Calgary Lifestyle Guide

How to Choose a Calgary Community when Moving to Calgary | Where to Live in Calgary

• Anastasia Dvorak • Season 1 • Episode 3

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8 Tips on how to choose a Calgary community/neighbourhood when moving to Calgary from a local Calgary Real Estate Agent/Calgary Realtor and YYC Lifestyle Blogger and YouTuber - Anastasia Dvorak. 

📌 Check out my article this video is based on: https://calgarylifestyleguide.com/how-to-choose-a-calgary-community-calgary-relocation-service-best-neighbourhood-moving-to-calgary/

📌 Links I mentioned in the video:
Calgary Transit: https://www.calgarytransit.com/
All about Calgary Schools: https://urdumom.com/2017/01/schools-in-calgary/ 
Compare Calgary Schools: https://www.compareschoolrankings.org/ 
Find your Calgary Inner City Home (infills) here: https://calgaryinfillsguide.com/ \

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Hi! I am Anastasia. I am your Calgary Lifestyle Guide. This podcast is all about down-to-earth advice on moving to Calgary, living in Calgary, and buying/selling properties in Calgary.  I am a local Real Estate Agent/Calgary Realtor with CIR REALTY and YYC Lifestyle Blogger and YouTuber. 

Besides being a Calgary Realtor who loves her job, I write and vlog about the best of real estate, lifestyle, food, drink, culture, travel and things to do in YYC! Thank you so much for visiting! Check out my blog: https://calgarylifestyleguide.com

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Anastasia Dvorak
Real Estate Agent/Realtor
CIR REALTY, Calgary, Alberta
Serving Calgary and the surrounding area
Text me: 403.835.6913
Note: I do not always pick up my phone as I am busy with clients, so for the fastest response, it's better to text me or schedule an appointment online here: https://calendly.com/calgarylifestyleguide
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DM me on Instagram @CalgaryLifestyleguide

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Hi everybody! My name is Anastasia Dvorak. I'm your Calgary Lifestyle Guide. Welcome to my channel. So today we're talking about eight tips on how to choose a Calgary community when you are moving to Calgary. Before we go any further, please don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell button to make sure you get my latest updates. And now let's find out more about these eight tips. So welcome to Calgary! You've made the right choice. Calgary has been chosen since 2009 as one of the best places to live in the world. It is one of the sunniest and one of the cleanest places in the world, and it has so many different options to choose from. And I know that this process can be really overwhelming, and that's why I wrote a blog post about this. This video is based on this blog post (link in the description) So let's talk about transit. So if you're not getting a car, you have to make sure that you live really close to the Ctrain lines and to the bus route lines. So the first thing you need to think about is the weather. Calgary has interesting weather. It can get really, really cold in the winter. So you have to think about how far it is from your house to the bus stop. Is it worth it for you to walk in the minus 30 weather for 20 minutes or 15 minutes? So you have to think about pro and cons and think, Should I get a car? Should I not? I would highly recommend that you get a car because Calgary is not like one of those cute European cities where you can walk around, and you know, get to everything within five minutes. you need a car here. And I would highly recommend that if you're not getting a car, you live close to the Ctrain line or you live close to a bus stop. Calgary Transit has an amazing website where you can actually see all the information about the bus stops on the map. They have an amazing app where you can actually see live when your bus is coming, where it is right now on the map. I highly recommend that you get this app and this is the name of the app right here - Calgary Transit app. As I mentioned before, choose a place to rent or to live that's close to the Ctrain line because first of all, it is easy to get to anywhere. And it will always be a good selling point if you decide to sell the property in the future because people like properties that are accessible. Transit is very important because parking in downtown can be very expensive and parking at the ctrain station is much more affordable. There was also a study done in Toronto, and it said that towers closer to the subway station sold on average for $475 per square foot, That's a full 30% more than the buildings more than 500 meters away from the ctrain stations or from the metro stations. So remember when you're close to the ctrain , you are close to the bus lines, you're in a good position. It has good resale value, and you're good to go. So when it comes to schools, daycares, other types of educational facilities, there are just a lot of options to choose from. But one thing I want you to remember is

this:

your community that you will be living in has a designated school that your child should technically go to. Okay, so let's talk about it again. There's a designated school that is attached to every single community in Calgary; however, your child may not always want to go to that school because they have a special interest in math or science. And that's why there are different options. you can choose from public schools, private, Catholic, charter schools, French immersion, sports, schools and schools with specific interests like science schools. you need to figure out what your child needs. Do you want a private school? Do want a public school , do you want a charter school? Some of these schools have really long wait times. Sometimes there is a lottery process. Sometimes you have to sign up when your child is born. You can wait for years to get into the school, but there are different options available. And I'm not the expert to talk about it. I found all this information from an amazing local blogger mom here is her website and go check out this website. It has so much information. Before buying that Calgary property, you need to make sure that even though your house is right in front of the school, you need to make sure that your child is able to attend the school because sometimes... it happened before. You know your house is in front of the school, but the school cannot accept this child because it's at over-capacity level. And then you have to drive your child somewhere else. And that might not work for you. So please remember that. one thing. I wanted to mention to you guys is that if you're interested in private schools, then you should consider looking into the west of Calgary communities such as Aspen, Strathcona, Cougar Ridge. Let me read you the list of schools that are there. And these are all private schools. There are actually 5 private schools and they all cater to different ages and different abilities and different types of learning. Webber Academy, Calgary Academy, Calgary French and International School, Rundle College and Rundle Academy and Waldorf School. So lot's of things to choose from. I know it's a lot of information, and if you're looking to figure out which community you should live in based on the quality of school, then you definitely should check out Fraser Rankings website. So here's the link. You can figure out which schools are the best in a certain quadrant, which school has the best grades or which school has certain specifications that match your requirements, things like that. So the other thing I want to talk to you about guys is thinking ahead. In Calgary we have the University of calgary Mount Royal University... we have SAIT(THE SOUTHERN ALBERTA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) We have other different types of colleges, but most of them.... they're located in the Northwest - Southwest area.

