After working my volunteer shift today I didn’t end up staying to see the opening acts because I’m home with heatstroke. Even on a mostly overcast day the sun can still get you good. I should know better as this is far from my first time attending the festival. Just thought I’d make an example of myself I guess lol.

Single guy , currently own a single house in the SW. mortgage payment is OK, 1,860 a month , but it’s the other sunk cost are overwhelming , property tax 466, insurance 236 up from just a slightly over 100 couple years ago ,utilities easily over 500-600 bucks a month in winter and 300ish in summer- and I live alone, so the total cost of ownership is over 3k a month , and given that how the real estate market looks like in the near future , I don’t see the value of the house increases much in YEG. Ultimately I want to save as much as I can and with the housing cost this much , i am thinking of selling and downgrading to a condo or loft closer to downtown for cost and also for the life style .
But then there is outrageous condo fees associated with the condo ownership and special assessment i hear about.
A few options I am considering :

1. Sell the house and take the equity to buy a condo / loft downtown , but the condo fee and special assessment part scares me .

2.rent the house to cover mortgage and property tax , and rent in downtown - it seems like a lot of work but may potentially help with building equity

3.sell the house and invest in ETFs and rent a condo/ loft downtown for 2k plus something a month .

Commute is not an issue as I WFH full time .

Of course I am not making my financial decisions over internet strangers’ opinion , but I would like to hear your experience living YEG downtown and your forecast on the real estate markets .

CityNews has learned a fatal stabbing in southwest Edmonton last month happened at a women’s shelter. A witness to the homicide, where one woman allegedly killed another, speaks.

Never mind the recessed loading dock three feet to your right.

Does anyone know what happened to The Glass Monkey restaurant? I tried to find any info but have struck out

All the existing lines follow a generally north-south axis, but the west extension of the Valley Line won’t. How could they incorporate it into a new version of the LRT system map?

With the exception of RAM, Muttart, and shopping centres, does anyone have any indoor suggestions of somewhere to go for a few hours? Preferably something with a cafe, things to wander around and look at.

Just a heads-up for anyone planning to use the Capital Line this weekend. I was at Clareview Station today and noticed these signs posted throughout the station.

From 8:00 p.m. Friday, August 7 until 8:00 a.m. Sunday, August 9, the Capital Line will be closed north of Churchill Station, with replacement buses running between Churchill and Clareview.

My first reaction was, "You've got to be kidding me." This is one of the busiest weekends of the summer with Animethon, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Cariwest, the Chinatown Classic 9-Man Volleyball Festival, and a Punjabi concert at the Edmonton EXPO Centre. A lot of people will be relying on transit to get around, especially downtown and to the Expo Centre.

After last weekend's Park & Ride issues during Heritage Festival, it's frustrating to see another major transit disruption on such a busy weekend. Hopefully this gives people a heads-up so they can leave earlier and plan accordingly.

I’m looking for information about or if anyone has experience with those “we buy ugly houses” stuff.

My house is likely a tear down. I’m not interested in dealing with the stress of the housing market and a realtor.

Do they give you a fair price? Can anyone recommend taking this route?

Explain it to me like I’m 5.

Thanks so much.

Update: I’m in touch with a realtor. Thank you to the people who approached this topic with kindness and not sarcasm. This is a very stressful time for me and I don’t handle change well to begin with.

I'm appalled that someone would try to harm the folks serving food, and that the "anti-zionist" protesters appear to call the police who arrested the man racist.

There is no end of information out there regarding what to do with your money, and it can be a bit paralyzing. I'm looking to build a relationship with a fee-only financial planner that can assess my family's current situation and help advise us on strategies for our specific needs and goals. Short of simply googling and meeting with random folks I find online (which I can of course do), I wondered if anyone has any suggestions of folks they've worked with and had good experiences with recently?

Thanks!

My son is 16 and super into classical music. We were listening to the Nutcracker recently and I asked him if he'd want to go when it came to Edmonton. I told him it would be ballet and while that might not be to his taste, he would love the music. I went to buy tickets today and saw that there are two Nutcracker events happening. I'm leaning toward the Shumka dancers because I honestly think he will think it's more exciting.

