Calgary vs St. Petersburg: which should you move to?
Calgary or St. Petersburg? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
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The two housing bills are in different currencies, and held against local pay Calgary's is the lighter. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,005 CAD a month on Calgary's benchmark, roughly 37% of the city's 2020 median household income, and about $2,742 USD on Zillow's typical value for the City of St. Petersburg, roughly 45% of the city's 2024 median. The St. Petersburg house is the smaller multiple of income, about 4.9 times against 5.8, but it is carried at 6.67% against 4.34%, taxed at an effective 1.76% of value against 0.665% and insured at $390 a month with no flood cover, in a city where Hurricane Helene put the largest storm surge on record into the bay in 2024. Homicide is rarer in Calgary, 15 in 2025 at about 1.0 per 100,000, against 9 in St. Petersburg at about 3.4, the fewest its police have counted since 1967. St. Petersburg has the lower unemployment, 4.8% across the metro in July 2026 on an unadjusted count against 6.8%, no state income tax and a 16.8 C January. Calgary has the train, coverage that comes with residency and no hurricane season. Choose St. Petersburg for a warm winter beside a waterfront downtown, if you can buy above the surge and insure against water as well as wind. Choose Calgary for a CTrain to work, public health care and a dry 16.9 C July.
Calgary prices are in CAD and St. Petersburg prices are in USD. The tables leave them in their own currency and compare ratios and rates instead; a conversion would be stale by the time you read it.
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,306,784 (2021) | 264,033 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 1,836,012 (2025) | 3,418,895 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 5.5% (2016-2021) | 2.2% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $569,200 (July 2026) | $355,759 (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark St. Petersburg publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $743,900 | $355,759 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $297,600 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,908/mo (average, October 2025) | $2,058/mo (median, June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,581/mo | $1,770/mo | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 23.4% of a year's income | 33.8% of a year's income | Calgary |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Calgary against 30 in St. Petersburg, each compounding the way its own country's lenders do. The rates are not a spread you can shop: they are what each market charges. | $2,480/mo at 4.34% | $1,831/mo at 6.67% | Not directly comparable |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.8× | 4.9× | St. Petersburg |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $3,785/yr (0.665%, 2026) | $6,248/yr (1.756%, 2025) | Calgary |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | None | $2,490 (seller pays) | Calgary |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | No cap on the amount | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Calgary: The 2026 municipal rate of 0.38906% plus the provincial education rate of 0.27593%, applied to the assessed value. St. Petersburg: About 1.76% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.9197 mills St. Petersburg is charged, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the Pinellas County school board, which levies 6.2930 of the 19.9197. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $6,248 on the $355,759 typical home value here. That 19.9197 is the figure Pinellas County publishes for this taxing district rather than a total assembled here, and St. Petersburg's own council sets 6.4525 of it. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | 61.7 (2025) | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 Canada counts every violent Criminal Code incident; the FBI counts four offences. The Canadian figure is always the larger one for that reason alone. | 1,086 (2025) | 502 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,328 (2025) | 2,059 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 15 (2025) | 9 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
The CMA Crime Severity Index fell again in 2025 (61.7, down 3%) and sits well below the national 75.0, and homicides hit a ten-year low of 15. Police-counted violent crime still rose 4% over 2024 and 16% over the five-year average, driven by assaults, and property crime rose in 2025 on theft and fraud while staying below 2019 levels.
What the rates cover: Calgary Police Service 2025 crime report, city of Calgary, violent crime victims per 100,000 (16,973 victims; 1,082 in 2024). CPS counts violence by victims, not incidents.
Homicides: Calgary Police Service, city of Calgary, 2025; rate 1.0 per 100,000. Prior years: 21 (2024), 24 (2023), 27 (2022), 21 (2021), 34 (2020). Lowest count in ten years; fatal shootings fell to 2 from 7.
Down, and clearly so in 2025. On the FBI CDE's annual totals violent offenses were 1,622 in 2022, 1,519 in 2023, 1,642 in 2024 and 1,325 in 2025, about 618, 573, 618 and 502 per 100,000 on each year's Vintage 2025 population, so 2025 was 19% below 2024 after three flat years. Property offenses fell from 7,052 in 2023 to 6,528 in 2024 and 5,437 in 2025, down 17% in the last year, with motor vehicle theft more than halved from 917 in 2023 to 407. The department's own figures agree in direction and nearly in count: it reported overall crime down 16% in 2025, 175 robberies against a five-year average of 224, and 406 auto thefts against an average of 735 (Patch). The CDE counts were read on 1 October 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 1,325 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the St. Petersburg Police Department (ORI FL0521400) in calendar 2025, divided by the 264,033 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 269,098 the rate is 492. That is close to Boston's 507 and Jacksonville's 514, above Tampa's 375.5 (on the Tampa Police Department's own counts) and Miami's 359, and almost four times Port St. Lucie's 130. The department reports to the CDE as annual totals rather than month by month, and the CDE carries a full year for each of 2022 to 2025 and nothing for 2021.
Homicides: 9 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, about 3.4 per 100,000 on the city population, against Tampa's 17 (4.1), Orlando's 10 (3.0) and Port St. Lucie's 4 (1.5). The department's own count, announced in January 2026, is 10 homicides, which it called the fewest since 1967, when the city had six, and 44% fewer than the 18 of 2024 (Patch, reporting the St. Petersburg Police Department). The CDE series is 16 in 2022, 13 in 2023, 18 in 2024 and 9 in 2025.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -7.6 °C | 16.8 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 16.9 °C | 28.8 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 445 mm | 1,185 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 139 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,396 hours | Not published | Not directly comparable |
Environment and Climate Change Canada 1991-2020 normals, Calgary Int'l A (climate ID 3031093): January daily mean -7.6 C, July 16.9 C, 445.4 mm precipitation, 138.7 cm snowfall. Sunshine is not published in the 1991-2020 set; 2,396.3 hours is from the 1981-2010 normals for the same station. Chinook winds bring abrupt winter thaws.
