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Last edited by Amysicle; 12-06-2019 at 09:35 PM.
Nevermind, found it. Has nothing to do with T&T.
Jesus it amazes me how much people will commute to save 200 a month on a mortgage a month. 2 hours a day out of your life 5 days a week.
Had friends move out there try to convince everyone how great it was. Then they sold at a loss and moved to bleak wasteland treeless evanston. then they sold at a loss again and moved to panorama, near nose hill, big nice trees everywhere, they are finally happy. Also all houses dont look like exact same vinyl siding 10x5 ft yards. I guess airdrie would have bigger yards hopefully than evanston
You could say im biased
Depends where you work and when you work I guess. A bunch of guys I work with at the airport on the night shift live in Airdrie. Also my sister and brother in law just moved to Calgary from Airdrie with young kids and they are already planning to go back.
I briefly considered Airdrie before I bought in Sage Hill. I am still considering Airdrie in a few years to start a family and would prefer to raise kids outside of the big city, as I grew up in a smaller place myself. Anyone else with young kids have any input on this?
Lots of wht folks up there, not enough good restaurants and traffic around big hills spring road shopping center is horrible. It is however quieter and you get more house for the monies.
Btw COS is done with beyond and the dbags on here from what I hear
I work I'm Airdrie alot and I would never live there. It's ALWAYS ALWAYS WINDY. It drives me mental. It's full of fat suburban mom's and fat kids that spend their summered hanging out at the 7-11s. Commute to Calgary in the am looks like an absolute nightmare
Shit restaurants, high taxes, white trash, diesel pickup trucks everywhere, the train, crappy commute, a magnet for hail, windy all year, tons of renters and people currently laid off.
All these cons....
But as a YYC resident I have to post up one plus...
The Vintage Soda Company...
...@therealarifjina...
- Infrastructure to support the growing population of drivers is still lacking:
--- Lots of busy crosswalks that should have traffic lights only have those crosswalk signs that light up. I've seen quite a bit of close calls since we've moved here last year.
--- A lot more drivers who don't know how to signal when changing lanes / turning into a different street compared to when I was in Calgary.
--- Key intersections such as 8th Street and HWY 262 really need a traffic light post.
--- Maximum speed on some areas can make you scratch your head ie 30km speed limit on streets that can safely be traveled at 50km.
- If you do drive during rush hour, get prepared to get some amusing stare downs from the next Schumacher or Earnhardt Jr on the left hand lane if you're in the middle lane with your cruise set at 115 or God forbid, 110.
I work in Sunpark Plaza so luckily I leave my house from 5:30am and head home around 5:30pm so I miss both the morning and evening rush hour traffic. I'm not sure what the traffic is like in downtown as I haven't driven there in a few years but it only takes me about 40minutes to get to work Deerfoot->Anderson->Macleod.
- Cops seem to always catch someone on NB 8th Street every other night because drivers like to rip it around those areas past the 60km marker. So don't cross the street just because you think a vehicle should stop for pedestrians at a crosswalk but that's just common sense.
- I can appreciate a sexy 6.2L/V8 paired with a Borla exhaust, just not at 10:30pm during weekdays or 1am in the morning during weekends. Depending on where you live, YMMV in regards to the noise from the trains and/or planes.
- The combination of the general road conditions during winter and the drivers around here will REALLY test your defensive driving skills.
- Not much to do anywhere, closest would be CrossIron Mills. There are street/park events every now and then but the ones that do interest me are too few and far in between.
- Food scene is still evolving so you'll have limited choices for good food.
- Lack of good dog parks according to my neighbours if that's a necessity for you.
I've lived in Calgary for 14 years before moving here and honestly other than the missing usual go to places I've come accustomed with in Calgary, I like it better here and I'm sure being a new parent has influenced that decision.
As for resale value, I can't really answer that question. But for the size of the house we got, it would've cost us about 130k more in Heritage Hills in Calgary, same builder, same model, difference in lot prices and some upgrades. It was actually the area manager there who suggested Airdrie to us.
I'm in no rush to sell the house and deal with moving and building a new one as I see myself living here for at least a decade or if the value of the house doubles . I like the sunset views we get and the huge backyard we got. It's quiet here and for someone who's a new parent, it's nice to know that where I live, there are schools going up in a couple years that basically will let my son and the future fruits of my loins attend school K-12 within a 5minute drive of our house. Playgrounds are everywhere for kids and also there's Genesis. The city in general feels more family orientated.
Contrary to the stereotype, a lot of the vaguely coloured people I've met here are not rednecks. And the ones that are, are pretty chill and easy to talk to. My family and I do not feel discriminated if that's a concern for you. Although sometimes I do catch myself talking like Boomhauer .. dang ol' heavy footed drivers man. Again YMMV.
Unless of course I win the lottery and am able to buy a huge acreage to build an ATV and motobike track at.
I think the school situation will be what makes us move there. ..hearing my coworkers talk about their school situations in Calgary make me not want kids some days. Add to that the extra $$$ it costs to live in Calgary makes me think I will be kicking myself if we choose Calgary. I mean we're looking at a $50,000 price difference at the bare minimum. ..and for the price range we're looking at it actually makes the difference between being house poor and not. .. Even in Evanston, sounds like our kids screwed after grade 4 if we're even lucky enough to get them into the Evanston school. ..
Traffic issues don't bother me, I grew up in Vancouver/Richmond lol
Cheap inner city FTW, neighborhoods have school and the schools have space.
You can do something like Highland Park or Thorncliffe for a good price.
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I second this. The $450K - $475K won't get you a huge place, but ask yourself if you really need that. Even in communities like Rosscarrack and area, you'll find stuff around the $500K mark that are older, but with decent sized houses and yards.Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Cheap inner city FTW, neighborhoods have school and the schools have space.
