Where are Canadians finding the most satisfaction in their neighbourhood?

According to the RE/MAX report, Canada’s prairie provinces surged ahead of the competition when it came to liveability and affordability, especially for first time home buyers.

“For almost 10 years, we have empowered Canadians with powerful location scores that nail down highly personal preferences and narrow down the neighbourhoods that perfectly match their definition of 'liveability,'” said Vincent Charles-Hodder, co-founder and CEO of Local Logic, a company that partnered with RE/MAX to conduct the survey.

As part of the report's metrics, RE/MAX broke down neighbourhood appeal by buyer type. The buyer profiles the real estate company came up with include:

  • City dwellers with kids
  • City dwellers without kids
  • Families/move-up buyers in the suburbs
  • First-time homebuyers
  • Retirees
  • Luxury seekers
  • Climate-conscious buyers
  • Arts and culture lovers
  • Foodies
  • Health and wellness lovers

With these archetypes in mind, Winnipeg has some of the highest numbers of neighbourhoods that ranked "best" for city lovers with no kids, while also tying with Edmonton for first-time homebuyers and suburban/move-up buyers, showcasing the high liveability of these prairie cities.

RE/MAX also identified some of the hottest neighbourhoods in Winnipeg and Edmonton based on year-to-date sales data, or from the start of 2024 to when the report was released on July 10.

Some of Winnipeg’s top spots to watch were Waverly West, Canterbury Park, Island Lakes/ Royalwood and Devonshire Village. Calgary’s West Side also saw strong value appreciation with Discovery Ridge, Aspen and Springbank Hill coming out on top. Over in Edmonton, Summerside and Jensen Lakes, two man-made lake communities, are worth keeping an eye on as well as the City of St. Albert.

For those who are more inclined to live in Canada’s biggest cities, some of the top 10 neighbourhoods are as follows:

  • Downtown West End, Calgary, AB
  • Daniel McIntyre, Winnipeg, MB
  • Oliver/Wîhkwêntôwin, Edmonton, AB
  • Westmount, Saskatoon, SK
  • Heritage, Regina, SK
  • Sandy Hill, Ottawa
  • Quinpool Areas, Halifax, NS
  • Le Sud-Ouest, Montreal, QC
  • Old Town, Toronto
  • Corktown, Hamilton, ON

Montreal was ranked number one for Canadians looking for close proximity to arts and culture, and is also known as one of Canada’s designated cultural epicentres. However, after adjusting for affordability, Calgary’s Downtown West End and Winnipeg’s Corydon and West End also ranked in the top 10 for arts and culture.

Meanwhile, luxury home buyers gravitated overwhelmingly towards pricy options in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Many of these neighbourhoods were developed without having to rely on a car to get around, and have a correspondingly high focus on walkability as a result.

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Looking forward: changes to liveability criteria since COVID-19

When breaking down quality of life, 44% of Canadians surveyed identified affordability as their most important liveability factor - a slight decline of 3% since RE/MAX’s 2020 survey. Affordability is defined as the ratio between median salary in a metro area and the median housing price in a given neighbourhood, adjusted for number of bedrooms.

"Finding a home is an incredibly personal process. Everyone's definition of 'liveability' is different," said Hodder.

RE/MAX added two new criteria to their liveability assessment: safety and age of home. Both new metrics landed in Canadians’s top five concerns. Neighbourhood safety clocked in at the number two spot with 34% of respondents, while the age of a home was a concern to 23% of respondents.

On the other hand, Canadians are less worried about prioritizing a close proximity to work, down nine points to 25%, compared to 34% in 2020.

Canadians are also less likely to sacrifice neighbourhood quality of life for increased square footage. Just over half of respondents weren’t willing to give up access to community services, work or schools to upsize or enter the housing market.

Over the next three to five years, just over half of Canadians believe their neighbourhood liveability will improve, 24% believe it will remain steady and 15% believe it will drop, according to the survey.

Survey methodology

RE/MAX commissioned Montreal-based data analytics company Local Logic to complete this study, which included using 2021 census data from Statistics Canada.

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Jack Lawson Freelance Writer

Jack has an undergraduate degree in journalism from Carleton University and a master's of Urban Planning from Toronto Metropolitan University. Over the years Jack has written for not-for-profits like World Vision and WE Charity, shot video content for accelerators like Techstars, and co-authored urban planning papers with organizations such as Parkdale's Neighbourhood Land Trust. Jack currently specializes in real estate and investing news.

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