Moving to Calgary Canada in January

[TheKingOfWishfulThinking]

Hi There,

My family and I are moving to Calgary in January. This move has been a long time planned so although we are (we hope) well educated on the country, we would like to hear about others experiences who may have been in the same position. Positives? Any regrets? Anything you wish somebody would have told you?
Any thoughts or advice gratefully received

Hi king I lived there for about 10 years until 2013 so if you've got any questions I can definitely help you out. You're going at probably the worst month, so be prepared for cold and dark for the first few months (with some warm chinook winds so it won't be non-stop cold). Make sure you've got some great winter gear and it won't be so bad

Have you got a suburb targeted? The rental and housing market is very good for buyers at the moment. House and rental prices are very low with lots of availability so you should be able to find something great. However the job market is equally on a downturn with the low oil prices.

My personal preference for suburbs is the west or south as you get easy access to the mountains and plenty of amenities. Are you moving with dcs? The school system is great with lots of options for public or catholic education (funded by the province) as well as some excellent private schools. If you've got any questions feel free to pm me and I can try to help. Enjoy the city, it's really lovely!

I live in the expensive province next door and what I know of Calgary can be written on the head of a pin.

Out here we do think of Albertans as being very right wing (brief flirtation with the NDP notwithstanding). And that it's very cold and very flat. Mind you, it's probably not pouring with rain 8 months of the year, and ordinary little houses probably do not start at $1,000,000. So I can't be too smug on that basis.

The thing I will say majorly in its favour (flavour) is that the best ice cream in the world comes from Calgary so it can't be all bad! Fiasco, especially the rhubarb-strawberry, and the salted chocolate ones.

I was surprised when interacting with our Calgary office how white the clients were. Not sure if that was the norm there, but it massively stood out compared to Vancouver (just what you're used to I suppose, but I like living in a very multi-ethnic city so it would take a bit of getting used to).