You can do something like Highland Park or Thorncliffe for a good price.
I think you'd be batshit crazy to move to Airdrie if you work downtown. You won't enjoy any of the nice stuff it has to offer because all you'll be doing is commuting. Also your friend circle will vanish and be replaced with your wife's weird hick "Airdrie friends."
orly?Originally posted by redblack
Btw COS is done with beyond and the dbags on here from what I hear
20-something Airdrie resident that works DT, QFT. If you work downtown or south, don't move here. The commute will kill you and you'll miss out on alot of events and stuff. It's always a pain if I want to have a night out into Calgary, cab ride is about $50 now from DT(add another $10 if you live in the north part of Airdrie methinks).Originally posted by Feruk
I think you'd be batshit crazy to move to Airdrie if you work downtown. You won't enjoy any of the nice stuff it has to offer because all you'll be doing is commuting. Also your friend circle will vanish and be replaced with your wife's weird hick "Airdrie friends."
Personally I work 7-4 DT, and if I drive it's usually a 1h roundtrip commute including going on the Deerfoot. That's equivalent to my co-workers' commutes from Evanston and Tuscany. If I take the train or bus though(301 leaving from the Country Hills theatre) it becomes a solid 2h roundtrip commute.
If you're a young family, there's tons here simply for the school situation alone. Almost every community here has an elementary or middle school, and the school bus ride is never more than 20 mins or so. IIRC there's two or three more schools coming online in the next year or so.
As for the azn mall, I think it would be worse if you lived in the far flung NE(Redstone, Skyview Ranch, etc) due to the fact that weekends(and possibly evenings) would see mass migration going North through those communities to go to the mall.
Overall though, Jonel and Vengie have most of the points covered. If you're shopping north of Stoney trail you may as well consider Airdrie simply for the fact that it's possible to get more house/yard than what you would get in Calgary, not to mention that the commute isn't really that much longer. Also keep in mind that the master plan for the new Livingston community that straddles Centre St north of Stoney has a train station planned for the Green Line(if you want to do the whole jam up the park & ride lot thing that happens with the Cochrane people at the Crowfoot/Dalhousie stations)
I don't think New Horizon will generate that much traffic without the likes of T&T.Originally posted by cyra1ax
As for the azn mall, I think it would be worse if you lived in the far flung NE(Redstone, Skyview Ranch, etc) due to the fact that weekends(and possibly evenings) would see mass migration going North through those communities to go to the mall.
Just look at NE T&T, it's mostly dead if it ain't a restaurant.
This is what I wanted to hear...we visited showhomes today and Airdrie is literally 5 minutes total past Stoney, we live in Evanston right now and when I come home from work at 5pm from downtown I take DF and turn off at Stoney, then it's another god damn 5-10min west to get to Evanston...Airdrie just seems like it's 5 min North instead. So the commute isn't going to be much different, time-wise. The difference being I'd be going home to nice little town into a nice brand new house that I would be house-poor living in had I bought in Evanston.Originally posted by cyra1ax
Personally I work 7-4 DT, and if I drive it's usually a 1h roundtrip commute including going on the Deerfoot. That's equivalent to my co-workers' commutes from Evanston and Tuscany. If I take the train or bus though(301 leaving from the Country Hills theatre) it becomes a solid 2h roundtrip commute.
If you're a young family, there's tons here simply for the school situation alone. Almost every community here has an elementary or middle school, and the school bus ride is never more than 20 mins or so. IIRC there's two or three more schools coming online in the next year or so.
Inner city is absolutely out of the question. We hibernate in the winter and we must have an interior we enjoy being in. We plan to have a kid and 1 more dog (total 3 dogs) so we need close to 2000sq ft...there is absolutely nothing at this point that can justify paying the extra $50,000 to build in Evanston especially when we factor in how much more convenient the schools are in Airdrie. Taking the Airdrie Ice is pretty enticing too as it's only $200 a month which is pretty close to what I currently pay for gas.
Thanks for all the advice!
Last edited by JohnnyHockey; 08-06-2016 at 06:57 PM.
curious who is on his dbags list lolOriginally posted by Xtrema
orly?
I am user #49Originally posted by rage2
Shit, there's only 49 users here, I doubt we'll even break 100
Until you, you know, actually get into Airdrie and have to get to your house. I'm not saying it's going to be 20 minutes extra, but I feel like you're not being entirely unbiased in your commute analysis.Airdrie just seems like it's 5 min North instead. So the commute isn't going to be much different, time-wise.
Airdrie is surprisingly tiny (which in itself makes it even more appealing), navigating through those roads isn't much different than navigating through Evanston...ya it's still a few minutes more but still not worth payikng an extra $50,000 over...
I moved here over 6 years ago and would never move back into Calgary. The town is very nice and well run. I don't understand the high taxes comment. I pay just a shade over 2k a year for a 400k property. It takes me less time to get to work from here (McKnight and 12th street area) at 15 minutes than it did from Hawkwood in the NW which normally took 30 minutes. I find it rare to experience traffic issues more than a handfull of times a year, and even then, if you scan the traffic reports quickly before you leave, you can take a different way into town quite easily on one of the other direct routes if there is an issue on Deerfoot.
It has virthally everything you need within a couple minutes of your door, and if you really need something only Calgary can provide, it is right there.
Now obviously if you are young and into partying downtown or sampling new restaurants every other day, you will not have near as many options here, but for those of us who are more into relaxing, making a quiet family home life, knowing your neighbours and not dealing with inner city issues, it is an awesome place to call home!