edmonton home?

They have to look good, stand up well and last a long time — oh, and of course they have to be affordable, but not too cheap.

The Questions to Ask

• How much traffic to you expect on your new countertops? Will they have daily use?
• Will your new countertops have to stand up to heat from hot pots or hair curlers/straighteners? Should they be stain resistant?
• Do you regularly use things like contact lens solution which can be corrosive?

To help you with your decision on what sort of material works best for your lifestyle, check out this

Consumers now have more choice when grocery shopping in the inner-city with the opening of Loblaw’s CityMarket in Edmonton’s kitschy Brewery District.

This is a new entry into the city’s competitive grocery market place as Loblaw’s brings its new brand to Alberta.  CityMarket in downtown Edmonton is the province’s second store to open in the province following the January opening in Calgary’s Sage Hill neighbourhood.  There are several stores open now in Vancouver.

The store is also one of the first retails to open its doors in the new Brewery District which is still under construction. The mall is very close to Edmonton’s historic Molson building on 104 Avenue. It has about 206 people employed there and will also serve the needs of residents in the