moving to Edmonton- where to live

[bimmere92]

Windermere sucks. It is a HORRIBLE commute downtown... its okay if you work on the Southside or in Nisku/Leduc but forget it if you need to get downtown during the days.

Infill would be an awesome alternative as well.

Crystallina Nera on the north end is a nice, architecturally controlled neighbourhood (Genstar).

[gwill]

Crystallina has a lot of smaller homes like Town homes, duplex, the detached product or multi family. I'm Not a huge fan of its design or proximity to the henday(noisy). Seems like a lot of the new developments are focusing on the smaller product which makes a lot of the neighbourhoods less desirable IMO. Most of Windermere avoids this issue.

Crystallina aalso doesn't have much for trails like he was asking. 700k home would put his as one of the most expensive in crystallina, new castle, college woods, cy Becker or the other new developments along the north. I wouldn't want to be on the high end come time to sell in those neighbourhoods unless the location or design was very unique.

[blairtruck]

i would get an infill where you are close to downtown. westmount has some sweet houses going up in there. 10 min bike to downtown.

[bimmere92]

Originally posted by gwill
Crystallina has a lot of smaller homes like Town homes, duplex, the detached product or multi family. I'm Not a huge fan of its design or proximity to the henday(noisy). Seems like a lot of the new developments are focusing on the smaller product which makes a lot of the neighbourhoods less desirable IMO. Most of Windermere avoids this issue.

Crystallina aalso doesn't have much for trails like he was asking. 700k home would put his as one of the most expensive in crystallina, new castle, college woods, cy Becker or the other new developments along the north. I wouldn't want to be on the high end come time to sell in those neighbourhoods unless the location or design was very unique.

I'm kinda biased. I built a custom home on the lake in Crystallina. LOL

Having been born and raised in the North, and needing to be close proximity to my family, this was the better neighbourhood of the other alternatives.

[Zhao Kan]

Windermere hits your targets, but it depends where you work.

I live on the edge Upper Windermere (west of terwilligar drive and south of windermere bvld), and this area is probably the only new area designed right for traffic. 2 lanes with tons of room for expansion heading into windermere, with double left turn lanes, and a dedicated right turn lane with free flow. Traffic off the Henday never backs up heading into or out of this area. langdale/upperwindermere/windermere One, are the areas closest to the river valley, and there are trails all between the homes in this area, at least in upper windermere (my house isnt worth a lot but the guy behind me, his is 2 million, and everyone next to him is 1.5+. A lot of homes in upper windermere are 2-4million+) and the river valley has tons of biking trails. It's also a double lane road going into my area again, with no traffic on it. The construction is almost completed in this area too so it's not like traffic is going to get any worse then what it already is, and there is no room for expansion because the river blocks all expansion further west, and the henday blocks expansion further north. Most every other new area is a single lane of bullshit that jams up in rush hour something fierce.

East of Terwilligar drive IMO is worse to live in because you're going to see traffic get worse and worse on that side. Plus most of the condos are on the east side, so it's less family oriented/quiet imo.

North of windermere bvld and west of terwilligar is decent too (this is where windermere One is going up which is the last part of this area to be developed), but this is also where you have all the condos going up at the entrance to this area.

What is left is a handful of in fill lots, some spec homes and show homes, Windemere One which is just north of upper windermere, and 3-4 4 story condo's (2 cheap ones, one luxury one, and one average one). There are minimal duplexes and townhomes in the area. In my area there are a lot of parks, fake lakes, and green spaces too. Within 5-10 minutes walk from my place there are 5-6 greenspaces/lakes/parks + the river valley.

The problem is there are no schools here yet, but 2 are getting built. Some things don't exist here either, like a car wash. But you have everything major in a big common that isn't a clusterfuck yet like other commons in the city (south ed common for one), and probably never will be as there isn't much land left in it for commercial.

Your lot will also be horseshit for size. Edmonton has this retarded zoning rule where they have maximum distances between homes. My builder said they had to widen my garage to cheat because my lot was technically too wide for my house. Anywhere new will have a tiny yard, or no yard. even the 2 million dollar homes behind me have shit lots, with their backyard basically being almost at their fence.

