Calgary, 'City on Steroids'

"The city boasts the highest GDP per capita in the country. In its concentration of corporate head offices, Calgary is second only to Toronto. Office space runs at the national high, fetching more than $40 a square foot in the most desirable buildings -- when it can be found. Last year, rents soared 49 per cent. Yellow cranes hover over the downtown cityscape...[s]ome 19.5 million square feet of real estate is currently under construction or being marketed, 6.7 million square feet of it downtown.

The residential housing market is also aflame. Resale house prices rose more than 18 per cent in February over the previous year, three times the national average. Ten years ago, the sale of a million-dollar house was rare. Now it's commonplace.

With no sales tax and a flat provincial tax, Alberta, with zero debt and a budget surplus of more than $10 billion, has become a wealth magnet."