A Canada wide average includes people in rural New Brunswick where you can buy a nice house for $75k. Someone there can probably raise a family quite comfortably on $46,000. In contrast, two people trying to live on $46,000 in Calgary or Edmonton will be near enough to living in poverty if they have to pay rent or a mortgage.

So, 20% above the national average in rural NB = living like kings. 20% above the national average in Calgary = a struggle to get by.

And I contend that there is no (useful) average cost of living. It depends on what you spend your money on.

So true. I know wealthy people who have a heart attack if they have to put their hand in their pocket in the pub, and I know poor people who have nothing and are happy to spend it. Figures/averages on costs of living are pretty meaningless.

I think we`re on the same page Thats precisely why I stopped looking at Australia - it may get heaps of sun but that dont pay the bills

As I said previously its very hard to quantify how much money it would take to live comfortably as everyone spends their cash differently but your indication (based on personal experience) is just what I was after and will help us to make an informed decision

Cheers for that

Here is a link to the APEGA salary surveys.

http://www.apega.ca/Members/Publicat...arysurvey.html

I don't know how accurate it is - for 2012 level D the median is approx 120k with 10/90%iles at approx 105k and 140k. This seems credible to me.

Perhaps I am being too analytical

Part of my problem is that we havent decided where we are gonna live yet - I dont think it will be the bigger places like Calgary or Edmonton but rather somewhere smaller to the left (or possibly Red Deer)

Hopefully living in one of the smaller/more rural areas will translate into lower living costs and better standard of living

Thanks for the help

How do you think they became wealthy?

Only with a half decent paying job. Standard of living depends on what you want to do, but I find the quality of life better than it would be living cheek by jowel in the city. YMMV.

For me personally the most important financial decision is the mortgage (other opinions may be different).

Calgary posted an average house price of 481k and some important advise I got a long time ago was never breach the following on a mortgage:

4 x A single salary or
3.5 x A joint Salary.

So for Calgary 481k/3.5= 137,500 (joint salary), 481k/4=120,000(single salary).

These are pretty hard figures for most people to hit which is why some people will live on the outskirts.

I think everyone on here are being about as helpful as they can with a quick reply it would take one hell of a post to go through all the scenarios in AB alone nevermind Canada.

The figures above are purely based on a mortgage if you come with a downpayment obviously you could factor that into the equation i.e. if you had 50,000 you could realistically knock that joint salary down to 124k.

If you are happy enough renting then my post wont help you, if you want more or less than average you can factor that in as well.

Red deers average house price is 359k.

359k/3.5= 103k (joint)
359k/4= 90k (single)

You get your own tab here. Solves all that bollox, you just got make sure they don't stick you with the chicken wings and sweet potato fires.

Hmmm, thats not cheap by any stretch and Ive seen this scenario before in my own locality

In 2006/07 house prices went crazy (some doubled in a year for instance) and it was on the news that people were going to have to consider 50 year mortgages and borrowing 10 times their salary - of course as it turns out it was all artificial and fuelled by cheap credit from greedy bankers which tumbled like a house of cards when the tide turned

At the time I didnt see how this could work as wages were only increasing by a fraction of what house prices were rising and the two have got to be linked or it can't work - for example when I started with my first company I always think about a guy I worked with at the time who earned £20,000 that year and bought his first house for £49,000 - that same house at the peak of the boom was probably worth (on paper) around £200,000 but his wages hadnt quadrupled like the house value had

Then the bubble burst and now you couldnt give property away and getting a mortgage without a HUGE deposit is nearly impossible - complete opposite of the free for all before

Moral of the story is if property gets too detached from incomes a "correction" like the UK is experiencing is inevitable and I think your theory on sensible borrowing would avoid the boom/bust culture that banks seem to thrive on

I have just sold an average house in Calgary. IIRC, the average price a detached house in Calgary is in the region of $420,000. I sold mine for $6,000 more than I paid for it in 2007.

480,000 for houses alone and 428,000 for houses + condos.

The median of houses in Calgary is 420,000 after re-reading the article.

Is what I read here.

http://www.jimsparrow.com/market-stats.php

Don't be fooled by that scenario. Living in a small community if you have kids means that you are forever driving to the city to get the main things you need or for the kids hockey games etc.

The prices of everything in smaller areas is more expensive, think of your local village shop in the UK, thats more expensive than Tesco?!!!!!

The only thing that might be cheaper are the houses in the communities - but these tend to be a good hour and further outside of Red Deer, and forget cheap / outskirts of Calgary rural living lol.

I assume so too.