Fred Louise

I wouldn't be in Red Deer if I wasn't semi retired. OP - why are you considering Alberta? I guess Toronto is not attractive?

Blimey, those rents are high. Have you considered buying a flat?

muffback

I don't really fancy Toronto. I know there are benefits but I just don't want to live in a massive city again. Spent 6 years working/living in London/ SE. My ideal scenario is a city that allows easy access to the mountains for skiing, biking etc.

Prices in Vancouver are just ridiculous even for flats. They are very small, poorly constructed and vastly overpriced. The market here is getting shakier by the day as confidence that prices can rise infinitely evaporates. Now would not be a good time to buy. I missed that boat.

Yorkiechef

160 Aspen Hills Villa(s) Sw 85, Calgary-West, AB T3H 0H8 Home for Sale | Find Homes In Calgary

You might like this....or wait six months and pay less is my guess.

KAT16

We live in Airdrie (been here for 8yrs) and although not as pretty as Cochrane, we still love it. It's growing fast though. Easy access to Calgary (10mins to the North), I work downtown and on a good day I'll be at my parking lot within 30mins. Schools were great (daughter graduated last year) they really looked after her and helped her through.

Employment, as others have said is not great. I'm employed but have been looking for something else for approx 10months and have had no bites. I'm an admin professional too so not limited to a certain industry. I did notice a few more jobs on the boards lately but certainly nothing like we saw when we first arrived 8yrs ago.

Good luck with your decision. I would hate to have to leave this beautiful province, can't imagine being anywhere else.

K

Shard

Could be that there are too few buyers, lack of finance or that it isn't such a 'bargain'. The thing with the property market is that in a downturn, many people will wait it out.

scrubbedexpat091

My guess is too few buyers at the moment.

Yorkiechef

My guess - too few jobs and too few dollars to the barrel.

stuabroad

Let's start with your main issue. The cost of where you're living. Move to Calgary (or Airdrie/ Cochrane satellites) and enjoy more for your money.

Secondly, I’m an IT guy and I’m based out Calgary. As you already know, it's all about connections here and word of mouth on the IT front. This is not London/SE where we have 60 million people and people knocking on your door to give you short/long-term work based on your skillset. I came here 8 years ago with a well-known IT company and have worked only for the mothership and it's Partners. I have also run my own contracting company on the side as we all do, however it's who you know gets you connected gets you money. Not like the UK where alot it comes though agencies etc. - they're useless here. So you need to know your market if you're contracting. If you ARE contracting, then ironically the market conditions mean that contractors are more in demand than usual due to the fact noone wants to pay a salary to a permanent guy right now unless you’re a pretty senior resource and there’s no substitute for experience. That’s also enhanced with the move to the Cloud where a lot of on-premise is on it’s way into Microsoft or AWS datacenters as part of Hybrid IT etc. If you can help customers on that transition, then there’s work for you.

Ultimately there’s a lot of people running around with their hands in the air right now, but this tends to be those working in previously stable employment for the oil & gas sector. They are really putting projects on hold as they sit and watch what’s going to happen over the next 2 years. The world is still turning though and people are still doing business, don’t believe everything in the media. It’s a confidence game and people are basically sheep. When CFOs see other CFOs getting their check books out again, there is the usual miraculous recovery.

Calgary is right on the doorstep to the mountains and interior BC, as others have said if you buy now in the Calgary area you’re likely to see future returns when the market turns. PM me if you want to chat offline, not sure there’s anything else I can add here.

haggis88

Wish I could afford to wait it out with our house...it's almost getting to default on the mortgage point

Shakyuk

Good informative post mate.

That's a horrible situation to be in man, i really feel for you having read a few of your posts, its like your dream has been taken from you. Hopefully things will pick up in the market.

Piff Poff

Classic cars are a small indication on the economy, people will spend on toys when they have a constant paycheck or more money than they need for expenses. Today we went to an auction, cars that would usually go for big bucks were barely making half, some were getting closer to reserve but not quite getting there, even the more affordable stuff didn't sell. Out of 150 cars today, I would be surprised if 10 sold. This was a very different situation than this past Spring. There is another auction next we that we will attend, it will be educational if nothing else.

Missed out on a cheap Fiat Spider today, as we thought it would go for more and had started to take our cars home lol

Stinkypup

10 from 150

I digress but I'm liking the new Fiat Spyder
https://www.fiatcanada.com/en/

dbd33

Here, in Ontario, about a third of recent applications for contract positions at firms I deal with have come from people in AB or BC. Typically they're fairly recent immigrants (<3 years) who wanted to come to ON in the first place, but couldn't find work and went west. The lack of work there now is a mixed blessing for them as, at least, they're going where they originally wanted to be.

Piff Poff

Yeah, it was a sad day for a lot of people. I've been ogling the new Alfa (can't remember which one) online. There were two cars I would have been happy to bring home, a TVR or the fiat. Thankfully we didn't buy either. But we may be swapping the Landrover for my dream bike:fingerscrosse d:


Another tale of woe, my managers husband recently got a new job after losing his at the beginning of summer, he has been working near Fort St John for just over a month and has yet to be paid, his employers sent out a letter explaining that they hadn't been paid so there wasn't enough in the pot for payroll and that they would get SOME money to them asap

Stinkypup

Things certainly are tight although we see a lot of your Provincial companions flashing the cash and their not on the whole nice cars in my humble opinion- mainly Stingrays in vile colours , I see a lot of Porsche Cayenne with Ab plates. Occasional nice Jags, RX8s and a Mclaren but again in bleugh colours.. Meanwhile clearly normal Albertans are suffering.
I hope Mr Piff Poff is handy on repairing TVRs, reliability is just dreadful. Be careful on that bike,

Im loving those new Alphas- hopefully they don't rust so quickly any more? I don't remember seeing Alpha Romeo dealer /service around here... Probably a bit too classy!

https://www.alfaromeo.ca/?gclid=CKGh...FZI1aQodS5gESg