Calgary Real Estate September 2012 Housing Statistics

Despite national trends, the most recent CREB report indicates that residential sales activity continues to show improvement in the Calgary area. In fact, CREB President Bob Jablonksi reports that the Calgary housing market is demonstrating typical behavior for the first time in several years.

According to the most recent reports, residential sales activity increased by 11 percent when comparing September of last year to September of this year. In all, residential sales within the city limits reached a total of 17,018 during the first three quarters. This represents a 15 percent increase when comparing the first three quarters of last year to the first three quarters this week.

At the national level, there has been a great deal of concern regarding the slowing market. The Calgary market, however, has experienced improved sales activity and price growth. Although new single-family listings are steadily declining, sales activity is on the rise. Furthermore, since the number of active listings did improve slightly when compared to August and because of the slower unadjusted sales activity that took place in September, the housing supply has become more balanced.

In terms of pricing, the benchmark single-family home price reached $432,900 in September. While this is 8 percent more than September of last year, prices do seem to have leveled off over the past few months.

In addition to the growth seen in the single-family home market, year-to-date condominium apartment sales also enjoyed a 10 percent increase when compared to last year. This brought the total up to 2,762 units. Due to the greater demand for condominiums combined with the decline in new listings, the overall inventory levels have fallen. As a result, the city has seen a moderate improvement in the pricing of condominium apartments with the benchmark price for September reaching $249,300. This represents a 4 percent increase when compared to the same time last year. These figures are significant when considering that apartment prices were on the decline during this time last year.

Condominium townhouse sales also saw an increase when compared to last year, with a total of 2,061 sold during the first three quarters. This represents a 14 percent increase over last year. The benchmark price also increased to $277,700, representing a 2 percent improvement when compared to last year. Overall, uncertainty in the economy appears to have continued. Customer confidence in the prairie region, however, seems to have improved when compared to last year. Experts believe this is largely due to the fact that Calgary's unemployment rate continues to drop while wages are improving.

Furthermore, full-time employment growth within the region continues to outpace the national average.