Looking for opinions on living in Alberta namely Lethbridge area. Riding, weather, value, etc.
Currently I live in Southern Ontario and have all my life. Now retired and done with the city urban sprawl. My home town was about 20K until the 90s when it became a hub of new immigrants and is now 150K. The place where I am now is going through the same change, and the price of houses have gone crazy. For people to afford a house it is typical to have a basement renter or more, and two car driveways have four cars and the street is full at times. I don't want to spend my last years like this. I own everything so would like to buy something, then move and then sell what I have (at least that's the dream).

 

House pricing in Lethbridge I'm not up on. The winters there would be shorter than more north Alberta, but definitely longer than southern Ontario. I live a few hours west of Edmonton and there isn't a lot of paver roads here to do a few hour loop of a ride, that's my pet peeve of where I live,,,,, and the short summers. Around Lethbridge there's plenty of paved roads to tour on, and explore. There's some beautiful country to see in that area, I always enjoy it when I get to that area of Alberta,,, and into BC.

 

MLS real-estate is a good search tool to look at housing prices. I've gone through Lethbridge a number of times and it seems just fine. Only downside is that I think it has a lot of windy days.

 

A friend of mine lives in Lethbridge and I have ridden out there a few times to visit him. It is windy there quite a bit, I think the most wind in Alberta. Hiowever, there are some nice roads off the main highways that have corners, bridges, rivers, etc - some of my favourite riding in Alberta other than Jasper's views.

 

This is just south of Hinton< Alberta. My son took this pic on the way to work this morning. June 19 2023. Summers aren't as long as in Ont.

 

Lethbridge is, in the summer, generally dry and windy. In the winter it's snow and windy. It's right on the east end of the Crowsnest pass and with prevailing west winds, it really funnels through there. The benefit is that in the winter, there will be days well above freezing with the snow disappearing. We call that a Chinook. It's a fairly unique phenomenon that we, in Southern Alberta, very much enjoy as a break in the winter. You'll get as long a summer in Lethbridge as anywhere in Alberta. Riding is great. You're just a couple of hours from the mountains and Fernie. World class skiing in the winter, absolutely beautiful in the summer. Mountain riding! You're also right close to the US border, just above Montana. My wife and I rode from Calgary to Kalispell through Glacier National last summer. Then into Idaho and back up to Cranbrook. Then a couple of days in Radium Hot Springs and back to Calgary. It was an amazing trip. If you head north, Calgary way, you are 3 hours to Banff and some of the best scenery in the world IMO. not just Banff as it's just to damned busy, but once in Kananaskis country, and west, it's just amazing.

Lethbridge, we joke, is the town of the newly wed and nearly dead. It's a great community. Personally I prefer Calgary because it's not as windy, but have friends that live in
Lethbridge and they like it well enough. As far as retirement, there are way worse places. And I agree, Southern Ontario is just too much most of the time. Lethbridge you can get anywhere in town in 15 minutes or less.

 

No PST or HST in Alberta. Only 5% fed sales tax.

 

Im in southern Ontario and have friends in Alberta. Im cutting my grass while my friends are looking at snow. I think if I moved within Canada it would be Kelowna or elsewhere in the interior.

 

The interior of BC comes with it's own challenges, but Vernon, Kelowna and Pentiction are very nice. Slightly more crime prone though. Golf is great, skiing is good, big lake if you like boating and fishing. Cost of living is a bit higher as well. Desirability always comes with a cost.

 

kelowna is gettin big chittyish
both others mentioned, are ok, so far, imo