Hazards: Summer hail is the costliest recurring hazard (major storms in 2020 and 2024), the Bow and Elbow rivers flooded the core in June 2013, wildfire smoke now degrades air quality most summers, and hard cold snaps reach below -30 C.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for St. Petersburg Albert Whitted Airport (station USW00092806), the downtown waterfront airport about a mile east of the city's center, which is the station the brief names and has full temperature and precipitation normals: January mean 62.2F, July mean 83.8F, annual mean 74.7F, 46.65 in of precipitation. The airport's normals carry no snowfall, so the 0.0 in of snow stored here is the normal at the St. Petersburg cooperative station (USC00087886), at the same coordinates in NCEI's listing. August is the warmest month by two tenths of a degree at 84.0F, with a mean high of 89.8F; January's mean low is 55.3F. August (8.39 in) and July (7.49 in) are the wettest months, and June through September bring 29.33 in, 63% of the year; November (1.46 in) is the driest. The normals count 70.9 days a year at 90F or above, none at 100F and 0.1 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 16.8 C, 28.8 C, 1,185 mm and 0 cm. The other stations bracket it: the cooperative station averages 62.1F in January and 83.9F in July with 52.48 in a year, and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (USW00012873), about 10 miles north and away from the bay, 61.6F and 83.1F with 53.62 in and 94.1 days at 90F. St. Petersburg's year is almost Tampa's (Tampa International's 62.0F and 83.8F); its January is level with Port St. Lucie's (62.3F), warmer than Orlando's (60.6F) and six degrees colder than Miami's (68.6F). Sunshine is not stored: Current Results' US city table, the source and 1961-1990 basis of the other US profiles' sunshine hours, lists Tampa (2,927 hours, at Tampa International) and no St. Petersburg station, and the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine; the city's nickname, the Sunshine City, rests on a Guinness record of 768 consecutive sunny days from 1967 to 1969 (Wikipedia), not on a measured annual total.
Hazards: Storm surge is the defining hazard, and 2024 showed how much of the city sits low. Hurricane Helene passed offshore on 26 September 2024 on its way to a Big Bend landfall, and the National Ocean Service tide gauge at St. Petersburg, the longest record in Tampa Bay, dating to 1947, measured 6.31 ft above mean higher high water, far above its previous record of 3.97 ft in Hurricane Elena in 1985 (National Hurricane Center). Twelve people drowned in the surge in Pinellas County, two of them in St. Petersburg and nine on the barrier islands from St. Pete Beach to Indian Rocks Beach, and Helene destroyed at least 419 homes in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and did major damage to at least 18,512 structures (NHC). Albert Whitted recorded a gust of 82 mph that day. Two weeks later, on 9 October, Hurricane Milton came ashore at Siesta Key, about 35 miles south, as a Category 3; its track spared the bay a surge but not the rain or the wind. Albert Whitted measured 18.54 in (471 mm) on 9 October, the wettest day in its record since 2010, and the NHC gives the airport 18.88 in for the storm and a gust of 88 kt (101 mph); a volunteer gauge near the city recorded 20.40 in, the highest storm total anywhere in Milton's path. Milton tore most of the fabric roof off Tropicana Field (NHC) and toppled a construction crane onto a downtown office building that housed the Tampa Bay Times (Bay News 9). The Rays played the 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and returned on 6 April 2026 after repairs (Wikipedia). Wikipedia notes that neither storm made landfall in the city and that the last hurricane to strike it directly was in 1921. Heat is long rather than extreme: 70.9 days a year at 90F or above on the normals and none at 100F (37.8 C); Albert Whitted recorded 128 such days in 2024, the most in its record since 2010, and 94 in 2026 through 28 September. Frost is almost unknown on the waterfront: one night at 32F (0 C), on 18 January 2018, since 2010, and a lowest reading of 36F in 2026 on 1 February.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $98,000 CAD (2020) | $73,048 USD (2024) | Not directly comparable |
| Unemployment rate Statistics Canada and the Bureau of Labor Statistics define unemployment slightly differently; the Canadian measure runs about a point higher on the same labour market. | 6.8% (July 2026) | 4.8% (July 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 5% | 7% | Calgary |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 48% | 37% | St. Petersburg |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $21,733 CAD | $13,449 USD | Not directly comparable |
Calgary's unemployment rate has run above the national rate through 2025 and 2026 even as Alberta posted the largest proportional year-over-year employment gain among provinces (+91,000, +3.5%) to July 2026; fast in-migration keeps the labour force growing faster than hiring.
Main sectors: Oil and gas head offices and energy services, Finance, engineering and professional services, Logistics and distribution (YYC cargo, rail, inland port), Technology and agri-food, Health care and education.
Alberta has no provincial sales tax, no payroll tax and no land transfer tax; Calgary levies municipal property tax on assessed value.
BLS counted 1,559,600 nonfarm jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 14,200 or 0.9% on the year. Private education and health services added the most (+9,700, or 3.8%, to 264,400), then professional and business services (+6,000, or 2.1%, to 288,800) and construction (+1,600, to 99,600), while information lost 1,700 (-5.6%, to 28,600) and federal employment 1,000 (to 30,900). The city's own employment picture is a headquarters town's: the ten principal private employers in its 2025 financial report, led by Raymond James (4,800), Johns Hopkins All Children's (2,800), Power Design and Jabil (1,700 each), employ 17,837, or 12.5% of the 147,705 people working in the city, against 20,300 for the 2016 list, which then included HSN, FIS and Bayfront Medical. Much of the commercial activity is in the Gateway area in the city's north, which it shares with Pinellas Park (Wikipedia). Unlike Port St. Lucie, most residents work in their own county: 14% of the city's workers (20,739 of 144,736) worked outside Pinellas County in 2024, 21.3% worked from home, and the mean commute for the rest was 25 minutes, with 5% spending an hour or more (ACS 2024 1-year, B08007, B08013, B08301 and B08303).
