South Calgary Neighbourhood Advice - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Hocus Pocus · 01-01-2013, 01:13 PM

I've been lurking on these forums for quite a while now but finally decided to take the plunge and sign up for an account to try to get some advice from the great community here.

I work at a large corporation downtown which is planning to move to Quarry Park within the next few years (not too hard to guess which one). Currently I rent downtown and walk to work without the need to own a car. I've decided that 2013 will finally be the year to stop renting and buy a place of my own. I don't know neighbourhoods in South Calgary that well so I'm hoping that folks on here might be able to offer suggestions on where I should be looking.

A few additional details:
- I currently travel ~75% of my time so something requiring little to no maintenance is a must (ex townhouse/bare-land condo).
- A reasonable commute on transit to downtown today (ideally LRT but BRT would be ok) and by car to Quarry Park in the future.
- Priced somewhere between $400K and 500K

I realize that there are nice looking townhouses available in Quarry Park which probably meet these criteria but I'm looking for suggestions on other areas to expand my horizons a bit. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

_Q_ · 01-01-2013, 01:23 PM

First of all, welcome to CP.

I currently live in McKenzie Lake and I'm hoping to be moving close to downtown soon, so I'm doing the opposite of what you are doing. Here's my 2 cents on this area of the city:

If you want to live in a more walkable community with decent-ish transit, Try looking for a place in McKenzie Towne. I actually quite like that neighbourhood and you'll probably find something very decent within your price range. It's a nice mix of new and old and has some great shops and restaurants all within walking distance. The BRT park and ride/future LRT is also located there. McKenzie Lake and Douglasdale are both great, older neighbourhoods. They are both your standard 80's/90's style communities, so not very walkable and crappy transit access. Choose McKenzie lake if you want lake access, Douglasdale if you want slightly better transit. Douglasglen has always seemed a bit "ghetto" to me, so I would avoid that, but admittedly, I don't know much about the area. New Brighton and Copperfield have always seemed a bit out of the way to me and seem to be almost impossible to get out of during the morning rush hour. Again, I don't know much about those two neighbourhoods, but they don't seem too bad and you can probably get a really good bang for your buck if you decide to live there.

Hope that helps Hocus Pocus.

Northendzone · 01-01-2013, 08:56 PM

I live in new Brighton, and prior to that live in Mackenzie towne.

If you are looking for something close to lrt, then you will be looking for something Macleod trail.....or you can wait 30 or so years.

Up until the start of December, traffic on 52nd up to 130th was awful, around dec things cleared up a bit. I think more folks are using the 130th connector.

Lots of shopping in the area, with all major grocery stores, about 50 liquor stores and Home Depot, lowes, Walmart and sportchek.

Negotiating around the stores on 130th is frustrating, unless you go in with a plan, and try to go early on Saturday morning.

To me NB and Mack Towne are decent places to consider living.

Canehdianman · 01-01-2013, 09:08 PM

I live in Douglas Glen and its quite a bit cheaper than Quarry Park. We really like it. Its near the river and getting DT is easy (so long as you avoid Deefoot).

getbak · 01-02-2013, 03:03 AM

I think Kingsland would probably meet your objectives pretty well. I lived there for 10 years. It's a relatively quiet neighborhood (considering its proximity to Macleod and Glenmore) and it's pretty easy access to the rest of the city. With a car, you can get pretty much anywhere in the city in less than 20 minutes (except for the far NW).

Depending on where you are in Kingsland, either Chinook or Heritage CTrain stations are a short walk. To get to Quarry Park, you would take Glenmore to 18th Street and you wouldn't even need to go on Deerfoot.

There are other neighborhoods around there that would be good too, but I'd say that anything that's relatively close to Macleod Trail and either Glenmore or Heritage would be your best bet.

username · 01-02-2013, 08:31 AM

Look at South Calgary/Garrison Woods/Altadore. One 15/20 minute bus ride to downtown and it's a 5 minute drive to be on Glenmore.

You could probably get a nice condo right in Marda Loop for the price you're looking at.

InglewoodFan · 01-02-2013, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by getbak

I think Kingsland would probably meet your objectives pretty well. I lived there for 10 years. It's a relatively quiet neighborhood (considering its proximity to Macleod and Glenmore) and it's pretty easy access to the rest of the city. With a car, you can get pretty much anywhere in the city in less than 20 minutes (except for the far NW).

Depending on where you are in Kingsland, either Chinook or Heritage CTrain stations are a short walk. To get to Quarry Park, you would take Glenmore to 18th Street and you wouldn't even need to go on Deerfoot.

There are other neighborhoods around there that would be good too, but I'd say that anything that's relatively close to Macleod Trail and either Glenmore or Heritage would be your best bet.

