It'a a worry for us as we are probably going to be buying in mid May.

I'm not sure the oil price will have affected the market too much by then, BUT if it stays down for a year or so we may end up in significant negative equity, which could be a major issue if my other half is transferred to another city in 1-4 years and we have to sell our house...

I am greatful for the info, we are looking at property this summer, I hate renting, lost money, few rights, very unnerving. If I get it wrong It will do until I get it sold. Calgary is likely to be at best 3 or 4 years, unless we absolutely fall in love with the place.

Yeah well I just bought a place a year and a half ago at what is likely close to peak prices. Luckily I'm a cheap bastard and bought a fixer upper. Lucky I'm a stubborn bastard and did almost all of the work myself. Even so I think the place is likely at least 10% overvalued. You quite honestly have no idea exactly how tough the job market is right now: I've been looking to get out of oil and gas for two months, have applied to over 40 positions and haven't had a single interview. For reference, over the past seven years the longest it ever took me to get a position was 3 weeks and I usually had 3 or 4 interviews after 6 or 7 applications.
I have no crystal ball as to what is going to happen or when the oil price will go back up, but if it stays down for six months to a year at a minimum then it's not going to be a great place to move to.

Just saying.

I'm a geoscientist so have resigned myself to not having a job for a while when I move...

Luckily the other half is moving back with work and as such is safe. We will be buying a house based on her salary and our deposit so any job I do find after a few months will just give us more spending money. Not an ideal situation (but more positive if house prices keep going down - another 5% each in Feb and March would be good - we could get a better house for the money, sorry!) but at least we don't have to worry about me finding a job to pay the mortgage.

I'm tempted by a fixer upper if I have a lot of spare time. At least if the trend continues down after purchase doing it up will reduce the negative equity somewhat, as you say.

On the positive side oil price has jumped up about $7 over the last 3 days so we may have bottomed out. It just depends how much of a shock the drop has caused and how quickly it will go back up again (if it continues up).

By the way Yorkiechef, if you haven't already this site is worth a look to see what the housing market in Calgary is doing http://www.creb.com/Seller_Resources...ng_Statistics/

It seems in January house prices lost their entire 2014 gains, or at least appear to have...

Also an interesting read http://www.joesamson.com/blog/ouch-a...ree-weeks.html

And this http://www.joesamson.com/blog/calgar...ng-market.html

[QUOTE=Amp34;11553601]I'm a geoscientist so have resigned myself to not having a job for a while when I move...

Luckily the other half is moving back with work and as such is safe. /QUOTE]

Unless she's laid off. It's happened before. Canada is a hire and fire place.

She works for the government so *fingers crossed* she's pretty safe. It's one of the reasons we're still moving over when ideally I don't want to leave a stable job, she has no say in the matter...

Hey Amp. Have you connected with an Realtor's in the Calgary area?

Apparently one was recommended by the broker my GF has used in the past. We haven't spoken to them yet. Are you looking to find one?

No, I have one and was looking to share :-) There is a lot of great advice on here, but by connecting to a Realtor in the area, they will be able to offer a little more in terms of advice, locations, pricing, etc.

Holler if you need!

If you can recommend a good one I'm definitely all ears. Means we can talk to both and decide which one we prefer.

I have a fantastic realtor in Calgary if you guys are interested. PM for details

Photoplex, if you could also PM me details of this realtor of yours, I'd be grateful...looking to buy a place in a few months!

PS: this is a pretty accurate map of Calgary

That'll be good, thanks.

Haggis 88. I've lived in Calgary for 58 years. Grew up in Forest Lawn and then lived in both the NE and now Tuscany. Your map is remarkably accurate.

Along the NW LRT line, one area I have not yet seen mentioned is Ranchlands. It is directly east of Arbour Lake and while your map shows it as Kinda Rich People it is in fact more working class and I think you'll find the house prices are less than any of the surrounding areas. I might be wrong in this but worth a look.

The media have lately been speculating that house prices (throughout Canada) are overpriced by up to 30% and the current oil price certainly won't help house prices in Calgary. However, Calgarians have been through this boom and bust cycle every few years and don't generally panic. My experience has been that it's more likely that house prices will remain relatively flat for a number of years rather than suffer significant drops in price. That's not to say that prices won't soften somewhat.

Ranchlands seems to be in a dead spot LRT wise. The train goes past it but the nearest station is Crowfoot or, longer still, Dolhousie. Perhaps that's why it's still cheaper, it doesn't appear to be within walking distance of a LRT station?

I haven't yet checked for any direct bus routes, that's on my to do list.

Having said that I could be missing something as Google is awful at showing where the C train stations are. In other cities (or at least london) when you click on a station it highlights the whole underground system in the colours of the line. I have to zoom right in and follow the tracks in satellite view to spot the stations!