Main sectors: Finance and insurance: Raymond James, headquartered in the city and its largest private employer with 4,800 staff, Franklin Templeton (1,200) and the credit union service organization PSCU (800), in a metro with 142,400 financial activities jobs in August 2026, Health care: Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital (2,800 staff), BayCare's St. Anthony's Hospital (1,437), HCA (1,350) and Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, in a metro sector (private education and health services, 264,400 jobs) that added 9,700 jobs over the year, Manufacturing and engineering: Jabil, the electronics manufacturer headquartered in the city (1,700), Catalent Pharma Solutions (800) and Power Design, an electrical contractor (1,700), Utilities: Duke Energy Florida, headquartered in the city (1,250 staff), Tourism, arts and sports: the Dali Museum, the Pier, seven miles of public waterfront parks, the Rays at Tropicana Field and the IndyCar Grand Prix on downtown streets (leisure and hospitality, 167,300 metro jobs).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Florida's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 0.78%, and a homestead exemption takes as much as $50,000 off a permanent residence's taxable value, with the Save Our Homes limit on how fast its assessment can rise (Florida Department of Revenue). A St. Petersburg home paid 19.9197 mills for 2025 on the Pinellas County Tax Collector's published total, of which the city's own rate is 6.4525; a little above Tampa's 19.8428 in the same layer. On 17 September 2026 the City Council voted 6 to 2 to keep the city rate at 6.4525 mills for fiscal 2027, the rate it has levied since fiscal 2025, which is above the 6.3854-mill rolled-back rate and so needed a two-thirds vote; rising taxable values, about $39.3 billion, bring the city about $14.8 million more (St Pete Catalyst). Zillow's typical home value for the city was $355,759 in June 2026, down 3.9% on the year, and its typical rent $2,058; the bills, insurance and flood exposure that follow from them belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Calgary | St. Petersburg | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Calgary Transit (CTrain light rail Red and Blue lines, MAX bus rapid transit, bus network); Green Line LRT under construction | Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), the countywide agency formed in 1984 from the St. Petersburg Municipal Transit System and the Central Pinellas Transit Authority: more than 34 bus routes including two express routes to Tampa, the Central Avenue and Suncoast Beach trolleys, and the SunRunner, Tampa Bay's first bus rapid transit line, which opened on 21 October 2022 from downtown St. Petersburg along First Avenues North and South to St. Pete Beach every 15 minutes (Wikipedia). The Cross-Bay Ferry between downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa ran seasonally for eight seasons until its operator's contract ended after 2025, and PSTA bought two vessels in June 2026 to restart it (Wikipedia). There is no passenger rail: CSX's freight branch ends at a small yard northwest of downtown, the line into downtown having been abandoned in 2008. | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 8.8% (2021) | 2.1% (2024) | Calgary |
| Walk or cycle to work | 5.1% (2021) | 2.9% (2024) | Calgary |
| Airport | Calgary International Airport, YYC, 19.4 million passengers in 2025 (record; 18.9 million in 2024), 108 destinations | St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), owned by Pinellas County about 9 miles north of downtown, handled a record 2,794,067 passengers in 2025, 13.6% more than 2024's 2,458,674, almost all of them on Allegiant Air, which uses it as an operating base (Wikipedia). Most of the city's air travel goes through Tampa International Airport (TPA), about 16 miles to the northeast across the Howard Frankland Bridge, which handled 24,811,007 passengers in 2025 (TPA, as in Tampa's profile). Albert Whitted Airport on the downtown waterfront serves general aviation. | Not directly comparable |
93.1 million trips in 2025 under the new automated passenger counting method, versus 93.7 million restated for 2024 (RouteAhead Annual Status Report 2025, May 7, 2026). Earlier published totals used a different method and are not comparable.
PSTA carried 10,441,618 unlinked trips in 2025 on the National Transit Database's monthly ridership file (Federal Transit Administration), 8,888,290 of them on its buses and 769,551 on the SunRunner, with the rest on vanpools, demand-response service and a ferry. That is a little below the 11.94 million HART carried in Hillsborough (Tampa's profile, from APTA) for a county with less than two-thirds of Hillsborough's population, and well below PSTA's own peak of 14.6 million in 2014; ridership fell to 9.1 million in 2022 and has recovered to about 10.4 to 10.5 million in each of 2024 and 2025. The SunRunner carried 1,036,048 trips in 2023, its first full year, and 769,551 in 2025.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan, which is free at the point of use for residents and covers physician and hospital services but not most prescriptions, dental or vision, so employer plans matter; the province split Alberta Health Services into separate acute care, primary care and continuing care agencies in 2024 and 2025, and finding a family doctor and waiting for specialists and elective surgery are the common complaints. Major hospitals are Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General, South Health Campus and Alberta Children's Hospital.
Education
The University of Calgary is the city's research university, with Mount Royal University, SAIT and Bow Valley College alongside it. K-12 is run by two publicly funded boards, the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District, plus francophone boards and a sizeable provincially funded charter school sector; enrolment growth has outrun school construction in the newer suburbs.
Living there
Calgary is a spread-out, car-oriented city of single-family suburbs around a compact office core that still has high vacancy from the oil downturn, with the Rockies an hour west and a river-path network that people actually use. Winters are long but sunny and broken by chinooks, and the economy and housing market both swing with oil prices and with the in-migration surges that have made it one of Canada's fastest-growing metros since 2022.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Florida is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF). Florida's uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024 (2,509,782 of 23,038,464), against 8.2% nationally, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates; the City of St. Petersburg's was 7.3% (19,374 of 263,881), below Port St. Lucie's 9.9%, Pinellas County's 9.0% and the metro's 10.0%. The city is the county's hospital center. Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, the city's oldest, on the site of a five-room hospital of 1910, is Pinellas County's only Level II trauma center and has a Level III regional perinatal intensive care center and the Bayflite helicopter program (Wikipedia). Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, founded in 1926 and part of Johns Hopkins Medicine since 2011, has 259 beds and a Level I pediatric trauma center (Wikipedia). BayCare's St. Anthony's Hospital and HCA's hospitals are also among the city's ten largest private employers (City of St. Petersburg). This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Pinellas County Schools, the countywide district, is shrinking: it reported more than 3,000 fewer students in 2025-26 than a year earlier (Bay News 9), its schools were 68% full against 87% ten years before, and in February 2026 the board voted to close two schools, Cross Bayou Elementary in Pinellas Park and Disston Academy in Gulfport, at the end of the 2025-26 year and to merge others (FOX 13). In higher education the city has the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, a downtown campus of about 6,500 students; Eckerd College, a private liberal arts college founded in 1958; St. Petersburg College, founded in 1927, a state college with four of its eleven campuses and centers in the city; and the Poynter Institute, the journalism school that owns the Tampa Bay Times (Wikipedia). Stetson University's law school is next door in Gulfport.
