Edmonton Thread- Merged

[Mjohns]

Hello all,

I've just completed my Ph IV Armour training at Gagetown.  I finally managed to get my greasy paws on a copy of my posting message and now I have a few questions I was hoping people might be able to help with.  My wife and I are looking to buying a house, mainly because the cost of PMQs in Edmonton is fairly prohibitive.  However, since neither of us knows exactly where the base is vis-a-vis Edmonton itself we're a little stumped on where to look.  Our hope is to do research before we actually have to find a place!  We've been searching the MLS.ca website but like I said I'm not 100% sure where I should be looking in and around Edmonton.  If anyone had some pointers it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[paracowboy]

Base is north of the city.

 

[Mjohns]

Paracowboy,

Thanks.  My only problem is that I don't know the Edm area well so I'm not sure which neighbourhoods are near the base/if it's worth trying to live within the city etc...

 

[paracowboy]

well, first thing you gotta realize is that the cost of homes in Alberta has gone berzerk in the past year. Houses are ridiculously expensive around Edmonton.

Areas to look in (in the North part of the city) are: Carleton, Oxford, Dunluce, Canossa, Baturyn, Lorelei, Beaumaris, Chamberly, Elsinore, Lago, Eaux Claires, Belle Rive, Lindo, Klarvatten, Crystalina Nera, Schonsee, Ozerna, Mayliewan, Matt Berry, Hollick Canyon. Some of these are fully developed, others are being built as we type.

These are the northernmost areas, and they're only about 15-20 minutes from base. A lot of people live an hour away or more. Many live in the smaller towns north of the city. Houses are a little cheaper in Mill Woods which is on the South part of the city.

That's about my full extent of knowledge on the subject, so I'll shut up now.

 

[Mjohns]

Well,

that was a disheartning real estate search!  I lived in Calgary approx 5 years ago and I knew housing was bad but man that's just ridiculous!  When the cheapest thing you can find is a 30 yr old shack tipping the scales at 220,000... yikes!

 

[Booked_Spice]

Welcome to Edmonton

The housing continues to soar and the prizes are beyond belief. I hope you find what you are looking for.

By the way Welcome to the city..

 

[paracowboy]

yeah. It's nuts. And it ain't gonna get much better any time soon. Prices may go down slightly come winter, though. Luck to you.

 

[Mjohns]

Paracowboy,

Thanks for all the help.  There do appear to be some smaller older places in the Northern part of the city anyways.  You also mentioned some of the smaller towns to the North of the city; do you know their names by chance?

thanks

Matt

 

[paracowboy]

Morinville, Gibbons, Bon Accord, Namao, Bruderheim, Red Water, Josephburg, are the ones that come to mind. You might want to look at Saint Albert and Fort Saskatchewan. Keep in mind that many of these places have slightly lower house prices, but higher taxes, so it doesn't always work out saving much.

 

[Mjohns]

Paracowboy,

Roger that! Niner and I will have to sort this out sometime over the next few weeks, thanks for the tips!

Matthew

 

[Shamrock]

Here, quick map recce for you.

MLS.ca

Area 01 is Edmonton on that map, may be a little small.  In the Edmonton map, the base is bordering the Northern most tip (Northeast and Northwest areas).  Base itself is located around 97th street and 195th Ave.  Streets run North/South and increase to the West; Avenues run East/West and increase to the North.

 

[probum non poenitet]

There do appear to be some smaller older places in the Northern part of the city anyways

If you are looking on MLS, be aware that some (not all) of the neighbourhoods in MLS Edmonton areas 05 and 13 are not the greatest. (That's where most of the 1920s-1930s homes are ... if that's what you meant by "older places in the North")

You can also check out com.free http://www.comfree.ca/  It's for private sales (without realtors) so you won't find those listings on mls.ca.

mls + com.free = 

 

