[Sylvanfan]

^^^^
Fact is that housing in Canada and Calgary is still much more affordable than a lot of other city's in the world. Same goes for gas, food, utilities and other basic living. It seems expensive to us because we're not used to this boom. I used to think house prices in Alberta were stupid until my father in law came out to visit last year and said how cheap it seemed compared to B.C. In real estate you always take short term risks, but over a 10-15 year period you seldom if ever lose money. Alberta's economy will stay warm enough that anyone who buys a house today won't be losing money on it 20 years down the road if they keep the place in some type of condition.

Lets face it, the absolute worst you could do in real estate is buying a place that rents for $1500 a month but actually costs you $2000. Assuming you keep it for 25 years and pay that extra money every month it would cost you $150k. Even if the house didn't go up in value one cent you'd still have a $300k piece of property and you get to write off part of that 150k as a capital loss. How many other investments out there can keep the same price yet give you the chance to double your money? Not many that I know of.