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The pain of crude’s collapse is beginning to bite in Alberta, from the oil sands boomtown of Fort McMurray to the corporate boardrooms of Calgary.

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The city’s real estate sector has cooled tremendously thanks to a precipitous decline in oil prices and that has people speculating what will happen to housing prices.





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As the $340-billion petro-economy confronts an oil market meltdown, a decade-long investment spree is being reversed, layoffs and spending cuts are in full swing at companies such as Suncor Energy Inc., and everyone from oil drillers to real estate agents is feeling the pinch.

In Fort McMurray, where the oil is so near the surface it oozes out of the ground in places and coats people’s boots, the mayor is reconsidering city projects. In Calgary, which boasted Canada’s biggest concentration of millionaires and one of the hottest real-estate markets, realtors just had their worst two months on record. The Bank of Canada has cut interest rates in an effort to limit the damage from spreading to the rest of economy.