[RainbowPwincess]

depending on how many are in your household, housing on base may not be too detrimental. me and my husband live in a two bedroom bungalow with basement for 610 per month, half taken off per pay. we pay power and water (Epcor); gas (Direct Energy); and a home phone, which is only Telus unless you go through Primus or Vonage. i suppose cable and internet are optional, but weve got those too, both are through Shaw for fast connections and good prices. Housing is very busy and slow so get your paperwork in ASAP, they took 3 months to get an electrician to my house to fix a live wire and do some housekeeping! you could also consider living here until you find an area within the city that you like! Living on base isnt too bad, we seem to have very helpful and very friendly neighbours, even ones on the other side of the base will drop anything for another in need. i seem to get a big family feel. we are not in the City of Edmonton, we are Sturgeon County, so you licence your dogs through them, and any other info our happy friendly local Welcome Wagon lady Gayle will tell you. she takes abit to get to your house as she only gets lists of phone numbers from CFHA, but all in all base life isnt bad. the bus only comes twice a day basically which is NOT good, but its nice to be seperated from the City itsself which gets overwhelming at times. some delivery places do not like to deliver to the base but Pizza 73 and Pizza Hut do. Dominos does NOT, they will tell you flat out and hang up on you : my husband seems to like it here as theres always another strong guy around to help him move his subwoofers and other heavy things. and its only a 5 minute drive going 30km an hr to get to work in the morning! if your wife would like a job here the Canex Retail Store (which i am currently an employee of) and the Canex Expressmart (gas station) are hiring, aswell if she were to have a car there are many many places within 10 minutes of the base that are hiring. i guess this is just one twosomes three month experience of CFB Edmonton, but others may have other accounts for you! this was just to show you that there are options other than paying an arm, leg and your wifes leg for a house thats overpriced sometimes : good luck on your search! 

 

[paracowboy]

You can also check out com.free http://www.comfree.ca/  It's for private sales (without realtors) so you won't find those listings on mls.ca.

good call. There have been two houses on my block that sold within days on com.free. For about 30 - 50 THOUSAND dollars more than purchased.  : Insanity! ('Course the bright side is that my 3 month-old house has also gone up 35-40 g's.)

 

[Thompson]

Hi, Just wondering if anyone has any pictures of what the single houses in Lancaster Park look like? I did a search of the boards and was unable to find any posted pictures in the other threads about PMQ's. Don't have to be interior pic's or anything (wouldn't want to invade Anyones privacy) Just kind of wondered what the outside looked like. Yard area, lot size, fenced yard and what not. Hoping to be posted to CFB Edmonton in the future and have been looking at Housing costs  (buying) and they seem to be almost as high as they are here in BC. Anyways Thanks for any help.

 

[Booked_Spice]

Well I thought I would post this. I have had some bad experiences but after what I witnessed tonight it was truly amazing.

We had the misfortune in trying to get yellow Ribbons up over the past couple of months due to Road Blocks with various organizations. However with one group of soldiers already returning from Afghanistan we felt that we needed to get this done now because the next group is on their way home and these Men and Women deserve this. A couple of Military spouses and mom's decided that we were going to do it anyway. It took a few phones calls and messages, but spouses and mom's across Edmonton came out on short notice to lend a hand. We had a company on short notice ( I will edit it once I get the name of the company) donate 6000 yards of Ribbon. This company stayed after hours just to cut this Ribbon for us.

So ladies and gentleman that I have never met came out to help this cause. We had over 20 people come to my door, kids, parents, brothers it didn't matter. They joined the cause to say Thank you to our Canadian Troops in Afghanistan.

As we were putting up ribbons throughout the base and down 97th street people were honking and yelling to show their support for the Canadian Forces. Some cars stopped on the road and wanted to know what the yellow Ribbons were all about, They ended up saying positive words about our Troops and Thanking us and our significant others. This was truly amazing. I have never felt so much Pride in this cityand so much support from the extended Military family.

To those on this site that lent a helping hand, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I really enjoyed tonight. It was very motivating, to say the least. I am very Proud of my country and of this City.

Edit: lots of mistakes due to I am tired and there is probably some more I missed...

 

[Shamrock]

I think the most amazing part about Edmonton is that the support and respect troops receive from the city is the norm. 

 

[Pea]

Thanks Booked for that great post. I was so thrilled to see the people come out and show their support for the troops & their families.

I had a total blast and to think we got all that done in 3 or so hours. The support we received while tieing the ribbons really was nothing short of amazing...

Thanks to all who helped, you rock!

 

[Kat Stevens]

Booked, good on ya, girl.  Did you send a copy of this to the Journal and the Sun?  You should, as the people of Edmonton have been nothing less than stellar to the military since our, ummm, forced relocation in'96. Again, good job!   

 

[military granny]

Spice, Pea and all the other guys and gals

Thanks for a great evening. The ribbon tying company did a great job and the city streets look amazing. I haven't seen how you all did on the base but I will go have a look later tonight. The support seen and heard along 97Th street was absolutely wonderful, it made me feel so good to know our men and women of Edmonton are coming home to a whole lot of supportive people. You folks are the best.