I'll second this. I'm in Chinook Park now (waves to Kingsland from across Elbow), and it is ridiculously easy to get anywhere. You'd be against the traffic on Glenmore going back and forth to Quarry Park. It's even a fairly straightforward bike ride to QP or DT if that's your thing.

We also looked at Douglas Glen, liked it but I figured the commute DT would be worse. I am eager to live out the rest of my life never having to commute on Deerfoot, but that's just me.

Travis Munroe · 01-02-2013, 04:30 PM

All the areas mentioned are good ideas. I think the best bet would be to look at a couple properties in each area and get a feel for the neighborhood/house designs/locations. Kingsland homes/condos are going to be quite a bit different from Altadore.
Once you narrow the area down, its easy to look at everything available.

Canehdianman · 01-11-2013, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

I'll second this. I'm in Chinook Park now (waves to Kingsland from across Elbow), and it is ridiculously easy to get anywhere. You'd be against the traffic on Glenmore going back and forth to Quarry Park. It's even a fairly straightforward bike ride to QP or DT if that's your thing.

We also looked at Douglas Glen, liked it but I figured the commute DT would be worse. I am eager to live out the rest of my life never having to commute on Deerfoot, but that's just me.

Yeah, it's actually fairly easy to get to DT from Douglas Glen without using Deerfoot. I never set foot on Deerfoot, unless it's after 9pm at night.

Most of the time, I head up 18th st through Quarry Park and Riverbend and then take Glenmore to Crowchild (I work on the west side of DT).

If traffic is iffy, I go straight up 24th st through Odgen and sneak into DT through Inglewood.

Either route is about 25 minutes. That's still 18 minutes longer than it takes people from Airdrie to get to DT, but it's not that bad for me.

fundmark19 · 01-14-2013, 04:09 PM

Plus 1 for douglasglen and riverbend love those places

Scoopdogg · 01-15-2013, 07:44 AM

Minus 1 for New Brighton. DO NOT BUY A HOUSE THERE. Purchasing a house that is a stones throw away from the dump is never a good idea. All other areas mentioned are nice.

fundmark19 · 01-15-2013, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoopdogg

Minus 1 for New Brighton. DO NOT BUY A HOUSE THERE. Purchasing a house that is a stones throw away from the dump is never a good idea. All other areas mentioned are nice.

Please note that Scoop has a blind hate for new brighton. I loved living in New Brighton while I was there! I do not miss the craziness of 130th though on a weekend I think more people go to that shopping mall then we have residents in Cochrane

Scoopdogg · 01-15-2013, 08:42 AM

I do have a hate for that neighborhood as I lived there for 4 years. Lost my shirt on my house and over the time we lived there the neighborhood got worse. Its the lowest price point in the SE so its attracting lower level income earners. You can get a nice sized house for a cheap price, which is great, but the people moving in weren't the best. On my street we had one house that had a broken down snowmobile with a tarp covering it for years. Another house had a broken down car sitting in the driveway. Other people didn't take care of their yards and it just looked like crap driving down the street.

Nasty · 03-11-2013, 10:40 AM

i live in southwood, fantastic community close to everything you need, great property values

calgarywinning · 03-12-2013, 12:38 AM

Right now, probably the best priced value in the city is Chinook Park. Great accessibility, some amazing houses on MLS for a little more then asking, but paramount location and value.

For the record, i'm in Bonavista.

Nufy · 03-12-2013, 11:43 AM

I'm in Deer Ridge and work in QP.

Approx 10 minutes to my office during morning rush hour.

15-20 in the evenings.

An older neighborhood but I like it.

You should be able to find a nice house with that $$$ range as well.

Nufy · 03-12-2013, 11:48 AM

Some nice condos in parkland as well...

bizaro86 · 03-12-2013, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Right now, probably the best priced value in the city is Chinook Park. Great accessibility, some amazing houses on MLS for a little more then asking, but paramount location and value.

For the record, i'm in Bonavista.

Might be nice, but the OP said 4-500k, and the cheapest house in Chinook Park is 549, then you're up to 659.

Flacker · 03-12-2013, 03:34 PM

You'd get something in Riverbend backing either onto the river, or Carburn for the price range indicated. Walking to work would be a sweet deal! Late 80s/Early 90s construction, so you'd likely want to find something that has been renovated.

Hocus Pocus · 05-13-2015, 04:33 PM

Bump!

So life has had some interesting twists and turns since I originally posted this two years ago but I am ready to start looking once again. I'm hoping to focus on higher-end townhomes between 550-700K that are within a reasonable commuting distance of Quarry Park (the ones in QP itself are nice but a little too close to work). Some areas I'm considering include Altadore/Garrison, Currie Barracks, or Kingsland but outside of the inner-city or the new communities to the south the inventory seems to be pretty limited. Wondering if there are any communities/developments that I'm missing but should be considering?