Canmore in a housing 'crisis' with average home price hovering near $998,000
Mountain resort town still coping with the aftermath of the 2013 flood
Finding affordable housing can be difficult in many parts of Alberta. But nowhere is it more challenging than in the Bow Valley, where the vacancy rate sits at zero per cent. In the third part of a week-long series, CBC Calgary's Evelyne Asselin takes a look at the situation in Canmore.
Once seen as an affordable "suburb" of Banff, Canmore is now facing a housing shortage to rival its famous neighbour.
"We really believe there is a crisis here," said Mayor John Borrowman.
"It's discouraging because more and more it looks like people that are earning less than $120,000 a year — I mean it's a pretty high number — are feeling they have to leave town to have an affordable lifestyle."
- PART 1 | Banff may be a mountain paradise — but housing crisis more 'dire' than ever
- PART 2 | Banff businesses face unique challenges to stay afloat
The average price of a single family home in October was $998,000.
Rental situation not much better
Good luck if you're looking to rent. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) rental statistics show the vacancy rate has been at zero per cent for more than a year.
Elliott Bean has been looking for a three- or four-bedroom for himself, his two children and his dog since May.
"August, September and half of October I had to stay with friends and family. Definitely didn't get to see my kids as regularly as I usually do when I have my place. So I had to give up some of my parental rights because of that."
He was able to stay temporarily in a condo that wasn't selling.
"I think originally it started with the flood. As well, in the summer we had a house blow up which affected about 20 other homes. So all those families had to move somewhere. And then again, the Lafarge expansion brought a whole bunch of people into the valley. So that just flooded the market and made everything basically unavailable."
The Lafarge expansion brought more than 400 new employees to the Bow Valley for a project that should be done by 2016.
Still recovering from the flood
Canmore had a plan to ease the situation, buying 30 acres near Stone Creek from the province to build affordable housing.
"But in the flood of 2013, that land was quite seriously impacted," said Borrowman.
"If we could swap that land out with the province for an equivalent amount of provincial land elsewhere in the town then that would help quite a bit," he said.
"We don't necessarily need provincial money to build, but we sure could use some land."
The mayor is still optimistic to bring some relief to residents with 200 to 300 new rental units in the next two to three years. The town's Canmore Housing Corporation has 48 units that will be ready for occupancy early next year. The others are being built by the private sector.
Allowing more secondary suites
Another option the town is looking into is to allow more secondary suites — a solution that might help landlords like Wade Graham offer affordable rents.
"When I showed up here 15 year ago, I could buy a house for $450,000. Now prices [have spiked] for a single family home, or $600,000 for a condo, and that's kind of crazy in some ways," Graham said.
In his opinion, many families would be interested in offering legal secondary suites, solving part of the rental shortage and helping families stay in Canmore.
"If a house is $600,000 and I can subsidize that by $1,300 or $1,500 a month, doesn't that help me out and you out at the same time? We have diminished supply and diminished inventory because it doesn't make commercial sense to buy or to rent or to invest in rental property here unless you've owned it for a really long time."