Living there
St. Petersburg is the smaller and older half of Tampa Bay's urban core: a city of 264,033 on the southern tip of the Pinellas peninsula, with more water than land inside its limits, connected to Tampa by the Gandy and Howard Frankland bridges and to Bradenton by the Sunshine Skyway. It was a railroad town before it was a resort (the Orange Belt Railway arrived in 1888 and the town was incorporated in 1892) and a retirement town for most of the twentieth century; its median age is still 43.0, the second-oldest of the Florida cities here after Port St. Lucie, though Wikipedia notes a younger turn since the Great Recession. Downtown is the draw, with the Dali Museum, the rebuilt Pier, seven miles of public waterfront parks, more than 600 murals and the Rays at Tropicana Field, who returned in April 2026 after Hurricane Milton tore off the roof but will leave: Hillsborough County voted 5 to 2 on 28 August 2026 to put $796 million toward a $2.3 billion stadium in Tampa for 2029 (WUSF). Its economy is a set of headquarters (Raymond James, Jabil, Duke Energy Florida) and hospitals (Johns Hopkins All Children's, Bayfront). The numbers set it apart from its Florida neighbors. It grew only 2.2% from 2020 to 2025 and lost residents in the year of the 2024 storms, in a county that is now losing people. Its median household income, $73,048, is $11,066 below Tampa's; its violent crime rate, 502 per 100,000 in 2025, is higher than Tampa's but falling, and its nine homicides were the fewest the police department has counted since 1967. It has the highest transit share of the Florida cities here outside Miami, at 2.1%. And it learned in 2024 what living in Tampa Bay costs: a record surge from Helene, which drowned twelve people in the county, and 18 inches of rain from Milton two weeks later.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Calgary's figures are in Canadian dollars and St. Petersburg's in US dollars, so each is read against local pay. Calgary's benchmark was $569,200 CAD in July 2026 on the MLS Home Price Index, 5.8 times the city's 2020 median household income of $98,000 CAD. St. Petersburg's figure is Zillow's typical home value for the city across all homes, $355,759 USD in June 2026, 3.9% below a year earlier, which is the city's row in this site's Tampa Bay table; it models every home rather than the houses that sold, so the 1920s bungalows of the Old Northeast, the postwar north end and the waterfront condominiums all sit inside one number. It is about 4.9 times the city's 2024 median household income of $73,048 USD, a figure with a margin of error of $4,441. At 20% down, Calgary's loan at 4.34% costs $2,480 CAD a month over 25 years, and the $284,607 loan on St. Petersburg's value at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's August rate, $1,831 USD over 30. Property tax is 0.665% of Calgary's benchmark, $3,785 CAD a year, against about $6,248 USD for a homesteaded owner in St. Petersburg, where a City address pays 19.9197 mills for 2025 on the Pinellas County Tax Collector's published total, the City's own 6.4525 among them beside the county, the school board, emergency medical services, the Juvenile Welfare Board, the water management district and the transit district: an effective 1.76% after Florida's homestead exemption, and about $7,087 without one. Insurance is budgeted at $210 CAD and $390 USD a month, the St. Petersburg figure this site's estimate for a coastal Tampa Bay address, inside the $3,900 to $5,500 a year published for a St. Petersburg house with wind cover, and with no flood cover in it. The owners carry about $3,005 CAD and $2,742 USD, roughly 37% and 45% of local median income. A two-bedroom averaged $1,908 CAD in October 2025, about 23% of Calgary's median income. Zillow's observed rent index for St. Petersburg, across all homes, was $2,058 USD in June 2026, about 34%, so renting there takes a larger share of local pay than owning does in Calgary. Alberta allows one increase a year of any size, and Florida forbids rent control outright.
Only homicide crosses the border intact, and on it Calgary is the lower. Calgary recorded 15 in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and its lowest count in ten years. St. Petersburg recorded 9 in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, about 3.4 per 100,000; the police department's own count is 10, which it called the fewest since 1967, after 18 in 2024. The other rates are different instruments. Statistics Canada put the Calgary metro's 2025 Crime Severity Index at 61.7, below the national 75.0; American cities have no equivalent. The Calgary Police Service counted 1,086 violent victims per 100,000 in 2025, a count that includes common assault and uttering threats. St. Petersburg's 502 per 100,000 is 1,325 offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault reported by the St. Petersburg Police Department, divided by the Census estimate of 264,033. Property crime, 3,328 incidents per 100,000 against 2,059 offenses, has the same problem. The directions differ. St. Petersburg's violent offenses fell 19% in 2025 after three flat years, its property offenses 17%, and its motor vehicle thefts more than halved from 917 in 2023 to 407; Calgary's police-counted violence increased 4% on assaults. The St. Petersburg counts were read on 1 October 2026 from a federal feed that can still be revised.
