Is there any better place to be than Edmonton during the summer? Festival season kicks off in Edmonton this week, beginning the summer-long tradition where Edmontonians celebrate the arts including theatre, dance, visual arts, sports, film and culture. From our internationally renowned Fringe and Street Performers festival to local arts and film fests, Edmonton is brim full of things to do this summer.

St. Albert's International Children's Festival

Edmonton June Festivals and Events

International Children’s Festival
When: May 31 thru June 4
Where: St. Albert Place & The Arden Theatre, St. Albert
The Children’s Festival provides an opportunity for children to become directly involved in arts activities and presentations, and is both entertaining and educational. A celebration of cultural excellence that promotes performing and visual arts to children and adults of all ages.

NextFest
When: June 2 thru June 12
Where: Theatre Network, The Roxy (10708 – 124 Street)
Over 80 performances in multiple venues throughout the Edmonton downtown area, celebrating new theatre, dance, cyber-art, music, painting, photography, filmmaking, and poetry. NextFest encourages local, emerging artists to explore inter-disciplinary work, multi-media, and new technology.

Heart of the City Festival
When: June 4 thru June 5
Where: Giovanni Caboto Park in Little Italy
Back for its 8th season, the Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival is a two-day family-friendly festival with non-stop live entertainment, artisan tents, face painting for kids, food vendors and roving artists.

Improvaganza
When: June 15 thru June 25
Where: Varscona Theatre
Canada’s largest improv festival. Every year local improv troop Rapid Fire Theatre hosts improvisors from across Canada, the United Stats and beyond. Program includes a full roster of improv, comedy shows, radio shows, workshops and social events.

Freewill Shakespeare Festival
When: June 28 thru July 24
Where: William Hawrelak Park, Heritage Ampitheatre
Locally known as “Shakespeare in the Park”, this is Shakespeare at its best. The outdoor Hawrelak Park Ampitheatre is the perfect setting. Shows featured this year on alternating days are Othello and Twelfth Night. The ultimate summer Shakespearience!

Nominations Now Open for 2011 Good  Edmonton Neighbour Awards

Great neighbours make great neighbourhoods.

The City of Edmonton, REACH Edmonton, and the Realtors Association of Edmonton want you to nominate your good neighbour for this year’s annual award.

Nomination deadline is March 31, 2011.

The Good Neighbour Awards recognize Edmontonians who make a difference in the lives of the people in their neighbourhood. It can be anything from helping an individual neighbour to motivating the neighbourhood to address a local issue or hosting a neighbourhood event.

Good neighbours help build connections between people. That creates a sense of community and leads to safer neighbourhoods.

Winners will be selected from each of the City’s 12 municipal wards. Winners will be invited to a special recognition event held at City Hall, May 5, 2011. Nominate Your Good Neighbour Today!

Where a home is located is typically just as important in respects to the home itself. If you have young children you will most likely want to choose your home nearby quality schools and parks, while as a senior you may want to be near amenities like grocery stores and medical facilities. When buying, it is always important to factor in the location and your personal lifestyle.

The Paranych Team is excited to announce a new mobile-optimized version of www.paranych.com that lets you easily search for Edmonton Real Estate on the go, from anywhere!

This completely free version of our website is immediately available on all the most popular smartphones including iPhones, Blackberry and Android phones. Just visit www.paranych.com from your mobile browser and you’ll be instantly taken to the phone-friendly site, streamlined to be fast and easy to use on the small screen.

The best part about our mobile site is the new GPS MLS® System Listings Search. This new search tool is only available on your mobile phone and uses your GPS coordinates to find Edmonton homes for sale near your location. You can also use search filters to narrow down your search to only homes that fit your criteria, including price, square footage and number of bedrooms or bathrooms.

Edmonton GPS Listings Search is a fantastic new way to explore Edmonton Real Estate for sale in your area. Take your phone with you for a drive by or walk the streets of the neighbourhood yourself. If the location of your new home is critical, there’s no better way to get a feel for the area than using our GPS search.

There are two additional searching options for home buyers on our mobile site: browsing for listings by Edmonton community, or by entering a specific MLS® System number.

No matter which way you decide to search, you can still access additional details and pictures connected to each listing easily. And once you’ve found a listing that captures your interest, you can bookmark it with a star icon to come back to later.

Try out the Paranych Team Edmonton Real Estate Mobile Website from your smartphone today: we’re sure you’ll love it as much as we do.

Moving to a new city or neighbourhood can be tough for kids, especially when the move requires they change schools and go through the process of making new friends. Terry shares some strategies and tips for homeowners to make moving to a new community easier for school aged children and teens.

A few days ago we discovered some old Edmonton Visitors’ Guides from the 1950s filled with photographs, information and statistics from the era. What better way to show the changing face of our great city over the last 60 years than through the lens of real estate?

Edmonton Today vs. Edmonton in the 1950s

The population of the City of Edmonton in 1955 was 209,000 people. The 2008 Edmonton census shows we’ve grown to over 752,000 people since then. If we include the greater Edmonton area, we’ve grown from 232,000 people in 1955 to over 1.1 million today!

Edmonton has expanded to over 6 times its 1950s size: in the 1950s the city covered 110 km2, and today we’ve grown to over 680 km2. What’s most impressive is how well our ratio of parks and green space has remained high: in 1955 Edmonton boasted 2,500 acres of parkland, and today that figure has increased to over 27,400 acres, including the Saskatchewan River Valley parks system which is the largest stretch of urban parkland in North America and is 22 times larger than New York City’s Central Park.

