How expensive is living at Alberta´s cities like Edmonton or Calgary?

Question

the bill´s like, electricity, water, telephone, rent homes or aparments

Also how Alberta´s citizens getting warm their homes in cold wheater...Does they use gas or electricity, and how expensive is this bill

Answer 1

These are questions that have been asked many times over the last few months.

You likely have heard that Alberta is booming and are interested in cashing in on it. Here is a run down of basics - basically the same in both cities.

Rent: Anywhere from $875 at the low end to the sky's the limit for a decent 1 bdrm apartment providing you can find one - the vacancy rate for the cities is approx. 1% or less. Average rent for a decent 1 bdrm - expect to start paying in the $1100 range in the coming months.

House prices: Edmonton: average new home price is approx. $475,000 and up Resale homes are a little cheaper depending on the location but it's safe to say they start at approx. $325,000 min and upwards. Calagary's home prices are little more expensive - add approx $50,000 plus to both new and resale homes.

Average 1200sq.ft. bungalow: - family of 3

Electricity - roughly in the $150.  and up - includes garbage, recyling and water (at least in Edmonton)

Telephone: Approx. $40.00 plus a $25.00 long distance plan

Gas for vehicles is approx. $1.09 per liftre - flucuates of course.

Then there are things school fees, transportation (busing to school)

House taxes: starting point $2,500 per year - to unlimited either city

Groceries are always dependent on gas, the dollar, etc - some items are more - some are less.

You'll be paying your own health care premiums each month.

No provincial sales tax - does make a difference

BUT there are lots of "hidden" taxes in this province that come under the heading of "user fees".

There are lots of jobs available depending on what your trade is - oil rig workers can make pretty decent money but are always working out of town.

Though the minimum paying jobs have upped their wages they are still not enough for a people to live on.

You asked about winter heating - the most economical is the gas heating of course but many homes are heated by expensive electricity. If the price of home heating has skyrockets over the $7.00 mark the province kicks in a rebate in the coldest months of the year - approx $50.00 but nobody knows if it's here to stay or not.. An average 1200 sq ft house will likely use $180.00 give or take per month in the winter.

Currency converter to help you convert the numbers:

1 MXN = 0.10117 CAN dollars

or

1 US dollar = 1.1090 CAN dollars

As you can see living in Alberta is definately not very cheap - it's the housing and the lack there of that really is the difficult part. Hopefully this answered some of your concerns.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

like anywhere it depends on what you want (mansion or row house), rent is a bit more , but tax is less food is less almost everything is less, and the pay is higher. just go and stick it out , many people waste money getting set up in alberta then move back to mommy and daddy.

Answer 3

A bit less than Toronto or Vancouver, but more than most of the rest of canada.

http://www.calgary-city-maps.com/Calgary...

...worthwhile, nonetheless.