Welcome to JustinHavre.com
Want to live in the Heart of the New West? Use my Guide to Calgary Real Estate to find the right home in the right place at the right price. Tour all the homes listed on the Calgary MLS ® with the Interactive Search. Get results with access to photos, virtual tours and maps. Learn about the neighbourhoods, schools and lifestyles in Canada's greatest city. I love this town and I want to be your Realtor ®. When you need someone to help you get what you need from the Calgary Real Estate Market, my dedicated office support allows you to contact me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter what time zone you live in.
Quick Search
Calgary Real Estate
Founded where the foothills meet the prairies, the hilly city of Calgary is divided into four main quadrants: Northwest Calgary, Northeast Calgary, Southwest Calgary and Southeast Calgary. The city is further defined by the two freshwater rivers that flow through it: the Elbow and the Bow.
Calgary has a compact and inviting downtown that stretches for 30 or 40 blocks. With plenty of destinations and a variety of easy ways to get to them, you can expect the streets here to be alive every day with Calgarians traveling to work and school or just out for a stroll. In fact, great planning has made the downtown core a magnet for people all year round which is part of the reason Calgary real estate is so desirable.
Calgary Home Sales Statistics
In April 2008, the Calgary Real Estate Board reported the following stats on the local real estate market:
- The average selling price for a single family home in Calgary was 474K
- Calgary homes for sale spent an average of 47 days on the market
- The average price for Calgary condos was 312K
- Calgary condos for sale spent an average of 45 days on the market
- Click here to see real time stats on today's Calgary MLS Listings.
Getting Around in Calgary
In the wintertime, residents use the +15 system to get around the downtown core. The largest system of its kind in the world, +15 is 16 kms of enclosed walkways and bridges suspended 15 feet above street level. These ingenious walkways allow people to travel building to building with complete disregard for the weather.
Approximately 635 kms of urban trails and 260 kms of bikeways wind their way through the metropolitan area providing some really great scenic routes. One particularly well-loved stretch follows the edge of the Bow River from the Crowchild Trail to the Calgary Zoo. Need to get somewhere in a hurry? Calgary has an outstanding bike-friendly public transit system. The LRT service, known as the C-Train, is free in the downtown core.
Weekend Getaways
With the Rocky Mountains lining Calgary's western horizon, it's only a short drive to a whole host of world class skiing and resort vacation spots. Banff, Kananaskis, Canmore, Jasper, and Lake Louise are all easy day trips. World heritage sites like Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump and the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller Park are also nearby. Edmonton, the provincial capital is just three hours from Calgary and the prairies to the north, east and south are great horse country.
Calgary Weather
Calgary is one of the sunniest places in Canada and home to some remarkable weather. Hot dry summers are punctuated by spectacular thunderstorms and in the winter, warm chinooks blow through town raising the temperature as much as 15 degrees celsius in a few hours. Temperatures have been know to climb as high as 20 degrees celsius in the middle of winter.
Calgary Economy
Calgary's strong economy and low unemployment is legendary in western Canada. Jobs in the petroleum industry are plentiful here. There is also a very strong high tech industry and agriculture has long been the pride of the province.
Calgary Schools
There are five major post secondary schools in Calgary including the University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic and the Alberta College of Art and Design. The city also has a highly regarded K-12 system that includes charter schools, french language education and a separate school board.
Living in Calgary
It's the people of Calgary that make this city great. You'll find plenty of saloons and country music in this "Nashville of the North," but Calgary is a new frontier. Always on the move, Calgary is a cosmopolitan centre of with a diverse population that's always growing. In 2006 alone, 25,794 people from all over the world chose to relocate to Calgary.
Though the population has topped one million, Calgary is a peacefully safe place with low crime rates. Calgary was recently ranked as the "World's Cleanest City" by Forbes magazine in 2007.
Places to go in Downtown Calgary
- Eau Claire Market/Festival District: popular destination on the edge of the Bow River and across from Prince's Island Park. Plenty of great condominiums in this pretty and vibrant area
- Prince's Island Park: always something going on here in the summertime from Shakespeare in the Park to the Calgary Folk Music Festival.
- Stephen Avenue Walk: this pedestrian mall in the heart of the retail district is a designated historic district and another popular destination. Usually graced by musicians performing in the open air, the area features a number of galleries, rep cinemas, nighclubs and restaurants.
- Olympic Plaza Right in front of City Hall in the arts district, the water-filled Olympic Plaza is a great place to go for a splash in the summertime or go skating in the winter. Galleries, theatres and the Glenbow Museum are nearby.
- Calgary Science Centre
- Calgary Zoo
- Stampede Grounds: The Calgary Stampede takes place here every July and for 10 straight days, everyone in town is a cowboy. Famous for its rodeo and chuckwagon races
- Olympic Saddledome: Home base of the Calgary Flames, the city's much loved NHL team
- Chinatown: Canada's third largest Chinatown is in the NE and stretches for 20 blocks. Chinese Cultural Centre here has a domed ceiling patterned after Beijing's Temple of Heaven.
Want to get the most from the Calgary Real Estate Market right now? Contact Justin Havre, top Calgary Real Estate Agent.