Downtown Edmonton circa 1955.

Taking a look at real estate in particular, in 1955 Edmonton contained around 58,000 homes: today that number has increased to over 353,000 homes including single family houses, condos, townhouses and apartments. The average cost of a home back then was around $13,000; in 2009 a single detached home in Edmonton sold for an average of $366,000. A search shows the size of homes has increased as well: in the 1950s homes in Edmonton were an average of 900 square feet, while today the average house is closer to 1,400 square feet.

The Alberta Legislature Building and High Level Bridge, circa 1955.

Interested in more current Edmonton statistics? Take a look at our Edmonton real estate news page for the most up to date real estate statistics. You can get stats for the city as a whole or drill down and look at the numbers neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

If you’re interested in demographic information, you can explore the most recent Edmonton census data at the new Statistics Edmonton website.

It’s amazing to look back at the numbers and these old photographs and realize how much Edmonton has grown over the last sixty years. What will our city look like in another sixty years?

I am proud to call myself an Edmontonian! One of the many reasons is because Edmonton is recognized world wide as “Festival City”, a city that offers world class event opportunities and fosters community pride. There is always something to do in Edmonton – Especially in the summer!

4 Happenings This Weekend:

Honda Indy Edmonton – Action Packed Excitement

The Honda Indy Edmonton races back from July 23-25, 2010, as the world’s fastest drivers tackle one of the most challenging tracks of the IZOD IndyCar Series. Gear up for 3 days of wild at the Honda Indy Edmonton as the 3.154 km racetrack makes this a thrilling stop on the IndyCar Series calendar. Anyone who loves cars and movies like “Fast and the Furious”, this event is for you!

A Taste of Edmonton – Gourmet Delights

Looking for an entertaining way to taste a plethora of Edmonton restaurants’ best dishes, while enjoying local entertainment – then A Taste of Edmonton is for you! This year, from July 23rd to August 1st, the Taste of Edmonton will return and over half a million people will indulge their palates with some of the best food and beverages that Edmonton restaurants have to offer. The Festival features a daily  line-up of entertainment on the Taste Main Stage from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm.

Capital Ex – Something For Everyone

The list goes on and on and on. From concerts to rides to shopping to eating; there’s just so much to do in only 10 days.

- For the younger kids, there is Family Fun Town with interactive construction building, option to catch fish, as well as a firefighter zone where kids can learn how to create their own escape plan and more.

- For a full 10-days, TELUS Stage comes alive with daytime Family Entertainment and every evening, TELUS Stage Concerts showcasing some of the hottest musical acts in Canada.

- For adults only entertainment, Capital EX presents “Sip, The Wine and Food Experience” – Cool atmosphere, dim lights and plenty of character makes this the perfect place to meet up with friends or make new ones.

- For Everybody – Every evening the sky above the EX comes alive with a spectacular fireworks show that will be sure to dazzle you. Don’t miss a night of the excitement.

For more info – visit Captial EX’s Website

Forkfest – Locally Inspired

Take Edmonton’s tastiest independent restaurants, feature an affordable multi-course menu, spread the love over 10 days and what do you have? A reason to celebrate! And a reason to leave your belt at home…

Fork Fest is:

• A 10-day festival of fabulous food celebrating Original Fare’s independent restaurants in Edmonton

• Not in one location, but all participating Original Fare locations – Fork Fest happens simultaneously at each member restaurant.

• A culinary treat! Each Original Fare member restaurant is offering a multi-course meal for $25 or $45 —a great opportunity for newbies to surrender their taste buds to the difference an independent restaurant has to offer. It’s also a fantastic way to say ‘thanks’ to the regular customers who choose to keep Edmonton’s palate diverse by supporting independent restaurants.

• An affordable way for people to try many of Edmonton’s most flavourful places to eat. There’s no guessing what the bill might be, you’re assured there will be a menu of either $25 or $45 (some restaurants will offer both).

• When: July 18 – 22 & 25-29, 2010

These are just a few of the many options Edmontonians can enjoy – take time out of your schedule to experience your own city!

Not sure what Edmonton neighbourhood you want to live in? Sometimes, it is not always about the features of the home, but rather the type of community the area fosters. A great way one can get to know the area is through the Community League. Edmonton’s Federation of Community Leagues is well established and offers unlimited opportunities to socialize and get to know your existing neighbours and/or to get a feel for potential new neighbours.

“EFCL’s purpose is to foster healthy neighborhoods and sustainable community leagues in Edmonton by providing advice, support and coordination of the community league movement in Edmonton. No other organization in North America has such a well developed system of volunteers within communities that provides sports, recreation, culture, and educational opportunities while addressing transportation and land use issues.”

This month, all Edmonton Community Leagues are actually participating in a Community Challenge complete with a Neighborhood Cleanup on June 5, a 24 Hour Bike Tune Up on June 12, and a Canned Food Sculpture Competition on June 26.  Teams of all ages representing a number of Community Leagues throughout the City of Edmonton will participate with the potential of earning a community fund that will directly benefit their Community League.

On August long weekend, they will be involved in Heritage days and on Sept 18, 2010 there will by a Green Challenge to promote and encourage sustainable living initiatives.

To learn more about the community you are planing to buy your Edmonton Home or to get involved in your existing community, visit the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues today. Participate, Volunteer and enjoy meeting your neighbours.