Weyburn named best place to live on the Prairies

Jobs, crime rates, housing- a lot goes into finding a place to put down roots.

For the second year in a row, Weyburn has been named the best prairie city to live in by Moneysense’s annual ranking.

“Guaranteed it’s going to happen again,” new resident Matthew Dalton said. “It’s going to be three next year.”

Dalton moved to Weyburn a year and a half ago to take a job as a high school teacher.

“The community is growing all the time,” he added. “Lots of young people coming in. There’s lots of opportunity.”

Moneysense found the average house in the city is going for $301,846, against an average household income of $126,439.

With 21 per cent of the population under the age of 15, Weyburn was also the only Prairie city to crack the top 50 Best Places to Raise a Family. It wasn’t surprising news for both longtime and recent residents.

“I did move away for about ten years,” longtime resident Annette Peterson said. “I came back to raise the kids here because it’s a great community, a small community. Everybody seems to know everybody. It’s friendly.”

With two new doctors setting up shop and an economy seeing signs of life after the oil collapse, the city of 11,495 is eyeing new growth.

“We’re seeing a brand new school, elementary school being built,” Mayor Marcel Roy said. “We’re building a community centre. In conjunction with that, we’ll have an indoor soccer field and indoor track.”

Regina and Saskatoon scored high points for amenities and demographics, but unsurprisingly slumped when it came to crime rate. The Bridge City had to settle for second, and Regina came in at fifth in the rankings.

Saskatchewan was well represented with Estevan, Moose Jaw, Lloydminster, and Swift Current also cracking the top ten.

While it may be small, Weyburn is proving there’s no place like home.