After sales in October gave a false glimmer of hope, here we are looking in the rear view mirror for November and sales are back to where they were. October saw a 16% spike in sales activity, however, that was primarily due to the new mortgage rules implemented by the Feds. Buyers rushed to market to get their financing in under the wire. City of Calgary sales were off by 3% from this time last year totaling 1227 units. The benchmark price fell 0.6% from October and is now down 4.1% year over year. Inventory levels still remain below last year’s levels of just under 5,000 (down 6.5%). The lower inventory (especially in the detached segment) has kept prices somewhat in check. Semi-detached & detached homes have maintained their value better than the row & apartment segments. Benchmark prices for detached homes have decreased 3.4% year over year. A lot of that decrease has happened in the luxury home market. Prices have come down substantially making these homes more attractive for the move up buyer. Sales are up 17% year to date. Nine out of ten people are still employed and if they are not directly attached to the oil & gas sector, they are seeing a great opportunity to upgrade their living situation. As far as the detached segment as a whole, home prices on the west side have held the best of all the districts only dropping 0.4% since last year. Where I am seeing the biggest drops in prices (and best deals) is in the southeast & northeast. Southeast home prices have dropped 6.6% year over year. Semi-detached home sales are up 3% year to date with benchmark prices only falling 2.4% year over year. The southeast & east districts continue to see lower inventory levels with prices in the southeast only down 2% since last year. City centre prices for semi-detached homes have been flat since last year. The demand still remains high for living closer to city center and although buyers are price conscious, they are still willing to pull the trigger on a purchase. The apartment segment continues to battle supply issues. New projects that were conceptualized in the last brief uptick (2012-2014) have been coming to fruition and adding fuel to the fire in an already over-supplied market. Prices fell by 0.9% since last month and are down 6.8% since last November. Prices are now down over 10% since peak levels of 2014. Inventory levels are 5.7% higher than last year and last year held high inventory. With average sale price to list price ratios at 95.5% and average days on market at 58, buyers have their ‘pick of the litter’ and lots of time to make a decision. There are still a number of sales though (195 units) so if you are looking to sell, just make sure your place shows awesome, is aggressively priced and it will sell. The northwest has seen the least erosion in prices – down 4.8% year over year. There are lower inventory levels tracking in the south district with only 6 months supply compared to 7.3 months city wide. Row housing has seen a considerable drop in prices over the last 6 months. Buyers are choosing semi-detached product for the affordability and lack of condo fees. If your condo fees are $300 per month, that equates to approximately $60K of mortgage. Prices for row housing are adjusting to match for this. Much less demand has created a drop in price of 5.5% since last year. Year to date sales are down 12% meaning inventory levels are high especially in the city centre & east side. Prices have fared the best in the south and southeast areas of town (only down 3.4% for both). Outside of Calgary a few things have changed. Airdrie months of supply has increased to 5.4 months. Even though sales are above the 10 year average, new listings were up creating higher inventory levels. Chestermere & Strathmore saw year over year price gains (albeit miniscule). While Okotoks & Chestermere sales were below the 10 year average, the rest of the satellites were above. Affordability is driving this. Buyers are getting better bang for their buck outside of the city.
For a more in depth look at the stats click the links – Calgary or Calgary Region
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