Moving the town into the country - Canmore

Photos

Moving the town into the country - Canmore

see larger image

uploaded by Tilltales

• 

  uploaded by Tilltales | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Tilltales | add comment

by Ursula Tillmann

     It used to be a tranquil town - but also a poor town. Canmore, better known as the coal-miner community beside the luxurious resort Banff, west of Calgary in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. If people stopped here it was mostly to simply gas up. On most tourist maps Canmore wasn't even mentioned. But after the Olympics in 1988, a change took place - first slowly and in the mid-nineties with increasing speed. It still leaves many oldtimers breathless. Their town is moving into the country.

   Canmore became (and still is more than ever) the insider tip for investors from all over the world.  And today - twenty years later, people don't grin any longer, when you tell them: I am from Canmore. They admit:  "I wish I had the money to have a place there." The Globe and Mail at one time called Canmore the fasted growing town in western Canada.

   Despite the crash of the real estate market in the US, Alberta is still going strong, but strongest  in the town of  Canmore, when it comes to real estate prices and turn-over of properties. It's a whole community based on construction, development and realtors. Houses are not just being built, but dealt with like a stock-market commodity as in no other community. Time-shares, retreats and vacation homes - with prices still going through the roof - and often with nobody occupying those luxuries homes - just waiting for higher prices to knock on the door.

    Building permits from residential and commerical construction nearly doubled last year from $57.4 million (2006) to $103.3 million (2007). They can't design as quickly as people will snap it off the market. One realtor told me: "We brought three charter planes over from Britain and most people bought units."

    So - what does this do for the town? Do those investors live, work and volunteer in Canmore?  Hardly. Most  come, see and buy and then good-bye, with the assurance, their investment can be sold for a rather large profit later. And so it does. In new housing areas of booming Canmore like Silvertip, Eagle Terrace and Three Sisters Village, it isn't uncommon, that units are sold and resold several times, before the first hole is dug to actually construct a unit. If you can buy a small unit for under $400.000, you have found a bargain. Buying a house, you better belong to the million dollar club.

   In 2001 the population of Canmore was 13 116 (with non-permanent residents counting 16,3 per cent). When the census announced its numbers in 2006 - now with a population of 16 417, the number of non-permanent residents had risen to 27 per cent. Not the best news for oldtimers, who build this town. They are moving away, many cannot afford to live here any longer. The assessment of their little small houses has gone through the roof. And they can't pay the high property tax with their small pensions. A developer will pay over a million for their lot - but not because of the house on it, but the land it sits on.  Duplexes will be constructed, changing the face of the neighborhood forever.

    The lack of employees in every industry in Canmore is obvious and critical. There is no affordable housing for them. As one carpenter, who pitched a tent at the campground, said last year: " I am building all those beautiful houses, but I have to sleep in a tent." Take a guess how much money of all the building permit dough was spend  last year on employee housing. Right - zero. Bad news for new buisnesses, who are looking for skilled labor. Business suffers and gets lost, because of the labor shortage.

    Why Canmore - why is it going up and up and further up in prices? To the west, we have Banff National Park, it belongs to the Federal Government. People do not own their lots and can only build in Banff, if they work there. They have to lease the land from the feds. To the east, there is the Stony Indian Reserve, can't build there either. So, as the town of Canmore grows, the land doesn't increase, does it? It has to be turned over and over and over again. Supply and demand are at the height of its game. And what little land is left, is moving with lots right up into the mountains - competing with bears, elks and cayotes.

   A huge asset for those who buy and stay of course, is Canmore's location. One hour drive to Calgary and an international airport and yet, right here in the middle of the Rocky Mountains with breath-taking views and recreation. It's a location that cannot be matched.

    Even international tourists have discovered this western Canadian town - now that this community is on the map.  They prefer the cozy character of a small down-town core in comparison to commerical Banff. Canmore is a lovely and loveable town - if you have the money. The average household income of "fancy" Banff is $45,651.00 per year. In Canmore its over $57,910.00.

  Some call it "God's given country" - and so it is. But the angels can only be heard singing by those who pay the band ... in Canmore.