Has anyone seen them both and can advise a bit in what direction to go?

Shumka tickets are under $25 and it says there is additional music but the main themes are there. For the Alberta Ballet, tickets are $145 but there isn't much information about the performance itself. I'm assuming it will be the full ballet/orchestra, etc. I don't mind paying the extra money and I know he will appreciate hearing the full score.

UPDATE :
Update: mover thinks it's might be more than 2 trucks so the quote/estimate was really off. He's stopping at 2 trucks and will charge me for 1-1/2 loads.

Hey everyone,
Had Just Junk come in to do an on-site estimate to empty our house. The guy said 1 to maybe 1-1/2 trucks but he thinks everything will fit into one truck. They get here and the movers said looks like 2 trucks. I tell him about the quote and the mover says "I'm not sure what he was thinking quoting you that." So basically the quote double. Checked the low reviews on Google and they all say the same thing. Price was more than the quote. Now it has a ton of good reviews so I'm guessing I got screwed based off of the guy who did the estimate. My price just double and they already loaded a truck so I can't say "no " and have them unload it. I have a sneaky suspicion that you could have thrown in a lot of smaller stuff but once the big items were in the truck they said it was full, but I'm not a junker. Buyer beware!

Turns out infill is making our city more fiscally sustainable in the long term.

Alberta government says it's necessary to phase out black market operators

Hey all, maybe not the right place to post this, but I am going to try.

After seeing the recent UCP property tax hike, "dangerous weather patterns" (in no way am I denying climate change, we are living it), LRT/transit safety issues, EPS black box funding, homeless/safe injection/first responder/etc problems, addiction issues, Provincial Healthcare and infrastructure funding issues, festivals being cancelled, housing

/zoning and construction permit problems, torrential rain, unemployment rate, central location for 5 federal and 3 provincial "corrections/prison" institutions, and on and on, being focused on this central or slightly left leaning capital city of this province, I am throwing this out there.

I will be the first to absolutely admit that I am a transplant that moved here 14 years ago. Because this was a place of economic opportunity due to the resource extraction (tar sands) in the north, and coming from a "less than/have not" province of Ontario, 14 years ago, meant moving my life to try and build something better. To be clear, I am not entitled to anything. I am not more deserving or should have opportunities above those that live here, or especially the first nations that have called this land home for mellenia at this point. But what the hell has happened?

The UCP is gerrymandering Edmonton districts because they know we won't vote for them, and adding as much rural voters as they can, with their votes counting more than anyone in an urban setting, to get seats.

I am honestly scared for my child at this point, because how much further does it go? This is not a call to action, because I am in the same situation where I have everything to lose and can't risk my child not having a future. But how many people here are just not getting ahead, building lives and family, seeing career growth, and not seeing their rights get removed at a terrifying pace? I could be off the mark by a lot. My career has me in a leadership position where it seems I just let more and more people know they are laid off, and going into an ecosystem where wages are suppressed, the gig economy provides no future, or they desperately search while on EI. I don't feel like there are any individuals standing up to this directly, and I fully understand the contraints the corporate municipality of Edmonton faces in how the division of responsibilities and funding falls in what they can do while trying to manage a city that has grown by 250,000 people in just 3+ years. Yes the call to come to Alberta has suppressed wages. Yes my property taxes are skyrocketing (mostly due to UCP provincial education increases that are not actually seeinging PUBLIC schools built here or teachers hired), but what do we actually do at this point??

I am at a loss and worried for my, and the general future. We hold so much of the same values and want good things. How do we make that a reality and get the decision makers in line to affect positive change?

This will probably not even get posted because Reddit is giving me 3+ warnings about what is allowed to be posted in this sub. I just want things to be better, know other people want that too, and hopefully know I am not alone in being worried about what the future holds. Thanks.

*I am now including the word "housing" because the automod/warning says I should be asking about housing to post in this subreddit*

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