This will be the fourth straight month that we have seen price gains for the city of Calgary! It is giving every indication that we are on the road to recovery and the detached segment is a big reason for this. Benchmark prices in the segment are up 1% since last month and sit at $509,000. Demand is still high with 2.1 months supply across the segment and the Northwest & East areas seeing the lowest amount of inventory (under 2 months). I have helped a couple people buy and sell in the East district and homes are flying off the shelves! It's an inexpensive way to get in to the market without condo fees. You can get a decent single family home for just over $300,000. This area is soon to be inner city as well and I have already seen a general shift of interest to this district. We are also starting to see the move up market mobilize with sales growth particularly strong in the $600-$900K range. The West and City Centre districts have fared the best year over year with price gains of 5.5% and 2.6% respectively.
The row house segment is showing some signs of life with sales up 13% year over year to 272 units. This is quite a spike compared to the last 2 years of monthly averages. Benchmark prices have only adjusted down 1.6% since May last year so pricing hasn't been much of a factor. I suspect that since we may have seen the signal for the bottom of the last downturn that some buyers are scrambling to get in to the market before prices start going up. There are some areas where prices have been affected more adversely (the East, North, Northwest and West) and that may have been a motivating factor as well. City centre prices have increased 2.9% year over year while that district and the Southeast have seen a 2% increase since last month!
Even though the semi detached sector has leveled out a bit since the first part of the year, sales are still strong and over the 10 year average. Benchmark prices are up 2.6% since last May. There has been increased sales activity in the $700-$900K range year to date. Once again, buyers are feeling confident in the market and are making their decision to purchase before prices increase more. There is lower inventory (less than 2 months supply) in the North, South & Southeast districts. Prices have increased more than 5% year over year in the City Centre & West while the Northwest and East districts increased over 1% since last month. The North & South districts are the only two in this segment where prices are down from last year.
The apartment segment inventory sits at 1780 units representing 30% of the total city's inventory. This is up 10% from last year. Benchmark prices are at $271,200 which is down $8,100 from May of last year (2.9%). Sales were up 2.5% year over year with 283 units and year to date sales are up 13.5%. While this is a positive sign that there are a number of buyers out there interested, there are still supply issues that will need to be worked out. Currently there is high supply in the Northeast while the Southeast & West districts are looking a bit more balanced with just under 5 months supply.
Highlights from outside the city:
- Airdrie sales are over the 10 year average, benchmark prices are up nearly 3% since the beginning of the year
- Cochrane sales are up again this month although apartment sales are slow in the area
- Okotoks average prices have been fairly stable since last September, inventory is balanced at 3.2 months supply
For a more in depth look at the stats, here are the Calgary & Regional stats.
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