Calgary Real Estate Blog

While we’ve definitely transitioned to a balanced market, as lower oil prices have cooled Calgary’s economy somewhat, it remains a great time to sell your home, especially if it’s valued at less than $500,000. The luxury market is taking a hit right now – if you’re looking for something in the $1 million-plus range, I can get you a great deal – but low interest rates are driving strong demand for detached, single family residences priced between $400,000 and $500,000, with many selling within a couple of weeks of listing for very close to asking price. The number of properties on the market in May 2015 was down by more than a quarter from previous years, and that means the best priced properties available will be snapped up quickly – average resale prices are down only 1.5 percent year-over-year.

Things are certainly looking more positive than they were a couple of months ago, and make me rather optimistic for how things will play out in the next six months. Yet more proof that our properly managed real estate market, backed by a reliable banking system, has warded off any hint of a housing bubble; the growth we’ve seen, while impressive, is both reasonable and sustainable.

To talk about your options in listing your own property, please contact me today!

Despite the attention-grabbing headline – “Calgary housing market ‘seriously unaffordable’ – the Calgary Herald’s story from a couple days ago on the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey (DIHAS) isn’t dire news. For nine years running, this survey has measured something called the median multiple across more than 300 cities around the world, and ranks them for affordability. The median multiple is calculated by dividing median house prices in the area by residents’ median before-tax income, and this year Calgary’s median multiple was 4.3, which the organization calls ‘seriously unaffordable’.

Interestingly, the article goes on to cite an RBC Economics Research study showing the Calgary market hit its most affordable levels in years in Q3 2012, the same quarter the DIHAS looked at.

So what’s going on here? If Calgary’s market is so unaffordable, why are sales already up more than ten percent, year-over-year (and why am I so rarely at home watching TV with my wife in the evenings)? Calgary’s luxury market had a record year in 2012, with 544 homes selling for more than $1 million; that beats 2007’s record high by nearly 100 sales, and would skew the median multiple at least a bit. So, perhaps there’s a flaw in the methods used to compile the DIHAS, and perhaps ‘the Alberta Advantage’ makes us a fairly unique case. Taxes in the province are extremely low (some would say too low), and that means the difference between pre-tax and post-tax income for Calgarians is not the same as in, say, Vancouver. Combine that with continued bargain basement interest rates, and we’ve still got a pretty attractive environment in which families can find a place to make their own. Are houses here more expensive here than they used to be? Sure they are. To deem them ‘seriously unaffordable’, given all the angles and not just median income, though, seems like a stretch.