The climates are opposites. January averages -7.6 C in Calgary, where snaps drop below -30 C and chinooks break them, and 16.8 C at Albert Whitted Airport on St. Petersburg's downtown waterfront, where frost is almost unknown: one night at 0 C since 2010. July averages a dry 16.9 C in Calgary and 28.8 C in St. Petersburg, where August is warmer still by two tenths of a degree and the normals count 70.9 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F) and none at 37.8 C (100F); the airport recorded 128 such days in 2024, the most in its record since 2010. St. Petersburg gets 1,185 mm of precipitation a year, more than two and a half times Calgary's 445.4 mm and 63% of it from June to September, and no snow against Calgary's 138.7 cm. Calgary records 2,396.3 hours of sunshine; this site stores no sunshine figure for St. Petersburg, whose nickname, the Sunshine City, rests on a run of sunny days from 1967 to 1969 rather than a measured annual total. Storm surge is St. Petersburg's defining hazard. Hurricane Helene passed offshore on 26 September 2024 and the tide gauge at St. Petersburg, the longest record in Tampa Bay, measured 6.31 ft above mean higher high water against a previous record of 3.97 ft; twelve people drowned in Pinellas County, two of them in the city. Two weeks later Milton came ashore at Siesta Key, about 35 miles south, dropped 18.54 in (471 mm) on Albert Whitted in a day and tore most of the roof off Tropicana Field. Neither storm made landfall in the city, and the last hurricane to strike it directly was in 1921. Calgary's hazards are hail, with major storms in 2020 and 2024, the June 2013 flood and wildfire smoke.
Calgary runs on oil and gas head offices, and St. Petersburg on head offices of a different kind: Raymond James, its largest private employer with 4,800 staff, Jabil, Duke Energy Florida and Franklin Templeton, beside the hospitals, of which Johns Hopkins All Children's is the largest at 2,800. BLS counted 1,559,600 nonfarm jobs across the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro in August 2026, 14,200 or 0.9% more than a year earlier, led by private education and health services, and 142,400 of them in financial activities. The metro's unemployment rate was 4.8% in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, up from 4.1% a year earlier, against 4.4% for the US on the same basis; the City of St. Petersburg's own was 4.2%. The Calgary metro's rate was 6.8% on a three-month average, second highest among large Canadian metros, even though Alberta added 91,000 jobs in the year to July 2026; the two rates are not built the same way, so the gap is approximate. Median household income was $98,000 CAD in Calgary in 2020 and $73,048 USD in St. Petersburg in 2024, $11,066 below Tampa's across the bay. Alberta levies a provincial income tax, so $100,000 pays about $21,733 CAD, 21.7% before CPP and EI. Florida levies none, so the same salary pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025, and property tax carries more of the load: about $6,248 a year on the typical St. Petersburg value against $3,785 CAD on Calgary's benchmark. Sales tax is 7% in Pinellas County, the state's 6% and the Penny for Pinellas, against the 5% GST, and the top combined marginal rate 37% against 48%.
Transit is Calgary's by a wide margin, though St. Petersburg has more of it than most Florida cities. In the 2021 census 8.8% of Calgary commuters took transit and 5.1% walked or cycled, counted in a pandemic month, and Calgary Transit carried 93.1 million trips in 2025 on two CTrain lines, MAX bus rapid transit and buses. In St. Petersburg 2.1% of workers commuted by transit in 2024, the highest share of the Florida cities this site compares outside Miami, 2.9% walked or cycled, 65.6% drove alone and 21.3% worked from home. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority carried 10,441,618 trips across the county in 2025, 769,551 of them on the SunRunner, Tampa Bay's first bus rapid transit line, which runs every 15 minutes from downtown to St. Pete Beach. There is no passenger rail, and the seasonal Cross-Bay Ferry to downtown Tampa stopped after 2025, though PSTA bought two vessels in June 2026 to restart it. Most residents work in their own county, only 14% outside Pinellas, and the mean commute was 25 minutes. Flying is closer than the city's size suggests. St. Pete-Clearwater International, about 9 miles north of downtown, handled a record 2,794,067 passengers in 2025, almost all of them on Allegiant, and most of the city's flights go through Tampa International, about 16 miles away across the Howard Frankland Bridge, which handled 24,811,007, more than YYC's record 19.4 million.
Health care is the difference a household meets every week. In Calgary the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan pays for physician and hospital care with nothing due at the point of use and leaves most prescriptions, dental and vision to employer plans; the standing complaints are finding a family doctor and waiting for specialists and elective surgery. In St. Petersburg care is bought through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and Florida is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid. Its uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024, against 8.2% nationally; the City of St. Petersburg's was 7.3%, below both. The city is Pinellas County's hospital center: Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital is the county's only Level II trauma center, and Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, with 259 beds, has a Level I pediatric trauma center. This site verified no wait time for either city. The school systems are moving in opposite directions. Calgary has two publicly funded school boards, francophone boards and a provincially funded charter sector, with enrollment outrunning construction in the newer suburbs. Pinellas County Schools, the countywide district, reported more than 3,000 fewer students in 2025-26 than a year earlier, its schools were 68% full against 87% ten years before, and in February 2026 its board voted to close two schools. The city has the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, a downtown campus of about 6,500 students, Eckerd College and four of St. Petersburg College's campuses and centers.
What people underestimate is the water, and how much of the St. Petersburg bill sits outside the $2,742. The $390 a month of insurance covers wind and not rising water: flood is a separate policy, priced off the elevation certificate, and none of it is in the figure. The City assessed 13,494 parcels for damage after Helene and recorded 5,189 with major damage and 146 destroyed; those are parcels rather than homes, but they say which questions come first. On a damaged or renovated house, FEMA's substantial improvement rule decides what may be built: if the cost of the work reaches half the structure's market value before it starts, or the structure has sustained that much damage, the whole building has to be brought up to current flood standards, which near the bay can mean elevating it. The $6,248 assumes a homestead filed by 1 March of the year after the purchase; without one the same house owes about $7,087, and Save Our Homes resets a house's assessment to market value the January after a sale, so the seller's bill is no guide. A condominium adds an association fee this site estimates at $700 a month, a figure that has been moving since Florida's 2022 reserve law and the 2024 storms. At closing Florida taxes the loan, about $1,565 in documentary stamp and intangible tax on a $284,607 mortgage, and the seller pays 0.7% on the deed, about $2,490 on the typical value, where Alberta charges no land transfer tax at all. The two cities are moving in opposite directions: the Calgary metro grew 2.9% in 2024-25, while the City of St. Petersburg lost 1,822 residents, 0.7%, in the year that took in Helene and Milton, and its typical value fell 3.9% in the year to June 2026. Calgary's 4.34% renews after a five-year term, while the St. Petersburg 6.67% holds for thirty years; at 7.03%, Freddie Mac's rate of 24 September 2026, the St. Petersburg carry would be about $2,810.
