About Calgary, Alberta | Aztec Real Estate

Calgary and Area Properties For Sale

This is a sample of the rural listings that are currently available in and around Calgary. Find both the MLS® listings and the exclusive listings that you are searching for by clicking the area link below. Please contact us if you would like to find out more about these properties or several exclusive properties that are not on the local MLS®.

Calgary Real Estate Statistics*

	Previous Week	Previous Month	Year To Date
Avg List Price Single Family:	$565,514	$588,171	$586,058
Avg List Price Condominium:	$305,678	$327,962	$324,226
Current Listings in Calgary :			4,877
Current Listings in calgary and Surrounding Area:			8,804

Recent calgary and Surrounding Area MLS® Stats
New Listings in Past 14 Days:	1,544
Price Reductions in Past 14 Days:	2,256

Last Updated: February 22, 2012, 3:00 am
SOURCE: calgary Real Estate Board Multiple Listing System

PLEASE NOTE: The above statistics are calculated based on available "Residential" data, including Condominiums and Single Family Dwellings and may also include Exclusive listings entered by clients of Internet Brokers Group and found exclusively within our network. These statistics are updated every time there is a market update or once per hour, whichever comes first. The "Average list price" noted does not include "Sold" or "Pending" listings, it only includes "Active", available listings. The information displayed here, although based on statistics available and believed to be accurate, is not guaranteed and should be considered 'approximate' unless independently confirmed.

Calgary, Alberta

Calgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city is located in the Grassland region of Alberta.

In 2006, the City of Calgary had a population of 988,193 making it the third-largest municipality in the country and largest in Alberta. The entire metropolitan area had a 2006 population of 1,079,310, making it the fifth-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada. In 2009, Calgary's metropolitan population was estimated at 1,230,248, raising its rank to fourth-largest CMA in Canada.

Located 294 km (183 mi) due south of Edmonton, statisticians define the narrow populated area between these cities as the "Calgary�Edmonton Corridor." Calgary is the largest Canadian metropolitan area between Toronto and Vancouver.

Calgary is a destination for winter sports and ecotourism with a number of major mountain resorts near the city and metropolitan area. Economic activity in Calgary is mostly centred on the petroleum industry. Agriculture, tourism and high-tech industries also contribute to the city's economic growth. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games.

History

First settlement

Before the Calgary area was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. In 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was the first recorded European to visit the area, and John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. The native way of life remained relatively unchanged until the late 1870s, when Europeans, together with natives, hunted the buffalo to near-extinction.

The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP). The NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from U.S. whiskey traders, and protect the fur trade. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer �phrem-A. Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. It was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. While there is some disagreement on the naming of the town, the Museum on the Isle of Mull explains that kald and gart are similar Old Norse words, meaning 'cold' and 'garden', that were likely used when named by the Vikings who inhabited the Inner Hebrides. Alternatively, the name might come from the Gaelic, Cala ghearraidh, meaning 'beach of the meadow (pasture)'.

With its inception in 1885, Banff National Park slowly grew to become an international tourist attraction, along with the Banff Springs Hotel. At first, the main access to the park was by the Canadian Pacific Railway, who built the Banff Springs Hotel, and the CPR heavily promoted tourism to the area. Today, because it has the closest airport, Calgary is the main staging point for people destined for the park.

The Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on Sunday, Nov. 7, 1886. 14 buildings were razed and losses estimated at $103,200. Nobody was killed or injured. To ensure this would never happen again, city officials drafted a law that all large downtown buildings were to be built with Paskapoo sandstone.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883 and a rail station was constructed, Calgary began to grow into an important commercial and agricultural centre. The Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters are located in Calgary today. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884 and elected its first mayor, George Murdoch. In 1894, it was incorporated as "The City of Calgary" in what was then the North-West Territories. After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost (up to 100,000 acres (400 km2) for one cent per acre per year). As a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub, Calgary quickly became the center of Canada's cattle marketing and meatpacking industries.

Between 1896 and 1914 settlers from all over the world poured into the area in response to the offer of free "homestead" land. Agriculture and ranching became key components of the local economy, shaping the future of Calgary for years to come. The world famous Calgary Stampede, still held annually in July, grew from a small agricultural show and rodeo started in 1912 by four wealthy ranchers to "the greatest outdoor show on earth".