If you work downtown you will hate your life too, but as long as you work in the south end, it's not too bad. it takes me about 15 minutes to get to work, and i work about 15km away about 40 blocks south of the center of downtown.




Good investment areas are south of the university and north of argyl where you can occasionally buy a shithole for the price of the lot and tear it down for a nice new home on your budget, or put a duplex/triplex on it. Due to the proximity of the university this area will always hold its value.

Anything west of calgary trail and south of white mud is pretty good too, but you need to sacrifice your plans to get a new home as everything is old. but you will get a huge lot, and a big house for 500k, probably one that's been gutted too and fully reno'ed.

Before we bought in windermere we were looking in that area, as well as twin brooks, and Blackburn. Twin brooks and blackburn will hit your marks too, as twin brooks and blackburn are both surrounded by ravines and forest. Twinbrooks is better for trails IMO.

Riverbend is an option too, but really windermere is the new riverbend, so if you want new, you might as well live 5 minutes further south and get new.

There are some areas in millwoods that are actually really nice, but my wife won't live there so we didn't even bother looking. Millwoods has some completely shit areas though.. but still is way better then a bunch of the north end IMO.

The south part of the west end is nice too. there is a couple pockets on the north end of nice areas, but nothing i'd consider as the North end sucks imo.

Beaumont was my other pick as it is getting real close to Edmonton now, and you can buy one hell of a house there for pennies on the dollar. 700k in windermere gets you nothing special. Probably what you're used to in calgary for 700k. 700k in beaumont gets you one hell of a house, and a decent sized lot.

[BoostinAround]

St. Albert is 20 mins to downtown core - 10 mins to anywhere north or west, 20 mins to southside and 35 mins to the airport.

It is a good family community, and has all the "bells and whistles".

[gwill]

one thing about windermere from everyone that lives there they all think there is no better place to live and they all think they are better then everyone for living there.

The same house in upper windermere can back onto langdale(technically still windermere) which is only separated by a fence and the same house in upper windermere can cost $40-60k more. Hence the snotty we are better then the rest of you attitudes...

[Zhao Kan]

And that is where i live. One house on the langdale side from upper Windermere.

I haven't witnessed the snooty attitude, but I have witnessed some of the wonky pricing. It's not just upper windermere with wonky pricing here. But I will also say since oil tanked, there are sure a lot of for sale signs up in upper windermere in the baller section. We went for a walk last night and my wife commented on how it seemed like every 3rd house was for sale there. She wasn't exaggerating either on some streets.

So I will say it's a decent time to buy in this area as some houses are priced quite well, and some people have to be hurting/getting desperate. We sold one of our condos in windermere in spring, and I saw a few weeks ago the exact same condo in the same building is sitting on the market over 20g under what we were asking with an extra underground parking stall (and we sold for just under asking). I'm really tempted to lowball it and use it as a rental property.

We also bought our house as an impulse buy recently because the builder was giving off a desperate vibe, and they actually accepted our lowball +5g. 12 months ago this place would have sold for over 100g more than what we paid (I know because we tried to look at houses in that time period that sold the day they went up for sale). I think if I were OP and really wanted to spend 700g on a home i'd be low balling 800g+ homes to see what happens, because i doubt anything in that range is moving too fast and some people have to be getting desperate to unload it.

I dont think the builders are desperate anymore because it looks like the ones that were hurting have had enough time to unloaded all the spec homes they needed to, but you could try them too. There still are some spec homes kicking around in the sub 600 range builders might be willing to negotiate hard on.

[EM2FTL]

Originally posted by blairtruck
i would get an infill where you are close to downtown. westmount has some sweet houses going up in there. 10 min bike to downtown.

Agreed. If you have to get downtown and you don't want to ride the train or bus, AND you have 700k to spend... there are lots of older neighborhoods with new infills that are close to (or right in) the river valley, easy access to downtown and you don't have to look at a bunch of cookie-cutter homes that are identical except for the neighborhood-approved vinyl siding colours or shitty stucco that was applied by a fly-by-night crew.