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,005 CAD a month, roughly 37% of the city's 2020 median household income, against about 45% in St. Petersburg.
- Property tax is 0.665% of the benchmark, $3,785 CAD a year, against an effective 1.76% on St. Petersburg's homesteaded typical value, and Alberta charges no land transfer tax.
- The Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan covers physician and hospital care with nothing due at the point of use, where Florida has not expanded Medicaid and its uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024.
- Transit carried 8.8% of commuters in the 2021 census and 93.1 million trips in 2025 on two CTrain lines and buses, against 2.1% in St. Petersburg in 2024 and 10,441,618 trips across Pinellas County.
- There were 15 homicides in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and the fewest in ten years, against 9 in St. Petersburg at about 3.4.
- July averages a dry 16.9 C on the 1991-2020 normals, against 28.8 C in St. Petersburg, where the same normals count 70.9 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F), and there is no hurricane season.
Worse here
- Metro unemployment was 6.8% in July 2026, second highest among large Canadian metros, against 4.8% in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro on an unadjusted count the same month.
- January averages -7.6 C on a 138.7 cm snow normal, with cold snaps below -30 C, against 16.8 C and no snow in St. Petersburg.
- Income tax takes about $21,733 CAD of $100,000 for 2025, 21.7%, where Florida levies none and the federal bill is $13,449 USD, and the top combined rate is 48% against 37%.
- The benchmark is 5.8 times the city's 2020 median household income, against about 4.9 times for Zillow's typical value in St. Petersburg.
- The 4.34% mortgage rate is fixed for a five-year term and then renews, where a St. Petersburg loan at 6.67% holds for thirty years.
- Summer hail is the costly recurring hazard, with major storms in 2020 and 2024, and the Bow and Elbow flooded the core in June 2013.
Choose Calgary if
- you want health coverage that comes with residency rather than with an employer, a premium or a deductible
- you want to reach work by train, in a city where transit carried about four times St. Petersburg's share of commuters
- you would rather have a dry 16.9 C July and a cold winter than a humid summer and a storm surge to plan for
- you want to own at a smaller share of local income, about 37% against 45%, on a property tax well under half the Florida rate
The Calgary guide · Neighbourhoods · Calgary rent vs buy · Calgary mortgage calculator
Better here
- Unemployment in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro was 4.8% in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 6.8% in the Calgary metro.
- Florida levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $21,733 CAD in Calgary.
- January averages 16.8 C with no snow on the normals and almost no frost, against -7.6 C and 138.7 cm in Calgary.
- Zillow's typical value of $355,759 USD in June 2026 is about 4.9 times the city's 2024 median household income of $73,048, against 5.8 times for Calgary's benchmark.
- Violent offenses fell 19% in 2025 and property offenses 17%, and the police department's 10 homicides were the fewest it has counted since 1967.
- Tampa International, about 16 miles away, handled 24,811,007 passengers in 2025, and St. Pete-Clearwater International another 2,794,067.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,742 USD a month, roughly 45% of the city's median household income against 37% in Calgary, before any flood policy.
- Property tax on the typical value is about $6,248 a year with a homestead, an effective 1.76%, and about $7,087 without one.
- Hurricane Helene pushed the bay a record 6.31 ft above mean higher high water in September 2024, and the City recorded 5,189 parcels with major damage.
- Florida is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid, and its uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024 against 8.2% nationally.
- Zillow's rent index for the city was $2,058 USD in June 2026, about 34% of median household income, against about 23% for a Calgary two-bedroom.
- The city lost 1,822 residents in 2024-25 and Pinellas County Schools had more than 3,000 fewer students in 2025-26 than a year earlier.
Choose St. Petersburg if
- you want a 16.8 C January with no snow and can plan around a humid summer and a hurricane season
- you would rather pay property tax on a house than provincial income tax on a salary, and have employer health insurance you trust
- you work in finance, health care or engineering and want a headquarters town inside a metro of 3.4 million
- you will buy on elevation and flood zone first and carry flood insurance as well as wind
The St. Petersburg guide · Neighborhoods · St. Petersburg rent vs buy · St. Petersburg mortgage calculator
Calgary or St. Petersburg, in short
Is Calgary or St. Petersburg cheaper to live in?
Calgary, to own and to rent, once each bill is held against its own city's pay, because the currencies do not convert here. A Calgary owner pays about $3,005 CAD a month on mortgage, property tax and insurance, roughly 37% of the 2020 median household income of $98,000 CAD, on a benchmark 5.8 times that income. A St. Petersburg owner pays about $2,742 USD on Zillow's typical value of $355,759, roughly 45% of the city's 2024 median of $73,048 USD, on a house about 4.9 times that income. The house is cheaper against pay in St. Petersburg and the money, the tax and the insurance dearer: 6.67% against 4.34%, a homesteaded property tax of about $6,248 a year against $3,785 CAD, and $390 a month of insurance against $210 before any flood policy. Renting runs the same way: a two-bedroom averaged $1,908 CAD in Calgary in October 2025, about 23% of median income, against Zillow's St. Petersburg rent index of $2,058 USD in June 2026, about 34%. St. Petersburg takes less income tax, $13,449 USD on $100,000 for 2025 against about $21,733 CAD, and more sales tax, 7% against 5%.
Is Calgary or St. Petersburg safer?
Calgary, on homicide, the one measure that crosses the border. Calgary recorded 15 homicides in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and its lowest count in ten years; St. Petersburg recorded 9 in the FBI's file, about 3.4 per 100,000, and its police department counted 10, the fewest since 1967. The other rates are different instruments. The Calgary Police Service's 1,086 violent victims per 100,000 counts victims and includes common assault and uttering threats, while St. Petersburg's 502 per 100,000 is offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, divided by the Census estimate and still open to revision. Property crime, 3,328 incidents per 100,000 against 2,059 offenses, is defined differently as well. St. Petersburg's direction is clearly down, with violent offenses 19% lower in 2025 and vehicle thefts more than halved since 2023; Calgary's police-counted violence increased 4%, while its metro Crime Severity Index, 61.7, sits below the national 75.0.
