The strong population growth and buoyant economy significantly increased demand for housing in the area, resulting in the rapid price increases and surge in new housing development seen over the past several years. While some of the grow directly related to the influx of new people, current residents are also very active with people taking advantage of their newfound home equity to upgrade their residence or move elsewhere. The growth was not limited to just Calgary as huge growth rates and a variety of new housing built-forms were introduced in the smaller towns such as Cochrane, Okotoks, and Chestermere.

Thanks to the recent release of the 2006 census data by Statistics Canada, we can take a look at the migration trends within the Calgary region. The statistic monitors the number of people within a geographic region who moved from their primary residence, both in the past year and the past five years. It also identifies if the move was a local, national, or international relocation.

Within the Calgary region, Chestermere was the most mobile with 24 per cent of the population changing residences in 2006 and 71 per cent of the town’s population moving between 2001 and 2006. This substantial growth reflects the huge amount of housing developed there over the five-year period, which proved to be very popular for people from Calgary as 46 per cent of the population, or 4,025 people, moved to Chestermere from other communities in Alberta.

Okotoks also saw roughly 60 per cent of its population move during the five-year period. However, Okotoks developed much broader appeal, attracting a large number of people from outside Alberta with roughly 11 per cent of the Okotoks population coming from elsewhere in Canada. Airdrie also attracted a high proportion of migrants from outside Alberta, with 11 per cent or 2,800 people coming from other provinces. This is in addition to segments of the population that moved within Airdrie (20 per cent) and from other communi­ties in Alberta (27 per cent), with over 15,000, or 59 per cent, of the population moving over the period.

As the largest city in Alberta, Calgary attracted the largest share of new migrants while experiencing strong internal migration, with 52 per cent, or 480,000 people, moving over the five-year period. Compared to Toronto and Vancouver, this is very high rate of mobility, with Calgary being the only major city to have over half of its population move over the five-year period. Calgary was the key destination for consumers moving to Alberta, with approximately 135,000 people from outside Alberta moving to Calgary, including over 60,000 new Canadians. International migration is the key differentiating factor between Calgary and surrounding communities, with Calgary attracting a much higher proportion of migrants from outside Alberta, particularly in the past year.

The high levels of mobility found in communities in the Calgary region has stimulated much of the growth in the new housing market over the past couple of years, supported by Calgary residents moving in and around the Calgary region, and by new residents moving to Calgary for employment opportunities. As the population matures, the high rate of mobility should continue as baby boomers transition into multi-family apartments and villas. Likewise, baby boomers’ children continue to move from their parent’s homes into their first place, many will choose multi-family. These societal changes are expected to continue to create demand for new housing, particularly for multi-family homes.