Real Estate Blog - Ken Richter

October 2015 Statistics

Hello, Winter!

Calgary has received its first official dump of snow. As of today, Starbucks has rolled out their holiday drinks and Christmas lights are starting to join the city skyline. It is time to say farewell to crunchy leaves and pumpkins, which we hope you did by taking them to the city wide recycling centres. For more information on that, check out the following link: City of Calgary Leaf and Pumpkin Recycling.

As our final goodbye to crisp autumn days, we have the CREB (Calgary Real Estate Board) October statistics summery. Want to learn more about real estate market conditions so you can be an informed buyer/seller/investor? Read on.

Elevated inventory levels continue to dominate the market in the resale sector which is significantly…

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November 2015 Market Statistics

Fall has arrived! September, a month of transitions and new focus, has become a beautiful October. Let’s all just take a moment to appreciate the fact that September passed without gracing our lawns with snow. Thank you, September. You were good to us.

September was a good month for real estate. Not necessarily a great month, but nothing the market can’t handle.

After four months of relatively stable, unadjusted benchmark prices, September saw a 0.26 percent decline in benchmark prices, settling at $456,100, on average, per unit. This price decline was most strongly seen in the apartment sector where inventory levels rose higher than they typically are.

Residential sales were much lower than the five and ten year averages. Why was this? CREB®…

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How To Get The Job

Getting a job has become harder than ever before. Having a degree does not cut it anymore. Workplaces are looking for people with years of experience, the ability to adapt to new innovations and individuals who will be a long term asset. Thus, the job market is highly competitive and incredibly difficult to break into.

The problem is threefold: young adults fresh out of University in search of a job to pay off their student loans don’t have years of experience to back them up, the majority of people in search of a job have outdated knowledge of the industry they are attempting to get a job in or no knowledge at all, and the average job that people are desperately trying to get is not their dream job, so unless the salary and benefits are amazing, they…

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Fire Safety

With a new season slowly entering Calgary, citizens are taking advantage of the remains of summer. Soon golden leaves will start falling to the ground, but for now the sun is shining late into the evening and the flowers are still in bloom.Tis’ the season for last minute camping trips, BBQ’s and late night adventures. Summers in Calgary are precious, after all.

This summer had a very smoky finale. After weeks of raging forest fires in B.C and northern Washington, smoke drifted into Calgary. The sun was obscured, the air was thick and people were warned not to go outdoors. At one point, Calgary air quality rated at 17 on a 1-10 scale. Unfortunately in some cities bad air is a daily struggle. However, for Calgary this was quite the shock to the system.

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August 2015 Statistics

The resale market in Calgary’s residential sector saw a drop in units sold which has eased absorption rate. City wide sales declined by 27 percent with 1, 643 units sold in August. This is 12 percent lower than the ten year averages we have previously been on par with.

Why is this happening? “Persistent weakness in the energy sector weighed on sales activity this month, which once again retracted to levels well below the norm for the city,” said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie. We may be back on our way to stability after the market crash, but it will still take a long time to fully recover. Luckily for us, Calgary is the ultimate comeback kid.

Weaker sales activity has resulted in properties being on the market for a longer time, the average…

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Cleaning Out The Clutter

Calgary is a city that leads in innovation and conservation. We may get a bad rap for being an oil industry centre, but Calgary is actually an extremely conscientious city when it comes to keeping the environment healthy. The city does this by educating students, striving to go green as much as possible, protecting natural areas around and within the city and, most recently, giving every house a black and blue bin.

As you know by now, the black bin is for garbage and the blue bin is for recycling. This includes bottles, cardboard, paper, glass, etc. While a lot of things can go directly into this blue bin to be collected by the city, there are many things you shouldn’t put in it. The city website says it best: “When you put items that don’t belong in…

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July 2015 Statistics

The summer is typically a popular time for those hoping to buy and/or sell a property. With school in hiatus for the summer, backyards emerging from their snowy slumber, and vacation days stored up, many people take advantage of the time and begin their real estate journey. This is the summer trend.

If there was one word to describe the real estate market this July, it would be “consistent.” Nothing out of the norm happened. It stayed consistent with typical summer trends. While this may seem dull, it is a sigh of relief for Calgarians who have still been nervous about the market after the oil crash back at the start of the year.

Sales activity for the month of July was consistent of the 10 year average. The declines we previously saw in…

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Vacation Properties

If there is one thing Calgarians love, it is a beautiful vacation home somewhere warm to visit on chilly winter days and as a summer getaway. Not only are vacation homes a great refuge to escape the busy city life, but they are also a fantastic investment. While real estate is one of the most popular places people invest their money, it can also be a risky investment if it is not done properly. So, today we are going to be going over how to find a great vacation property that doubles as a great investment.

Popular places for owning vacation homes are Palm Springs CA, Arizona, and Radium B.C. You definitely aren’t limited to only searching for homes here, but they do have some bonuses: the plethora of other vacation homes there mean that it is a…

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June 2015 Statistics

It has been a long time coming, but we can finally say with certainty that the Calgary Real Estate market has finally stabilized and is back to where it once was. For some, this is incredibly surprising considering the fact that the overall economic market of Calgary nearly plummeted back in January when the oil sector crashed. For the optimists, this in an unsurprising result of a city who has fought through way too many things to be thrown off track for long. Welcome back, Calgary. We missed you.

While transaction levels this June were 5% below the average, this is completely consistent with trends we’ve seen over the past 10 years.

“We’ve seen less concern from consumers lately. Consumers who were waiting for wide-spread price declines have been…

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Summer Vacation Locations

Calgary has so much to offer for travellers and locals wanting mini day-trip adventures. Containing many historic sites and a rich arts culture, YYC is a fantastic place to visit if you’re looking for fun things to do with the family. However, Calgary isn’t the only place in this area that has a lot to offer. Here are some places nearby that are great for family vacations:

1). Bearberry: This gorgeous piece of land located just west of Sundre is filled with beautiful hiking trails, a river, local wildlife, and a beautiful campground and cabin area. Open at all times of the year, Bearberry is the perfect city getaway for those who want to embrace their inner Waldo Emerson and spend some time away from it all with the family.

2). Waterton Lakes…

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