After living in St.Albert and doing the 45-60 minute commute downtown in winter, I can't see myself ever going back to the suburbs. I get an extra 1.5 hours to do whatever I want vs. sitting in traffic every day.

[blairtruck]

I'm staking an infill in Windsor park right now. Corner lot. 5 min walk from u of a.

[blairtruck]

This infill I'm doing this afternoon takes up 2 lots on the river. 2 min from downtown.

Backs onto the north Saskatchewan river
I think it's a 5 car garage.

[tpurcell4]

Blue quill is a cute, but older community. It's also the community Jerome Iginla grew up in if things like that matter to you.

Ellerslie right at the south end of Edmonton is a cute area when I drove through there last week, and it is a brand new community. I would compare to driving around through to Cranston

Hawksridge also seems like a nice community from driving through. It's just south west of St. Albert. I would compare driving through it to possibly Aspen or parts of Springbank.

Chappelle is also seems quite nice and right off the Anthony Henday.

AVOID anywhere near the new stadium. This area is flagged by several lenders. This is where the majority of crime in Edmonton occurs.

Something to keep in mind moving to Edmonton from Calgary, is that traffic is not comparable. When I head up there, I stay downtown for convenience, and aside from the Yellowhead at the end of the day, I have not noticed much traffic at all outside of a few areas with road construction which held me up maybe 5 minutes at most.

[JustinL]

Originally posted by Zhao Kan

Beaumont was my other pick as it is getting real close to Edmonton now, and you can buy one hell of a house there for pennies on the dollar. 700k in windermere gets you nothing special. Probably what you're used to in calgary for 700k. 700k in beaumont gets you one hell of a house, and a decent sized lot.

That's exactly why we bought in Beaumont. Great quiet community, but tack on 10 minutes to every commute. It's not for everyone, but for a car guy it's fantastic. We saved probably close to $400K on an equivalent southside Edmonton home. The lots are wider and you can get a 4 car garage pretty easily. $700K will get you close to your dream home... but it is 10 minutes to the Henday. It has a nice little trail system with plenty of parks, but it's not as good as the Edmonton river valley. Traffic is OK, but will get better once the new overpass and roads get finished on 41ave SW.

[gwill]

Todd- what are the lenders flagging homes for around the arena? There's billions of new residential happening around there and already tons of existing condos. I didn't know a bit of crime would cause a lender not to lend.. Seems a bit weird.

As for traffic the sw henday is bad. It's regularly backed up during rush hourFrom Calgary trail to the Ambleside overpass. To go 5 km it can take 20 min and it's mostly stop/start on the freeway. Also going west from Windermere bvd towards Cameron heights... The bridge has constant accidents and gets backed up often.

The growth has surpassed that section. Overall minor issues for the op as they work from home.

[EM2FTL]

Originally posted by tpurcell4
[B
Something to keep in mind moving to Edmonton from Calgary, is that traffic is not comparable. When I head up there, I stay downtown for convenience, and aside from the Yellowhead at the end of the day, I have not noticed much traffic at all outside of a few areas with road construction which held me up maybe 5 minutes at most. [/B]

You should try leaving downtown in any direction at rush hour

[zooter]

Originally posted by tpurcell4
Blue quill is a cute, but older community. It's also the community Jerome Iginla grew up in if things like that matter to you.

Ellerslie right at the south end of Edmonton is a cute area when I drove through there last week, and it is a brand new community. I would compare to driving around through to Cranston

Hawksridge also seems like a nice community from driving through. It's just south west of St. Albert. I would compare driving through it to possibly Aspen or parts of Springbank.

Chappelle is also seems quite nice and right off the Anthony Henday.

AVOID anywhere near the new stadium. This area is flagged by several lenders. This is where the majority of crime in Edmonton occurs.

Something to keep in mind moving to Edmonton from Calgary, is that traffic is not comparable. When I head up there, I stay downtown for convenience, and aside from the Yellowhead at the end of the day, I have not noticed much traffic at all outside of a few areas with road construction which held me up maybe 5 minutes at most.

I wouldn't recommend Ellerslie, it's an ok area but it has pockets of riff raff that you want to stay away from. Summerside is just across on the south side of ellerslie road and IMO is a much better area and nicer community.

