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PRO: AMENITIES
Although Airdrie is a smaller city, you can find almost anything you need on a day to day basis within the city or a short drive away. From retail and thrift shopping to grocery to entertainment, there is no shortage of things to do or places to go. No matter where you have to go in Airdrie, you're only going to be 10-15 minutes away, as everything is so close.
There is also Cross Iron Mills Mall, New Horizons Mall, and Costco just 10 minutes South. So unless you have very specific needs, you won't need to go into Calgary too often. The only reason my wife and I typically go into the city is to visit the Ikea.
Some of the bigger box stores here in Airdrie are: Walmart, Winners, Superstore, Home Depot, and Canadian Tire.
Airdrie is also home to a ton of great mom & pop shops, local businesses, as well as larger name restaurants. You'll be able to get food from all different cultures and have various kinds of experiences. Some of our favourite places to eat are: Tequila & Tacos, Sorso Lounge, Paros on Main, Alexander's Steakhouse & Pizzeria, and Petite Saigon.
PRO: cost of housing
Airdrie is quite a bit cheaper in terms of housing than Calgary and other surrounding towns. Here are the benchmark prices for detached homes:
Airdrie: $387,800
Cochrane: $444,600
Okotoks: $453,300
Calgary: $492,900
Chestermere: $523,400
You'll see that Airdrie's prices are the lowest in comparison to nearby areas, even though it's actually the largest in size (except Calgary) and closest to Calgary.
Here you have more amenities, cheaper property, and are a shorter distance to the city than other outskirt towns.
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Pro: FAMILY FRIENDLY
One of the best things about Airdrie in my opinion, is that it is so family oriented with tons of parks, playgrounds, activities for kids, and resources for families. There are also numerous schools in Airdrie, meaning you have options, smaller class sizes, and better learning environments. Our demographic is here fairly low, with 73% of the population being under 50 years old, which just shows how much of Airdrie is young people or families.
Another thing we have within Airdrie is almost 150km worth of walking and biking paths. A lot of these are around ponds or canals, which just further encourages you to get outside with family or friends and lead a healthier lifestyle.
With such a young crowd, Airdrie has some extra safety regulations that you won't find elsewhere. An example of this is our 30km per hour residential road speed limit. After living here for a while and especially if you have kids, you appreciate the slower speed. I find that when I drive in Calgary where the residential speed is 50km, it seems way too fast.
PRO: SENSE OF COMMUNITY
One of the things we love about Airdrie is that even though it continues to grow, you still get that small town feel and sense of community. Lately there has been a huge push to support locally owned and operated businesses here, which just comes to show how amazing people are and how easily they come together.
When someone's dog goes missing or they need help with something, they can post on an Airdrie Facebook group and they're going to have a huge amount of residents on their side.
Con: rush hour traffic
Now like anywhere, rush hour in Airdrie is not the most pleasant experience ever. Primarily coming into the city on Yankee Valley Boulevard during those peak times gets extremely busy. So, you may want to avoid the exit onto Yankee Valley during rush hour.
We do have another overpass being built that's set to be completed fall of 2023. That will feed the whole south end of Airdrie, which will ease up of traffic a immense amount.
CON: airplane noise
We are just North of Calgary, so naturally we do have quite a bit of air traffic coming in and out of the Calgary International Airport. This is something a lot of my out of town buyers are concerned about. Once you live here for a bit, you get used to the noise and honestly I don't even notice it now and I don't believe many people usually do.
Having the perk of being so close to the airport is a trade off I'm willing to make. If you have a job where you need to be near an airport or travel a lot, Airdrie could be a wonderful place for you to live.
CON: NO HOSPITAL
There is no hospital within Airdrie. The closest hospital you will find is the Peter Lougheed Hospital which is in Calgary about a 20-25 minute drive away. For most people this won't be a huge deal, but if you're in a situation that requires you to be close to a hospital, that's definitely something to consider.
CON: ONLY 1 REC CENTER
We've seen a huge amount of growth within the last couple years, and have begun to outgrow the rec center on the east side of Airdrie. It was initially built when the population here was only about 19,000, and was set to service a maximum of 75,000 people, which we are just at the threshold of.
There is brand new rec center that's going to built in 2023, so still a ways away, but with the plans already in place it'll be a great addition to the city.
con: poor cell connection in newer areas
This is something that not a lot of people know about, but in some of the newer neighbourhoods they don't have those services fully up to speed yet. I'm sure things will improve shortly in the future, just something to note when moving here to watch your cell phone connection in certain areas if that's important to you.
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- Brad Walker
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