Which has the better climate, Calgary or St. Petersburg?
St. Petersburg in winter and Calgary in summer. January averages 16.8 C on St. Petersburg's waterfront with no snow and one night at 0 C since 2010, against -7.6 C and 138.7 cm in Calgary, where snaps reach below -30 C though chinooks break them. July reverses it: 28.8 C and humid in St. Petersburg, with 70.9 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F) on the normals and 128 at the airport in 2024, against a dry 16.9 C in Calgary. St. Petersburg gets 1,185 mm of precipitation a year, 63% of it from June to September, against 445.4 mm; Calgary records 2,396.3 hours of sunshine, and this site has no measured figure for St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg's hazard is storm surge, which reached a record 6.31 ft above mean higher high water in Helene in 2024, and the rain that came with Milton two weeks later; Calgary's are hail, the 2013 flood and wildfire smoke.
What does the St. Petersburg monthly figure leave out?
The thing that matters most there: flood. The $2,742 counts the mortgage, a homesteaded property tax of about $6,248 and $390 a month of homeowners insurance, which covers wind and not rising water, so a flood policy, priced off the elevation certificate, comes on top. Helene put a record surge into the bay in 2024 and the City recorded 5,189 parcels with major damage, and on a damaged or renovated house FEMA's substantial improvement rule can require the whole building to be brought up to current flood standards once the work reaches half its market value. Without a homestead filed by 1 March the tax is about $7,087, and a condominium adds an association fee this site estimates at $700 a month. The insurance itself is an estimate inside a published range of $3,900 to $5,500 a year for a St. Petersburg house with wind cover. Calgary's figure has fewer moving parts, though its 4.34% renews after five years where the St. Petersburg 6.67% is fixed for thirty.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Calgary, City (CY), Alberta · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Population estimates, July 1, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, 2021 boundaries (table 17-10-0148-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Canada's population estimates: Subprovincial areas, 2025 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Five-year growth, character
- Police-reported Crime Severity Index and crime rate, by census metropolitan area, 2025 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- 2025 Crime Report, Report to Calgary Police Commission · Calgary Police Service · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, City population
- Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020, Calgary Int'l A · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010, Calgary Int'l A · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Labour Force Survey, July 2026 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Labour market
- Calgary unemployment rate dropped in July, but remains among highest in Canada · CBC News · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Alberta tax overview · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- Alberta 2025 & 2026 Tax Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Canada 2025 & 2026 Tax Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- RouteAhead Annual Status Report 2025 (IP2026-0142, Attachment 2) · City of Calgary, Calgary Transit · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Transit system
- From home to work: Commuting in Canada's cities, May 2024 · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share
- YYC Calgary International Airport welcomed 19.4 million passengers in 2025 · Calgary Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Calgary victim's family not celebrating Calgary's 10-year low homicide rate · CP24 / CTV News · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Data about Calgary's population · City of Calgary · retrieved Supports: City population, Median household income
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, St. Petersburg city 258,358 (April 2020 base), 262,655 (2022), 264,921 (2023), 265,855 (2024) and 264,033 (2025); Pinellas County 948,563; Clearwater 114,364; national and Florida ranks and the 92 cities of 250,000 or more
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA 3,175,282 (April 2020 base) and 3,418,895 (2025) and its components of change; Pinellas County's 2024-25 loss of 11,834, its births, deaths and migration
- 2024 Gazetteer Files: Places (national) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: point, City population, Climate normals, Airport passengers, Character, St. Petersburg city: 61.804 sq mi of land, 73.661 sq mi of water, internal point 27.762727, -82.644131
- St. Petersburg, Florida (history, geography, economy, arts, education, transportation) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, Climate hazards, Main sectors, Labour market, Transit system, Education, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, St. Petersburg Police Department (FL0521400): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character
- St. Pete Crime Rates Declined In 2025: Police · Patch · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend, Character, 10 homicides in 2025 against 18 in 2024, the fewest since 1967; overall crime down 16%; 175 robberies and 406 auto thefts against five-year averages of 224 and 735
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00092806 St. Petersburg Albert Whitted Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Climate normals, Climate hazards, January 62.2F, July 83.8F and August 84.0F and the monthly highs, lows and rain from the monthly series, which carries no snowfall normal for this station, and annual mean 74.7F, precipitation 46.65 in, 70.9 days at 90F, 0.0 at 100F and 0.1 nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USC00087886 St. Petersburg (cooperative station) (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Annual snowfall, Climate normals, 0.0 in of snow (monthly and annual), January 62.1F, July 83.9F, 52.48 in of precipitation
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012873 St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, January 61.6F, July 83.1F, 53.62 in of precipitation, 94.1 days at 90F
- NCEI data search, normals-monthly-1991-2020 stations within 28.0N to 27.6N and 82.85W to 82.45W · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, the stations with 1991-2020 normals in and around the city, including USW00092806 and USC00087886 at 27.7628N, 82.6261W
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, St. Petersburg Albert Whitted Airport (USW00092806), 2010-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 18.54 in on 9 October 2024 and a 101.1 mph gust; an 82.1 mph gust on 26 September 2024; 128 days at or above 90F in 2024 and 94 in 2026 through 28 September; 32F on 18 January 2018, the only reading at or below freezing since 2010; 36F on 1 February 2026
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals, Tampa 2,927 hours; no St. Petersburg station
- Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Helene (AL092024) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 6.31 ft above MHHW at the St. Petersburg tide gauge (record since 1947; previous record 3.97 ft in Elena, 1985); 12 drowned in Pinellas County, 2 in St. Petersburg; at least 419 homes destroyed and 18,512 structures with major damage in Pinellas and Hillsborough
- Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Milton (AL142024) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, Landfall at Siesta Key as a Category 3; Albert Whitted storm total 18.88 in and gust 88 kt; maximum storm total 20.40 in at a CoCoRaHS site near St. Petersburg; Tropicana Field's fabric roof ripped off
- Tropicana Field roof damaged by Hurricane Milton, downtown St. Pete crane snapped · Bay News 9 · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Tropicana Field (Milton damage, 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field, return on 6 April 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- A new Rays stadium in Tampa gets clinching Hillsborough County approval · WUSF · retrieved Supports: Character
