My husband, daughter and I are moving to Edmonton. We need help.?

Question

If you know anything about wherea good place to live. I heard the north east and west are good. Is this true? We do not want to be down town. We do however need to be on a public transit route. We are moving from the east coast and want to be around other families with kids.

Answer 1

All the previous answers have been pretty good assuming that you have the money to buy a house here. Many people come here expecting to be able to buy a house but this is not always the case. The average cost of purchasing a hume in Edmonton is around the $300,000 mark and condos in the $200,000 mark. If you're buying you need to be prepared for a market in which the demand exceeds the supply - "hot housing market" and it's the most frustrating to find a home in the right price.

Edmonton's vacancy rate as far as rental is at approx. !% so the propects are quite limited as to what is available. You will find that you will be paying in the $750 and up range for a 2 bedroom apartment providing you can find one. There are areas of the city that are definately more expensive then othere. Bedroom communities such as Sherwood Park and St. Albert which are really great communities tend to be more expensive overall and the transit system though there to the city is not alwsys that convenient.

If you need to stay close to a public transit system then there some areas of the cities which are better serviced than others. The LRT (light rail) now runs from the Health Science Centre on the south side of the river to Clareview station in the NE. The stations going north of the city to the NE are sometimes not the safest as they have had a lot of problems on them. The bus system in the city (bus pas $59 per month) is actually quite good and can get you most places in the cities or a combination of LRT and Bus.

As for Safe and Good areas. The actual westside of the city though generally quite safe but expect the area to conjested with traffice especially around the area of the Mall and Mayfield (more north on 170St) The area to the east of the mall has a large concentration of apartments though.

Generally the areas in the SE are fairly reasonable as far as rents go and safe. Try the area around Bonnie Doon, Strathrean both of which are convient and have young families.

I would overall not move anywhere on the north or northeast areas of the cities though to be fair there are great neighbourhoods in there too. The entire area from 111 Ave north to 130 Ave and between 100 St and 50 St. are questionable.especially the areas between 75 St. and 100 St. Both 112 Ave and 118 Ave have a problem with prostiutes and gang activity though granted the city is trying to deal with the problem is does exisit.

Do what I did when I was looking for a safe area - I phoned the local police station and asked them about the crime in areas where I was looking.
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You can check out rentals and homes for sale in -
www.edmontonjournal.com
www.edmontonexaminer.com (free weekly paper)

Houses for sale just to get an idea of what is available:

www.rewedmonton.ca - weekly edition
www.comfree.com - monthly
www.mls.ca - fairly up to date listings.

I hope that you will enjoy Edmonton. My only suggestion is to come prepared by doing as much research ahead of time as possible as to jobs, rental/housing market, etc.

PLEASE NOTE: Glenora while a cutsey neighbourhood with smaller older homes is also one of the MOST EXPENSIVE areas of the city. Those small older homes START in the $400,000 (if you're lucky) and so to well over the million dollar mark.

Hope this helps. Good Luck


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Answer 2

We just moved from Edmonton 6 months ago. We lived on the south side, which is one of the nicer areas of the city, I thought. The community was pretty much all families. Access to public transit was awful, though, and when we left, traffic was getting pretty bad. I know that they are extending the LRT south - perhaps you could look into that. I would not suggest the north east or the west... If you do look in those areas, be careful because there is a big dichotomy in the types of neighbourhoods there.

You may want to consider Glenora. It is on the north side of the river just west of downtown. There are some smaller homes in that area that are affordable and it is close to downtown and therefore public transit. The school that I taught at was there - lots of families and a nice quiet community. It is just a quick bus ride to get to downtown or to the university from there.

Good luck with the move!

Answer 3

I just moved out of Edmonton after spending 6 years there.

The West End is fairly nice - very 'generic Canadian city'. Housing is pretty expensive these days, though. Stay away from that eyesore on 87th and 170th (aka 'das übermall'), the traffic around the WEM is crazy. Well, crazy for Edmonton, anyway.

The LRT (the subway/light rail) is pretty limited. It goes from the University, through downtown and out towards Clairview (in the NE). So, if you don't want to live downtown, you're probably not going to be on the train line, since the neighbourhoods it goes through aren't the nicest. There are buses everywhere, but they may or may not be convenient, depending on where you are and where you want to go. The far north east is getting a lot better than it used to be, but it's still pretty sketchy in my opinion.

Personally, I think the South end of town is the nicest. If you have some money to spend, look into Terwilliger, it's really nice with the ravine, and such. If you are on a more modest budget, look into the areas along 112th street, south of the Whitemud.

Answer 4

Www.comfree Edmonton

Answer 5

I live in edmonton and while its a really really nice city Its getting bigger and bigger and is having problems trying to make transit convienient and availible to everyone. Staying away from downtown is smart and also west edmonton mall. However if you dont stay relitivly central taking the bus anywhere can take anywhere from an hour to a coupel of hours just to get to a simple place. My advice is to stay in the older communites of edmonton they are still really nice and convienient to get around. The newer residential communities on the edge of the city are far away from everything and often confusing to get around in.

Answer 6

i grew up in edmonton. i would reccomend north end, or the west end. the city has a good transit system abd lots of great shoppong. i left due to the cold weather.i live in b.c where there is no snow where i live...yay don t listen to Graniteq...you can get a decent house for a reasonable price. my sister got one 3 bedr for about 169 000 or so

Answer 7

I have lived all over Edmonton and een in Spruce Grove for a bit and the South Side is definetly the nicest!!!!

Answer 8

If you are working downtown consider moving to Sherwood park, or St.Albert. These are nice little suburbs minutes away from the city, and have bus links downtown. If you are not working downtown, then I would probably move to the South Side.

Answer 9

WHY IN THE HELL would you want to move here???
The new homes prices are INSANE...i mean 2700 sq.ft for 1.19 million? Yes, that is correct.
The north east sucks by the way, the west and the south west are THE PLACES to live, more upper class.
North east is ghetto and bummy.
Downtown sucks and is filthy.
West side is still good.
The south side is for rich snobs.
Yuck, why would you move here?
I am from Windsor ontario and moved to edmonton 8 years ago and I want out!
British Columbia is the place to be, not here.

Answer 10

I live in Millwoods and the area I live in is great. 3 schools within walking distance, 3 corner stores, and the buses are pretty good. if you have any questions,you can contact me.