There's speculative fever coming from the thriving oil sand fields of northern Alberta, as featured in CBS's 60 Minutes, but home prices are declining in most of northern Alberta. Why? Overdevelopment. Pay attention to the amount of "unsold inventory" for whatever property type you prefer. A lot of properties are priced based on very high expectations of employment growth in the Edmonton and Strathcona areas. With plenty of available land and lack of development restrictions, this market might have the potential to be next "Texas of the 1980s".

That being said, Red Deer seems to be the hottest location at present because it is at the terminus of the oil slurry pipeline coming down from Fort McMurray, and it seems to lead the province in terms of announced industrial projects.