There are a lot of older areas in the SW like Blue Quill, Bearspaw, etc. that have older homes but are well established. I don't think OP will like them though as he wants something newer it seems.

The West End is also another area that has not been mentioned, again commute times will have to be considered but Lewis Estates, Donsdale, Country Club, all have nice homes.

Traffic in Edmonton is infinitely better than Calgary, I've always attributed it to the multiple side roads that one can exit from rather than the major thoroughfares in Calgary that you have to take to get anywhere.

[Zhao Kan]

Originally posted by JustinL


That's exactly why we bought in Beaumont. Great quiet community, but tack on 10 minutes to every commute. It's not for everyone, but for a car guy it's fantastic. We saved probably close to $400K on an equivalent southside Edmonton home. The lots are wider and you can get a 4 car garage pretty easily. $700K will get you close to your dream home... but it is 10 minutes to the Henday. It has a nice little trail system with plenty of parks, but it's not as good as the Edmonton river valley. Traffic is OK, but will get better once the new overpass and roads get finished on 41ave SW.

And here is what I don't get. Chapelle saves you about 10 dollars on house prices, yet it's a 10 minute+ drive snaking your way through a maze, and then going the wrong direction to get to the henday (unless you're working on the west end), or you could live in beaumont and save hundreds of thousands, and commute 5-10 minutes down a straight artery road to the henday. The other thing about chapelle is it's 10 minutes away from the nearest commercial property. you want to get gas or a chocolate bar? fu, that's a 10 minute + drive minimum. Beaumont has 80-90% of everything you need with a 2 minute drive.

Beaumont makes my commute a bit too far and my wife wants new so I ended up in windermere which is the closest new neighbourhood to my work that isn't a hellhole.


ALso, Elerslie isn't a cute area. It's a dump full of rig pigs that neglect everything about their place. This area is also next to a huge power sub station.

[Zhao Kan]

Originally posted by EM2FTL


You should try leaving downtown in any direction at rush hour

How do you like a post on this forum? lol


10 years ago I could get home from downtown in 15 minutes in rush hour, living at about 34th ave and calgary trail. That was about 70-80 blocks of driving. Now, that same commute, is pretty close to an hour.

The LRT doesn't save you any time either, just less stress (Excluding the rage you'll have at them only having one park and ride lot in the entire south end of the city). Of course finding parking downtown is an entire rage fest in itself.

Edmonton also likes to do this awesome thing where they decide to work on a bridge or main road out of downtown and shut it down/screw it over for a year or 2. I remember them doing absolutely nothing to one bridge for months; they just closed it down, and tarped it up. Since i worked on the 28th floor of a tower overlooking it I could see right down into that tarped up bridge, and not a soul was doing anything on that site for months, possibly 6+ months.

I think its better to just avoid working downtown here. Edmonton's downtown kinda sucks too.

Does OP plan to work downtown though? Might be a moot point.

[tpurcell4]

I am not saying , that there isn't traffic from downtown Edmonton, it's just not much compared to what I am used to in Calgary. I have heard the same thing from friends who have moved from Toronto to Calgary. They told me to stop complaining when I only have to wait an hour in rush hour traffic compared to 2 or 3 hours. The longest I have waited in traffic in the last 2 months traveling to Edmonton is maybe 10 to 20 minutes in addition to the normal travel time.

I may however just be getting lucky based on where my appointments are at particular times of day. Or it could be that Google maps is getting much better at avoiding high traffic areas

Also, lenders restricting around the new stadium are primarily equity or B lenders. Too much crime and high arrears in communities such as Spruce Ave and Alberta Ave. This really only affects someone with some credit issues that cannot obtain traditional financing. With the arena started, the area ought to make for great investment properties in the future, and thanks to the stigma of the area, land is not too expensive, but I will not be moving there anytime soon.

[JustinL]

Originally posted by tpurcell4

Also, lenders restricting around the new stadium are primarily equity or B lenders. Too much crime and high arrears in communities such as Spruce Ave and Alberta Ave.

Spruce ave and Alberta ave aren't really near the new stadium. They are rougher areas for sure, but not affected by the stadium.