Okanagan residents flee high prices to relocate to Alberta
For most of the past decade the flow of Albertans to BC far outpaced the migration in the other direction – by an average of almost 9,000 people a year between 2014 and 2021.
That changed dramatically in 2021/22 – according to the most recent Statistics Canada data available – with BC gaining only 1,175 more Albertans than people who moved the other way.
The red hot Okanagan real estate market is one very good reason for that.
“We’re seeing something kind of interesting right now,” Sarah Johnston, division manager for CIR Real Estate’s Kelowna office, told iNFOnews.ca. “In the Okanagan, the cost of everything went up so high and so fast that, what I’m starting to see is a lot of people moving to Alberta.”
Johnston is in a unique position to make those comments.
She grew up in BC, spent most of 20 years in Alberta including as chair of the Calgary Real Estate Board, before returning to BC to set up CIR’s Kelowna office. She now works on referrals only, dealing specifically with Okanagan residents moving to Alberta.
The benchmark, or typical, price for a single-family house was $690,000 in Calgary in July, which was a record high. In the Central Okanagan it was $1,063,700.
Condos in Calgary sold at $305,900 versus $514,900 in the Central Okanagan.
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But it’s not just housing prices that’s attracting BC residents to Alberta.
“Housing is definitely at the top of the list,” Johnston said. “The people that live, work and play in the Okanagan can no longer afford to do that. Jobs are another thing. Alberta is doing well again. It looks to be booming in comparison to what is happening in BC.”
Jobs are well paid in Alberta and areas like tech and professional fields are flourishing.
“We’re also seeing things with education,” Johnston said. “There are a few different things that come into play with regards to the education component. Sometimes it is people having smaller children and they want to make sure they’re in a place that they can be financially stable for a long period of time. But it’s even with post-secondary education – people trying to further their education and being able to live at the same time.”
There is no provincial sales tax in Alberta and gasoline is about 10 cents a litre cheaper.
Rents in Kelowna are almost $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. That’s about the price of a two-bedroom rental in Calgary.
Statistics Canada data doesn’t track movements on anything smaller than a provincial scale but Calgary seems to be the big draw for Okanagan residents, Johnston said.
And it’s not those with the big bucks going there.
“I’m finding it’s the average family that’s moving back,” Johnston said. “Generally you still have working parents.”
And “moving back” is the operative term in all of this.
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"Because Alberta has been known to be such a boom and bust province, when things are going really well in Alberta people obviously want to be there making money,” Johnston said. “When things started to slow down in 2016 we actually started seeing people start to come back to the Okanagan. After a few years here, and seeing the cost of living in the Okanagan had increased by such a rate, seeing that Alberta was starting to do well again, people are actually returning to Alberta.”
In 2020/21 there were 25,262 Albertans who moved to BC while only 13,790 people went the other way, a difference of 11,472, based on Statistics Canada data.
Even more Albertans moved to BC in 2021/22 – 29,413 of them. The big change was that 28,238 BC residents moved back, for a difference of only 1,175.
A decade ago there were actually negative years when more people moved to Alberta from BC than the other way around.
“People are there (in Alberta) to live hard and work hard to get ahead,” Johnston said. “Then, when they get to a certain state of life, the plan is to leave. The plan is not to stay there throughout retirement.”
That move to retirement homes in BC, however, is not benefitting the Okanagan at this time. Given the high housing costs, the preferred choice is Vancouver Island, Johnston said.
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