New Year Begins With Slow Start 

City of Calgary, Tost Realty Group, February 1, 2019

As challenges related to the economy continue into the 2019 year, the market as a whole is still on the slow side.  January sales totalled 804 units, sitting at 16 per cent below last year, and 21 percent below long-term monthly averages. 

Chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie stated last week that:  “The slow start to the year does not come as a surprise, as concerns about job losses and the state of the energy sector weigh on consumers.  We anticipate that the slow market conditions will persist throughout much of the first quarter."

The number of new listings entering the market is still comparable to last year's data, but those levels have increased beyond normal sales activity.  Higher inventory levels are the main culprit for this occurrence. Elevated inventories in relation to sales...

Soft Job Market and Restrictions on Lending Influenced 2018's Real Estate Market

City of Calgary, Tost Realty Group, January 2, 2019

As oversupply is still a pertinent issue, prices during December slowed by one per cent, and are currently situated at over three percent below this time last year. 

CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie stated last month that “Persistent weakness in the job market and changes in the lending market impacted sales activity in the resale market this year”. This definitely contributed to a heightened supply in the resale market, resulting in a decline in price. 

Sales in December sat at a total of 794 units, a 21 per cent decline over the previous year. Overall year-to-date sales in the city sat at a total of 16, 144 units, a 14 per cent dip from two years ago, and 20 percent below previously standing long-term averages.

The Inventory levels statistic...

Economic Conditions Continue to Challenge Vitality of Resale Market 

City of Calgary, Dec. 3, 2018 

Sales during the month of November sat at a total of 1,171 units, remaining below long-standing averages. 

For the year up to this point, monitored sales activity has rang in at 15,349 units, displaying a 14 per cent decline over last year, and nearly 20 per cent below standing averages. 

During November, New listings eased by seven per cent compared to last year. Due to this substantial shift in new listings, further inventory gains have been prevented. Overall inventory is currently at 6,501 units, remaining slightly above the 5,683 units in inventory seen last year, and 32 percent higher than in a typical November.  

Throughout the month of November, the citywide benchmark price was $422,600, hovering near one percent lower than last month, and at 3 percent lower than levels...

Oversupplied Market Ultimately Weighs on Prices 

City of Calgary, November 1, 2018 

Inventory levels are elevated when compared alongside sales, which is causing Calgary housing prices to ease a bit more. 

Benchmark prices in the entire city during October totalled $426,300, which is a downward trend for the fifth month in a row. This resulted ultimately in a year-over-year decline of 2.9 percent. 

Chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie of CREB claimed avidly that job growth in the city remained a dire concern, as unemployment levels remain well above expected. The overall cost of ownership continuing to rise also will ultimately provide a burden of weight on the housing market and demand. 

Overall sales and inventories totaled 7,345 and 1,322 during the month of October. Typical monthly levels usually hover around 5.6, and while there is a bit of slowing in listing growth, this ultimately prevents further inventory risings. Currently the...

When we provide you as the reader news from the Tost Realty Group, we happen to love the days when it is positive! According to a recent report by the Altus Group, the main reason that the housing market has been a bit lackluster this year was the absence of first-time buyers, but all indicators point to the fact that they will soon be back shopping for Calgary Real Estate. Patricia Arsenault, VP of research and consulting services at Altus Group claimed that “With all of the policy changes...

The Calgary Real Estate calls it a bumpy road to recovery, and that was certainly evident in looking at what happened last month in our city.

February 2018 Stats

Sales of residential  properties dropped in February by 18% over 2017.  That’s a huge dip from last year.  But thankfully, we didn’t see an equally drastic decline in home prices.  We were fortunate in that we didn’t get the usual number of new listings last month which helped to keep prices on an even keel.   The current supply of homes for sale in Calgary sits at about four months.  Days on the market is another step back, at least from this time last year.  It’s gone from an average of 48 days to 51.

As of...

While drilling down into some of the new statistics that the Calgary Real Estate Board recently released, we discovered something very interesting.   The district of Calgary West  which is loosely defined as everything west of Crowchild Trail, north of Glenmore Trail/Highway 8 and south of the river or Trans-Canada Highway, is one of the city’s most stable market areas. That’s in all housing types, from single-family to attached, town homes and condos.  Calgary West showed the strongest annual growth in 2017 with only City Centre to look up to.

The Proof is in the Numbers

As the following chart will show, the communities in Calgary West survived the recent downturn as the best for single-family homes and was the runner-up for apartment condos. ...

We think it’s going to be a fairly decent year for real estate in Calgary.

This morning was the annual Calgary Real Estate Board’s Forecast Breakfast and whether the market is up, down or sideways we always come away with renewed vigor and optimism about how the year is going to go.   And today’s event was no excpetion.

CREB always likes to be cautiously optimistic and has announced that 2018 will offer its share of challenges.  The road to economic recovery continues to be bumpy – nothing is happening overnight – but there’s every indication that we can safely adopt an optimistic attitude.

The Short Term

Over coffee and dainties this morning, we heard from Ann-Marie...

It’s a fresh New Year, full of promise and optimism especially when it comes to Calgary Real Estate.  What will happen with house prices?  Will condo prices ever pick up after a 10-year slump?  And, now that I’ve waited for the recession to end, should I sell this year?

As I write this, we’ve all just learned that Amazon  has chosen not to relocate a facility for its HQ2 in Calgary.  We didn’t even make the short list of 20 different cities (like Toronto did).  I read a few predictions about 2018 from various Calgarians at the end of December that declared that Amazon and the reported 50,000 new jobs that would come with it would boost our real estate market.  So, nothing to do now but go onward.

Looking...