What I want you to think about is this:

If your property is in deep SE, it takes about an hour on the Ctrain to get to the University of Calgary or Mount Royal University. so it takes some time, So think about that. Think ahead. How long are you going to stay at this place? Do you really need to be close to university or not? Are you thinking of moving in seven years? These are the things you need to think about. The next thing I would like to discuss is the proximity to shopping. I love shopping, and I live in an area where it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. That takes time, right? for example, in Arbour Lake (NW), it takes you 1.5 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. there is a large shopping center. It's very, very convenient, but if that doesn't work for you. If you're willing to drive, then you could live further away from the shopping areas, but you need to think about it. So go online (google it), type your community. For example, If you type Valley Ridge (in google search), you will see that there is a little shopping plaza. But there's no big store like there's no Co-op, no safeway There's no superstore. There's no Costco. There's nothing there. So if you live in Valley Ridge, you'll have to drive for about 10 minutes to get to somewhere. But if that doesn't work for you, if you want to live, for example, in Arbour Lake or in Tuscany, where they have a plaza with lots of different options, then that's important for you. Then that's what you need to think about. So before you buy this house in a community, google the community and figure out what kind of shopping options you have. So now, I would like to talk to you guys about brand new homes and older homes. So if you want to live in a brand new home, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to live on the outskirts of the city. In the deep suburbia, you can buy a brand new home. It's called an infill. And, by the way, check out CalgaryInfillsGuide.com where you can find all kinds of brand new homes in the inner city of Calgary. That's also one of my websites. so you can buy an infill, and an infill is basically okay, let me explain this the easy way. There was an old house that was 100 years old. It was demolished, and then the developer built a brand new, gorgeous infill with all the new upgraded amenities. Everything's gorgeous. Everything is brand new, and it looks nice, but it's a different type of lifestyle. Yes, you're close to everything, but you have a smaller backyard, your neighbours are a little bit closer, but you are close to restaurants, you are close to all types of amenities. It's just a different type of lifestyle and actually I have to mention to you guys that infills are generally more expensive. Inner city is generally more expensive than suburbia. But if you would like to buy a brand new home that's large.... has a large backyard, there's lots of space, then you should consider brand new communities in the north of Calgary. Harmony that's located in Springbank. That's near me. Crestmont West. There's a brand new community in Aspen, and there are a couple of new communities in South East. And here is the list of the communities. You can look at right here. So that takes me to the next point... what type of lifestyle you're looking for. Because that truly is the more important question than what type of home you're looking for because your lifestyle determines what kind of home you will get. If you like living in the community, where you're close to restaurants, where you're really close to downtown, where you're able to walk to your workplace, then choose inner city. But there's a tradeoff. It's more expensive. The backyards are smaller. Your neighbours are closer to you. There's also a more tight-knit community there, and you are able to walk to different attractions or amenities. If you would like to live in a bigger home, you love to garden. You love to enjoy nature. You just like the big shopping plazas, and you have a car you like driving, then I would consider bigger homes with an attached garage... that would probably work better for you because most of the inner city homes have a garage that's detached. It's rare that you find an attached garage in an inner-city area. It is possible, but it's going be expensive. So if this is something that's important for you, then look into the brand new homes or resale homes outside of the inner city area. The other thing I want to talk to you guys is density. From my experience, Older established communities have a lot more trees. They're just more established. They have a lot more space between neighbours because back in the days, people were building houses differently. If the price is important and the distance between your neighbors is not really important then definitely check out like... there's so many options in the SE and SW of Calgary of Calgary that have brand new homes that are really affordable, that don't necessarily have that established community feel. But you can get a great deal so it kind of depends on what you're looking for it. So the last point that I want to talk to you guys about is that a lot of people move to Calgary from vibrant cities that are full of entertainment, that are full of fun things to do. So if you really, really miss that, if you want to live in this vibrant restaurant entertainment area, then you have to live in the Beltline or in the Downtown area. And that's where all the entertainment is like the 17th Avenue - it's called, the Red Mile ..it is filled with restaurants, bars, coffee shops, all kinds of amazing, eclectic little stores, and it's just a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. You will not get the same atmosphere anywhere else. If you don't care about this stuff, you don't really care about You know the restaurants. You can drive there once a month, whatever, then, you know, stay in the inner city or kind of go into the suburbia but it is your choice. But I think before you choose that community, you need to figure out what you're looking for, what your lifestyle is, what kind of life you want to live and what kind of budget you have and all those things They have to come into play and they will determine the right type of property for you. And I'm always here to help you guys. So if you need more information about the communities, I would recommend getting these magazines And here is the list of the magazines that I recommend right here on the screen. You can get them for free at any Safeway CO-OP, shoppers Drug Mart has it. So they're free and you can get them and take them home and read them. kind of learn about the new communities, learn about the new builds. Again, I'm here for you all the time. If you have any questions, send me a message, send me an email, give me a call send me a text. I'm here to help. That's it. So we've covered 8 tips on how to choose a Calgary community. when you are moving to Calgary. We've done a great job. So, guys, if you have any questions, please send me an email, send me a text message. Write me a comment. I'd be happy to answer all of your questions. I love working with first-time Homebuyers and people who are moving to Calgary and don't know anything about Calgary. I love this city and I want to share everything I know about it with you. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Please follow me on Instagram @calgarylifestyleguide and please subscribe to my channel. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time!

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Anastasia Dvorak

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