Mrug and Mistry’s experience is not unique.
Those stories appear to be backed up by Statistics Canada data, which says Alberta led the country in interprovincial migration in the fourth quarter of 2021, for the first time since 2015.
“We’re starting to see that migration based on affordability,” said Don Kottick, president and chief executive of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
The benchmark price for detached homes in Calgary rose to $620,500 in March, which is over $73,000 higher than December levels and 20 per cent higher than levels recorded last year.
On the higher end of the market, the uptick in activity is even more dramatic.
But even as Calgary home prices rise, they pale in comparison to what prospective homebuyers are facing in other parts of the country.
While the federal government committed in its most recent budget to taking steps to cool Canada’s overheated housing market, for many first-time homebuyers, it’s too little, too late.
Canada’s housing affordability crisis has coincided with Alberta’s recovery from years of recession due to depressed oil prices, which may be another reason Eastern Canadians are once again looking west.
Recreation properties in Alberta are now the most expensive in all of Canada, outstripping even B.C., according to a recent report from Royal LePage Realty.