Swede who moved to Winnipeg, moving on to Alberta. Need advice! (new home, neighbourhood)

[SwedeBig]

Hey guys, hope you can help me out.

I moved to Canada about two years ago from Stockholm, Sweden after spending 15 years there with my Canadian wife and two Canadian children.

We had family in Manitoba (Winnipeg unfortunately), so that was our first stop in order to make the move easier on the kids.
They have cousins their age there, and it was a lot easier to move to a city where you had family members "on the ground" who could help facilitate the move. We built a new home in one of the best areas of the city.

Anyway, Winnipeg was never meant to be home.
It is an okay city, that's about it.
It not really for me. Boring, dirty and run down. Not any real beauty when it comes to scenery or anything. Very plain, grey and rather depressing. I've really grown to dislike the city and how extremely backwards everything is here...
I like the outdoors, hunting and fishing and I miss my mountains, woods and water as well
The one redeeming factor is that I've been able to hunt a lot here.

We are finally all set up in Canada now, I've got my business set up and the kids have transitioned.

It is now time to move on.
I have always wanted to move out west, initially I was thinking BC. I do like snow and winter, and have a certain weakness for the prairies so now I have zoned in on Alberta.

I do not necessarily need to live in a big city, but I do want to live within an hour or two from one, preferably Calgary or Edmonton.
I wouldn't mind living in a smaller town somewhat close by, good access to outdoors (maybe even with some land).

As it is now I live in a $500 000 single family home, and I have no mortgage.

I was looking to spend somewhere around there on my new home as well, around half a million or a bit more.

Do you have any suggestions as to where I should start looking in Alberta? This time for our "forever home" hopefully.

This is what is important to us:
- Somewhat close to big city, or maybe even in nice suburbs of Calgary or Edmonton.
- Nice safe neighbourhood for the kids, good place to grow up in.
- Outdoors stuff. We do a lot of hunting, fishing and so on. Skiing as well.
- Quality of life. Nice scenery, security and all that.

I realize I am painting with a rather broad brush, but I have not even BEEN to Alberta (just the airport in Calgary). I would greatly appreciate any help so that I can narrow down my search before heading out there looking for a house.

I am open to any suggestion, even smaller towns.
From what I've gathered (on this site amongst others), both Calgary and Edmonton are pretty cool cities and it seems very hard to determine which one is "the best"

Thank you!

[Zoisite]

I've never lived in Alberta but have visited Calgary and Edmonton on road trips out of BC. My overall impressions - I liked Calgary better than Edmonton because it's so much closer to the Rocky Mountains and the scenery in all directions is beautiful from the mountains in the west to the rolling plains to the east. The vegetation in the Calgary region is lusher and healthier than it is around Edmonton, there is a lovely green and golden glow about everything and the air smells fresher. Edmonton is okay but Calgary has a more laid back and cheerful joie de vivre sort of feel about it that seemed to be missing in Edmonton, while Edmonton seems rather rougher and more seriously work oriented and busy, busy, busy hustle bustle going on even into late at night.

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[mikeyyc]

I would look out towards Cochrane, maybe even as far as Canmore. I don't think $500K will go far in Bragg Creek, but that's another great area too.


If you're looking around the Calgary area, I'd go from High River in the South, to Airdrie in the North, and try to keep west of Highway 2. Unless you really like the prairies, in which case even somewhere like Drumheller can be nice.

[maclock]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

I've never lived in Alberta but have visited Calgary and Edmonton on road trips out of BC. My overall impressions - I liked Calgary better than Edmonton because it's so much closer to the Rocky Mountains and the scenery in all directions is beautiful from the mountains in the west to the rolling plains to the east. The vegetation in the Calgary region is lusher and healthier than it is around Edmonton, there is a lovely green and golden glow about everything and the air smells fresher. Edmonton is okay but Calgary has a more laid back and cheerful joie de vivre sort of feel about it that seemed to be missing in Edmonton, while Edmonton seems rather rougher and more seriously work oriented and busy, busy, busy hustle bustle going on even into late at night.

No offence intended, but mountains aside, I think that you've gotten much of this backwards.

[Zoisite]

Originally Posted by maclock

No offence intended, but mountains aside, I think that you've gotten much of this backwards.

No offense taken. That just means that you and I have different perceptions about places. Maybe you should describe your own personal impressions of those places.

I think the OP needs to take some time to visit Alberta so he can come to his own conclusions about various places there.

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[badlander]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

No offense taken. That just means that you and I have different perceptions about places. Maybe you should describe your own personal impressions of those places.

I think the OP needs to take some time to visit Alberta so he can come to his own conclusions about various places there.

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No he was correct, Edmonton is greener and lusher than Calgary. It is in the parkland compared to the prairies, has slightly lower temperature and higher precipitation. It could be that the time you were there Edmonton was not at its peak and Calgary was, they are far enough apart that one year one could be having a higher than normal rainfall and the other a drought like.


I have lived in both and my wife and I liked Edmonton better however many other factors than the city itself were many of the reasons for this. Lethbridge is also close to the mountains but dry and windy, Medicine Hat is even further and dryer. Red Deer and all the smaller cities around the Calgary Edmonton line are nice. Canmore is expensive.


OP from what you described Calgary might be the better choice but give the other options serious considerations as well.

[BMI]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

I've never lived in Alberta but have visited Calgary and Edmonton on road trips out of BC. My overall impressions - I liked Calgary better than Edmonton because it's so much closer to the Rocky Mountains and the scenery in all directions is beautiful from the mountains in the west to the rolling plains to the east. The vegetation in the Calgary region is lusher and healthier than it is around Edmonton, there is a lovely green and golden glow about everything and the air smells fresher. Edmonton is okay but Calgary has a more laid back and cheerful joie de vivre sort of feel about it that seemed to be missing in Edmonton, while Edmonton seems rather rougher and more seriously work oriented and busy, busy, busy hustle bustle going on even into late at night.

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Vegetation in the Calgary region is lusher than Edmonton
that's a new one for me.

Calgary area always seems drier, dustier, less treed to me....except maybe when actually in the Rockies, an hour west of the city.

[Zoisite]

Well I will concede to the greater familiarity with Alberta that the rest of you have. I guess the next time I make those road trips again I will have to frequently pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming or hallucinating or delirious or something.

Swede - apparently I don't know what I'm talking about so ignore my first post and go by the other posters' responses instead. Those guys really are more familiar with Alberta than I am.

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