The Best Place to Live in Alberta 2017
While the oil price slide took a toll on Calgary and Edmonton, this city stayed steady
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If there is one place that’s sick of hearing about the low price of oil and the effect it’s having on the economy, it’s Alberta. Four years ago several cities in the province were in the upper echelon of our ranking—with Calgary landing at No. 1.
Today you’ll find Calgary down at 75, nine rungs below where it was last year. Edmonton has fallen even faster and further; it’s dropped to 96, down from 48 last year. Yet some cities in the province have come through this rough patch fairly well. The best example of this is St. Albert, which has been one of the few constants in the province and ranks as the Best Place to Live in Alberta.
Photo gallery: Top 25 Places to Live in Canada
This community of 72,000 on the northwest border of Edmonton continues to impress. The average household net worth is $134,000, the seventh highest in the country and virtually unchanged over the past few years. And while the economic malaise has put pressure on home prices on a number of cities in Alberta, the average price of real estate in St. Albert rose slightly last year. The average home now sells for $484,000.
That doesn’t mean the city has got off completely unscathed. St. Albert’s unemployment rate was once one of the lowest in the country; in 2016 it ballooned to 8.3%, which puts it in the bottom quarter of all cities in Canada. But that is one of the few blemishes on an otherwise clean record.
Live in Alberta? Click here to see where your city ranked using our interactive tool.
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