When we moved to Edmonton a number of people told us that cheap acreage outside the city was a big selling point. That, and very little traffic compared to Vancouver or Toronto. I think this is part of the dynamic of these prairie cities that need to recruit workers from outside of the province.

Some people buy into those selling points. Maybe they want to try something different -- nothing wrong with that. We entertained the idea for about 5 seconds, like wouldn't it be great to have all this space for the dog to run around on? But we went back to our values of living close to downtown and the convenience of amenities. Plus I couldn't bear the thought of that kind of isolation. It's already hard enough to move to a new place, being a shy person trying to make new friends. As it turned out I felt quite isolated even in the middle of the city.

I know Edmonton and Calgary are quite different, but I found that even living within 5 miles of downtown, I could easily spend 1.5-2 hours in my car in a day to get all my errands done, since things can be quite spread out. For some reason, I had to visit four different strip malls in order to bank, grocery, dry clean, and drug store/post office. 20 minutes in between destinations can really add up. Unfortunately light rail did not serve our part of town and the buses were only so-so. The bike infrastructure and sharing the road is another story.

We just sold our house in Edmonton and for having only been there for two years we did quite well. I don't know if that qualifies as a "flip," but I also would not discount the impact of a robust petroleum industry.

Footnote: Alberta does have a "provincial" bank. It's called ATB Financial. I'm not familiar with the details as to how it is regulated but I think it is somewhat different from the banks that have a national presence.