[tvp2003]

MacLean's just did a piece on the surging housing market across Canada:

https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/ca...-housing-2021/

Because it’s not just pushing out first-time buyers anymore. Maclean’s spoke with Marc Iturriaga, a 46-year-old father of two who’s owned houses in Waterloo, Ont., and Calgary. He sold the latter last fall in a relatively tame but still buoyant market, after he was hired by Mohawk College in Hamilton as executive director of the student association. It’s a managerial position with a salary that puts him in the top 15 per cent of Canadians. But in recent decades, Hamilton has evolved from a working-class town to an affordable market for Toronto-bound commuters to—now—a place where Iturriaga couldn’t find anything that suited his family despite having a budget north of $800,000. That’s $300,000 more than he got for his much larger house in Calgary.

Iturriaga was repeatedly outbid, pushed by sellers to bid even more and tempted at times to settle for houses his family didn’t like. He even considered forgoing the job in Hamilton. “It’s become this huge game now,” he says, “where all traditional methods of real estate dealings have gone out the window.”

So, after months of heartache, his family bought in Brantford, the next city over, a place listed at $599,000. He got it for $715,000—a fixer-upper he figures will take another $150,000 to renovate.

Perhaps the relative affordability in Alberta will attract some people to move here? It's certainly can't hurt...