According to a new report St. Albert ranks in the middle of the pack in Canada's largest cities for attracting millennials.
A new study called Top Millennial Hot Spots in 2018 report released this week by Point2Homes, a Saskatoon based group that tracks real estate market trends, ranks the city in 31st place out of 85 cities across Canada in attractiveness to millennials. Millennials are the generation born between roughly 1982 and 2001, making them 17 to 36 years old today.
Mayor of St. Albert Cathy Heron said that she was “pleasantly surprised” to see the city finish in the top half of the list.
“That is kind of a target demographic that I would like to see rise here in St. Albert,” Heron said. “I think if you look at our current census that is kind of a gap that is missing in St. Albert.”
St. Albert takes third place when competing against cities in Alberta with Calgary ranking at fifteenth and Edmonton coming in at eighteenth.
Quebec City, Que. finished first in the country followed by Victoria, B.C. and Guelph, Ont.
The study takes into consideration nine factors when ranking the cities: housing affordability, unemployment rate, life satisfaction, crime rate, healthcare, climate, level of education, annual income and percentage of millennials of the total population.
The botanical arts city’s strongest category is in millennial incomes. St. Albert millennials are tied with Edmonton for having the fourth highest incomes in the country with an annual income of $97,170. Only Grande Prairie Alta., St. John’s N.L. and Red Deer beat out the local community.
St. Albert also finished strong in the healthcare category, finishing in 12th place with a healthcare index of 75.59. The average healthcare index is 70.63, with Trois-Rivieres, Que. finishing in first place with an index of 94.44 and Gatineau, Que. finishing in last place with an index of 22.04.
The life satisfaction for residents of St. Albert also ranked high, finishing in 20th place. Just under 96 per cent of millennials were counted as being satisfied with their life in the city.
The city ranked low when it came to the current population being made up of millennials, coming in at 67th place. Millennials make up 17.3 per cent of the St. Albert population. On average the number sits at 19.5 per cent.
Heron said that the most important way to attract more millennials to the city is to tackle housing.
“I think what St. Albert needs to recognize is not everyone wants a single family home with a backyard and a white picket fence. This generation is looking for something affordable for sure because it is their first purchase,” Heron said.
St. Albert finished in 44th place when it came to home prices with the average home costing $401,904.
Heron said to attract millennials the city needs more condos, row houses and duplexes so young families can buy their first homes in the community.
St. Albert also finished in 38th place for education with 29.8 per cent of the population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The study found that seven of the top 10 highest ranking cities have a population under 500,000 and none of Canada’s largest cities finished in the top three. The local crime severity index registered at 53.67 and 24th in the country.
The study gathered data from Statistics Canada, Numbero and the Canadian Real Estate Association.
To see the study visit point2homes.com.