The oil boom

Oil was first discovered in Alberta in 1902, but it did not become a significant industry in the province until 1947 when huge reserves of it were discovered. Calgary quickly found itself at the centre of the ensuing oil boom. The city's economy grew when oil prices increased with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The population increased by 272,000 in the eighteen years between 1971 (403,000) and 1989 (675,000) and another 345,000 in the next eighteen years (to 1,020,000 in 2007). During these boom years, skyscrapers were constructed and the relatively low-rise downtown quickly became dense with tall buildings, a trend that continues to this day.

Calgary's economy was so closely tied to the oil industry that the city's boom peaked with the average annual price of oil in 1981. The subsequent drop in oil prices were cited by industry as reasons for a collapse in the oil industry and consequently the overall Calgary economy. However, low oil prices prevented a full recovery until the 1990s.

Recent history

With the energy sector employing a huge number of Calgarians, the fallout from the economic slump of the early 1980s was understandably significant, and the unemployment rate soared. By the end of the decade, however, the economy was in recovery. Calgary quickly realized that it could not afford to put so much emphasis on oil and gas, and the city has since become much more diverse, both economically and culturally. The period during this recession marked Calgary's transition from a mid-sized and relatively nondescript prairie city into a major cosmopolitan and diverse centre. This transition culminated in February 1988, when the city hosted the XV Olympic Winter Games. The success of these games essentially put the city on the world stage.

Thanks in part to escalating oil prices, the economy in Calgary and Alberta was booming until the end of 2008, and the region of nearly 1.1 million people was home to the fastest growing economy in the country. While the oil and gas industry comprise an important part of the economy, the city has invested a great deal into other areas such as tourism and high-tech manufacturing. Over 3.1 million people now visit the city annually for its many festivals and attractions, especially the Calgary Stampede. The nearby mountain resort towns of Banff, Lake Louise, and Canmore are also becoming increasingly popular with tourists, and are bringing people into Calgary as a result. Other modern industries include light manufacturing, high-tech, film, e-commerce, transportation, and services. The city has ranked highly in quality of life surveys: 25th in 2006, 24th in 2007, 25th in 2008, 26th in 2009 and 28th in the 2010 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, and 5th best city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Calgary ranked as the world's cleanest city by Forbes Magazine in 2007. Mercer also ranked the city as the world's first-placed eco-city for 2010.

Geography

Calgary is located at the transition zone between the Canadian Rockies foothills and the Canadian Prairies. Calgary's elevation is approximately 1,048 m (3,438 ft) above sea level downtown, and 1,083 m (3,553 ft) at the airport. The city proper covers a land area of 726.5 km2 (280.5 sq mi) (as of 2006) and as such exceeds the land area of the City of Toronto.

There are two major rivers that run through the city. The Bow River is the largest and flows from the west to the south. The Elbow River flows northwards from the south until it converges with the Bow River near downtown. Since the climate of the region is generally dry, dense vegetation occurs naturally only in the river valleys, on some north-facing slopes, and within Fish Creek Provincial Park.

The city is large in physical area, consisting of an inner city surrounded by communities of various density. Unlike most cities with a sizeable metropolitan area, most of Calgary's suburbs are incorporated into the city proper, with the notable exceptions of the City of Airdrie to the north, Cochrane to the northwest, Strathmore to the east, and the Springbank and Bearspaw acreages to the west. Though it is not technically within Calgary's metropolitan area, the Town of Okotoks is only a short distance to the south and is considered a suburb as well. The Calgary Economic Region includes slightly more area than the CMA and has a population of 1,251,600 in 2008.

The city has undertaken numerous land annexation procedures over the years to keep up with growth; the most recent was completed in July 2007 and saw the city annex the neighbouring hamlet of Shepard, and place its boundaries adjacent to the hamlet of Balzac and within very short distances of the City of Airdrie and Town of Chestermere. Despite this proximity, there are presently no plans for Calgary to annex either Airdrie or Chestermere, and in fact Chestermere's administration has a growth plan in the works that calls for it annexing the intervening land between the town and Calgary.

The City of Calgary is immediately surrounded by two municipal districts, Rocky View County to the north, west and east; and Foothills No. 31 to the south.