Calgary Real Estate
Contemporary issues
As a city that has experienced rapid growth in recent years, Calgary has experienced issues such as urban sprawl. With no geographical barriers to its growth besides the Tsuu T'ina First Nation to the southwest and an affluent population that can afford large homes and properties, the city now has only a slightly smaller urban footprint than that of New York City and its boroughs, despite having less than one-eighth the population of New York City proper. This has led to difficulties in providing necessary transportation to Calgary’s population, both in the form of roadways and public transit. It has also led to an interpretation of the city as being a “driver’s city”. With the redevelopment of the Beltline and the Downtown East Village at the forefront, efforts are underway to vastly increase the density of the inner city, but the sprawl continues. In 2003, the combined population of the downtown neighbourhoods (the Downtown Commercial Core, the Downtown East Village, the Downtown West End, Eau Claire, and Chinatown) was just over 12,600. In addition, the Beltline to the south of downtown had a population of 17,200.
Because of the growth of the city, its southwest borders are now immediately adjacent to the Tsuu T'ina Nation Indian reserve. Recent residential developments in the deep southwest of the city have created a need for a major roadway heading into the interior of the city, but because of complications in negotiations with the Tsuu T'ina about the construction, the construction has not yet begun.
The city has many socioeconomic issues including homelessness. Certain portions of downtown core and inner city have been singled out as being home to much higher proportions of disadvantaged residents, as well as some neighbourhoods in the city’s east. The share of poor families living in very poor neighbourhoods increased from 6.4% to 20.3% between 1980 and 1990.
Although Calgary and Alberta have traditionally been affordable places to live, substantial growth (much of it due to the prosperous energy sector and the northern oil sands projects) has led to increasing demand on real-estate. As a result, house prices in Calgary have increased significantly in recent years. As of November 2006, Calgary is the most expensive city in Canada for commercial/downtown office space, and the second most expensive city (second to Vancouver) for residential real-estate.
Even though Calgary has a relatively low crime rate when compared to other cities in North America, gangs and drug-related crime are becoming much larger issues than they have been in the past. Marijuana grow operations busts have decreased in 2005, while possession and trafficking have increased.
