Tagged : Edmonton real estate

Ask any of the locals and they'll tell you straight up. The West Edmonton Mall may be an OK place to visit, but no one lives there. There's more to Edmonton than West Ed.

Edmonton, the capital city of the province, also has the distinction of being home to the backbone of Alberta's oil industry — the blue collar workers. But it is also cultural and educational hub. Edmonton is "Canada's Festival City" and where students from cross Canada come to attend the University of Alberta. But within the city limits lies the heart of what Edmonton is all about. Day-to-day life in Edmonton's best neighbourhoods.

Let's take a look at Edmonton's most desirable communities as ranked by Money Sense Magazine:

North East Inner-City

Look to the communities of

If you have a home or condo close by Roger’s Place, put a check in the win column.  You’re about to score some real estate points.

According to a new report issued by the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), home values are positively impacted when in the vicinity of a newly-constructed arena or sports stadium.  REIN is a Vancouver-based organization which provides market analysis and neighbourhood research for real estate investors.

One of the principle highlights of REIN’s recent findings indicates that homes in neighbourhoods where there is a new facility or even a proposed new facility, can increase in value from 3 to 15 percent.  The variable percentage is due to the type of dwelling, accessibility to parking and the actual distance to the

Commuters in Edmonton’s suburban neighbourhoods are once again watching City Hall’s debate over adding BRT bus routes to the roster of transit options.

With LRT expansion decades in the future, an advisory group is bringing the subject up again, hoping to improve commute times for residents outside of the current service area.

What is BRT?

BRT, which stands for “bus rapid transit”, a high-speed bus route with high-frequency service, would operate where future LRT corridors are planned.  BRT service operates in larger centres such as Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver and should be back on the table for Edmonton.  The city’s current growth and stunted transit infrastructure depends that a city of one million plus citizens have a more efficient

The only similarity between Edmonton and Calgary’s housing market is the fact that both cities are in Alberta.  

One might think the provincial Capital and its rival to the south would experience similar trends in real estate, since both centres ride the up and down oil and gas market roller coaster. But, that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

Edmonton has experienced a boom in new construction, single-family housing, and Calgary has not.  Calgary home prices are higher, while Edmonton’s are not.  Let’s examine the differences. 

New Home Starts 

In the first eight months of 2015, Edmonton new home starts were nearly double those of Calgary.  Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) reports that ground broke on 4,043 single-family units in the