I came across an article by Scott Strausser in the Calgary Herald dated Sept-27/23 titled “Alberta Sets Canadian Record for Annual Interprovincial Growth “. The article states that from July /22 til July-1/23 the population of Alberta grew 4% by more than 184,000 which brought Alberta’s population to 4.7m..
The author interviewed Trevor Tombe from the U of C and asked him the question “Why are so many Canadians moving to Alberta?
Mr. Tombe’s reply was very simple people are moving from Ontario & B.C. for the lower cost of living if look at the average cost of a home in the Greater Vancouver area is $1,208,400 as of August /23 stats, and the price of a home in the GTA is $1,082,460
Compareably speaking the homes in Calgary in August where the Total residential price was $570,700.
So you move to Calgary and pay 1/2 the price for a home. What I would call a no-brainer, is to sell your Ontario or Vancouver B.C. home and move to a more affordable province .
So now the good folks in Alberta are wondering “Why are there no Homes to Buy? along with, How come the prices are rising?
The problem is a plan and simple “Inventory ” They can’t build single-family homes fast enough, the Red Tape of the many layers of government stands in the way, not only in Alberta but across the country. The latest stat I heard was that we are 3.5m homes short in the country.
Along with the massive immigration we see …it is NOT going to catch up for a few years yet.
Also, the government still believes that everyone would like to live in a downtown condo …The Answer …NO!
The majority of Canadians still want some space to enjoy this amazing country, with backyards, neighborhood parks, schools, and amenities in their neighborhood.
It is time we started to tell the many layers of government to stop studying the situation to death and start building.