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B19013, B25003 and B08301 for St. Petersburg, Tampa and Port St. Lucie cities, Pinellas County, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08007 (place of work), B08013 (aggregate travel time) and B08303 (travel time to work) for St. Petersburg city and Pinellas County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- ACS 2024 1-year table B01002 (median age) for St. Petersburg, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando cities, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for St. Petersburg city, Pinellas County, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA (LAUMT124530000000003), St. Petersburg city (LAUCT126300000000003) and Pinellas County (LAUCN121030000000003), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA: total nonfarm (SMU12453000000000001), construction (SMU12453002000000001), supersectors (SMU1245300xx00000001), retail trade and federal government (SMU12453009091000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Statistical Section: Principal Employers · City of St. Petersburg (filed with the Florida Auditor General) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care, Character, Raymond James & Associates 4,800, All Children's Health 2,800, Power Design 1,700, Jabil Circuit 1,700, St. Anthony's Hospital 1,437, HCA Hospital 1,350, Duke Energy 1,250, Franklin Templeton 1,200, Catalent 800, PSCU 800; 17,837 or 12.45% of 147,705; the 2016 list of 20,300
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026 (DR-15DSS) · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Pinellas 1%, February 1, 1990 to December 31, 2029
- Penny for Pinellas: frequently asked questions · Penny for Pinellas (Pinellas County) · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, first approved in 1989 and in effect from 1990; renewed on November 7, 2017 for 2020-2029 with 83% support; tourists and seasonal visitors estimated to pay a third
- Florida Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Millage rates levied for 2025 taxes · Pinellas County Tax Collector · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, St Petersburg real estate total 19.9197 mills, of which the city 6.4525 (as carried in lib/metro-tampa/market.ts)
- St. Pete keeps property tax rate unchanged · St Pete Catalyst · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, 6.4525 mills for fiscal 2027 adopted 6-2 on 17 September 2026, above the 6.3854 rolled-back rate
- St. Pete holds property tax rate steady · St Pete Catalyst · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, taxable values of about $39.3 billion; ad valorem revenue up about $14.8 million; 6.4525 mills since fiscal 2025
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) and Observed Rent Index (ZORI), city files, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, St. Petersburg $355,759, down 3.9% year over year, and rent $2,058, as carried in lib/metro-tampa/market.ts
- Monthly Module Adjusted Data Release, complete monthly ridership with adjustments and estimates (Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, NTD 40027) · Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database (via data.transportation.gov) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Transit system
- Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (history, routes, SunRunner, Cross-Bay Ferry) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system
- St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (location, owner, airlines, annual passenger traffic 2024 and 2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Main sectors
- Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Main sectors
- Pinellas County School Board considers closing schools due to low enrollment · Bay News 9 · retrieved Supports: Education
- Pinellas County Schools move forward with closures, consolidations as enrollment declines district wide · FOX 13 · retrieved Supports: Education
- City of Calgary Monthly Statistics Package, July 2026 · Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®) · retrieved Supports: Benchmark price of $569,200, Benchmark prices by property type
- Rental Market Survey: Calgary, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: One-bedroom average rent of $1,581, Two-bedroom average rent of $1,908
- Current property tax rates · City of Calgary · retrieved Supports: 2026 municipal residential rate, 2026 provincial education rate
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- CMHC revises homeowner mortgage loan insurance premiums · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: The 20 basis point surcharge on a 30-year insured amortization
- Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
- Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
- Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
- How much will my home really cost? · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Closing costs of 1.5% to 4% of the purchase price, Home inspection and appraisal ranges
- Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule · Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Transfer registration fee, Mortgage registration fee
- During a tenancy: rent increases · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: No cap on rent increases, 365-day frequency limit, Notice periods
- Alberta's tax advantage · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Alberta levies no land transfer tax
- Final 2025 millage rates by taxing district · Hillsborough County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Published totals of 19.8428 for Tampa, 19.5319 for Temple Terrace, 18.2926 for Plant City and 18.2515 for the unincorporated county, Every component behind them, including the 0.5583 library services levy Temple Terrace and Plant City are outside and the 0.5000 transit authority levy Plant City is outside, A county General Purpose MSTU of 4.6163 paid in the unincorporated area in place of a municipal rate
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: Independent confirmation of each municipality's own adopted 2025-26 levy in both counties
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Tampa at 414,547 and St. Petersburg at 267,102; Indian Shores at 1,190
- Hurricane Helene storm surge and Pinellas County flooding, September 2024 · Latent Insurance, on National Weather Service and Pinellas County data · retrieved Supports: The largest storm surge on record for St. Petersburg, over six feet in the city and more than seven on the barrier islands, Thousands of Pinellas homes flooded, many of which had never flooded before, St. Petersburg single-family homeowners insurance of roughly $3,900 to $5,500 a year with wind coverage, and higher on the barrier islands
- Home insurance in Tampa, Florida: 2026 rates · InsuranceQuotes · retrieved Supports: Tampa homeowners insurance averaging about $2,400 a year in 2026, A Tampa Bay range of roughly $3,285 to $5,100 across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Florida · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 61.806 square miles and a water area of 73.659 square miles for St. Petersburg city
- Helene_Damage_Assessment_Data, one point per parcel assessed after Hurricane Helene · City of St. Petersburg, ArcGIS Online · retrieved Supports: 13,494 parcels assessed after Hurricane Helene, 5,189 of them recorded as major damage and 146 as destroyed, A record per parcel rather than per home, with no description published for the layer
- Substantial improvement · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Substantial improvement is any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition or other improvement whose cost equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the start of construction, The category also covers structures that have sustained substantial damage, whatever repair work is actually carried out