I have read somewhere on here of places to live in Calgary and now cannot find the thread.
Just wondering if someone could offer say the top 3 areas to live in Calgary, and why?
Prefer a more matured area not so fond on new builds.

Cheers in advance..

Mount Royal, Rideau park, Elbow Park and if you want to be a little further out Pump Hill. Bring a few $m with you though.

What are you looking for?

There are dozens of really nice areas so kind of difficult to pin it down to 3. All depends on price and your needs in terms of location?

Depends on lots of variables. Your income(are you renting or have your own house), if your married(wife needing safeway and shopping stores nearby), have kids (schools etc)...

We were in Calgary over easter and really liked Lake Sundance

Just looking for a more mature area.
My kids are older so no need for schools, just Uni and Colleges I reckon thats if they make the transition with me.
Somewhere that is no more than an hour commute to the city for work.
An area that is not too built up on top of one another and near parks, rivers walkways, slightly rural but close enough to amenities.
Just looking at the minute as we may be moving over, I just want to do a bit of research before I make the decision.
We will be buying so would like to walk straight into our own home rather than rent.
Am I asking for too much

Thanks again

You don't really commute to the city, there are a few small towns on the outskirts but Calgary is one really big municipality surrounded by a few quite small ones.

Fish Creek Park follows the rivers and is the biggest city park in N America, is my understanding, so that doesn't really narrow it down. Calgary has a really low population density outside the core compared to other cities, so I don't know how "rural" you would want it. No city is rural, really.

It's colder here during the winter and it floods more often than in Toronto, bear that in mind.

If you want "mature" as in older, you're probably looking at Deer Run or somewhere around Glenmore Reservoir. Or Cochrane maybe. Difficult to say without knowing where you're working.

I never think Mount Royal is all it is cracked up to be, or Elbow Park, there are some nice houses there I'll admit but there are a fair number of so-so houses as well. I think it was probably nicer years ago when there was less traffic on Macleod and Crowchild.

Pump Hill is nice because of the reservoir though.

Cochrane

Our friends just moved to Cochrane, been to visit them last weekend. The views are to die for and the house is right on the golf course (3 beds etc).
But I can immagine when it snows they probably wont be able to get out of the house for a few days
Oh and be prepared to pay around $2500/month

If I didn't have to worry about price of a house vs. location I would have chosen Rosedale, just along the top of the Bluffs. Walkable to downtown and a rather nice house (not right on Crescent road but a block back) you're looking at $1 - $1.5mln. For such a central location it is surprisingly quiet. On Crescent Road I've seen them upwards of $2.5 - $3mln for the views of Downtown Calgary, the river and mountains in the distance on a clear day.

If your budget would be a more modest amount of between $300 & $500k you would be looking at an older property in the more established neighbourhoods closer to downtown or parks (Parkland for example) or take your pick of any number of newer built houses in the new cookie cutter areas.

Don't worry about snow days, we really don't have that many of them, driving is usually bad regardless of conditions and I just swear more.