Real Estate Blog

It’s one of the only country hospices in the country and the blueprint for all others to follow.

The Foothills Hospice serves a huge need in Southern Alberta, keeping people on their final journey close to home.  The facility has an annual budget of $2.8 million.  Alberta Health pays just 61% of the annual operating costs and the rest must be covered by the fundraising efforts of those who support the hospice located just outside Okotoks.

One of the major fundraisers every year is the hospice gala which will be held next Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Foothills Centennial Centre.  The theme this year is “Wranglers and Rhinestones”, which organizers say is in tribute to the founders of the hospice which all hail from the Foothills are.  The western theme,

The latest trend in luxury kitchens in Okotoks is the island.  Not just a kitchen island with two or three stools for the kids but a long, long island.  At least six to nine-feet in length where you can gather around with your family or socialize with friends in Okotoks (parties always migrate to the kitchen anyway).

Here are a few cozy fall activities that lend themselves to hanging out around the kitchen island.

Build your own pizza parties

Bring in a pizza chef to make the dough from scratch. You’ll need a professional pizza expert – someone that knows how to not only roll out the dough and but has the skill to throw the dough up in the air, stretching it out into a perfect pizza circle, keeping it spinning in the air.  Have your guests put

You’ve found your dream home in a great location but it’s got these weird textured ceilings that were so cool a bazillion years ago.  What were people thinking when they invented popcorn ceilings?  What is with them and should you even have them in your home?

What are Popcorn Ceilings

This type of ceiling texture is white, bumpy sprayed-on goop that sometimes has sparkles in it.  This is not to be confused with a beautifully textured ceiling popular in the 1930s through the 1940s with tastefully and artfully applied swirls that actually make sense. Popcorn was just thrown up there like looking like a disorganized moonscape.  Any child that grew up in a house with popcorn ceilings can tell you that you could not let your helium balloon go in the

One of the joys of living in a small town like Okotoks are the type of small-town activities that the Prairie West is famous for. And one of those games, is curling.  It’s a gentle yet competitive past-time that brings friends and enemies together for a few hours of fun on the ice and a few more hours of telling tall tales in the lounge afterward.

Imagine the dark, cold nights on the prairie when the one bright spot was meeting friends at the curling rink for a few ends.  It was the Canadian’s answer to the British corner pub.  It’s a tradition that remains true to this day in towns across the prairies.

Curling as a past time in the area goes back to when the Town of Okotoks was first settled.  The Calgary Herald reports that curling in the area

Average Sold Price

Average Sold Price Trend

Active & Sold Listings

Average Days on Market

Click here to download the PDF version of the report.

Ready or not, Okotoks residents are about to add a green cart to their back alley line up of black and blue carts.  Whether they like it or not.

The Town of Okotoks is on its way with green carts for all single-family home owners in town, scheduled to be delivered throughout September.  Green carts, which have been piloted in Calgary and used in other Canadian municipalities, are for organic waste material.  Residents will get a list of acceptable waste for the green cart.  Collection should start the week after October 2.

Those home owners who have not yet opted-in to the program and received their blue cart for recycling will also get that cart.  The town’s chief administration officer believes that 30% of Okotoks single-family home owners aren’t

 When comparing the housing market in Calgary to the state of affairs nearby in the Town of Okotoks, real estate seems to be on higher ground.  Of course, that depends on who you talk to.

The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®) oversees the numbers in Okotoks and believes the outlook is better than the somewhat gloomy scenario in nearby Calgary.  Prices in Calgary are expected to keep trending down while the number of houses for sale continues to reach the over-saturation point.

A similar story holds true in Okotoks with sales down about 14%, but in terms of inventory, there hasn’t been much of a change since the first six months of 2015.  Even better there hasn’t been much of a drop in home prices since then either.  Calgary prices have dropped by

Seems summer has barely begun when suddenly there are flyers and commercials on TV promoting Back to School Sales.   Families in homes throughout Okotoks are reluctantly starting to think about hitting the books again in just a few weeks.

However, the cost for kids to go back to school is always a concern for some parents and even more so this year.   That’s why the Okotoks Family Resource Centre offers assistance to families with school-aged children, in partnership with office supply retailer Staples.

During the school supply drive, Staples collects donations from the public and puts them towards gift cards which are then donated to the resource centre.  The gift cards are valued at $65.  The program has been going on in Okotoks for the last five

Beer lovers rejoice!  Local Okotoks breweries are about to get a heady financial boost from the provincial government.

Two suds aficionados in the Foothills region are looking forward to the cash injection because it will help them and other microbrewers hone their craft and grow.

Small beer brewers who make under 300,000 hectolitres or 1.01 billion fluid ounces of beer every year are eligible for grants under a new program called the Alberta Small Brewers Development courtesy of the NDP.

The owner of local small brewer, Six Corners Brew Works, told the Okotoks Western Wheel that it will help him and others compete with bigger companies. Luke Wooldridge said he’s hoping to expand by opening a brewery in Okotoks’ Southbank Business Park.  He

The much anticipated transit system that will connect Okotoks to Calgary and other centres in Foothills County is on track to start service in Fall 2016.

The greater Toronto area may have the Go-Train but Okotoks will be “On-It”, according to the Calgary Regional Partnership which has announced that its one stop closer to launching its pilot transit program.  Welcome news for folks who own an Okotoks home but work in Calgary.

The plan is to connect the smaller, bedroom communities surrounding Calgary to each other via transit.  Commuters living in other centres such as Turner Valley and nearby Black Diamond, as well as High River to the south.

It’s a two-year pilot project to see how it will be received, with service provided by Southland