Real Estate Blog - real estate

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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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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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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How To Find An Open House

June has a long history of being a popular month for buying and selling here in Calgary. With the nice weather, vacation time, and influx of new families before the new school year starts, June is the perfect month to be active in the world of real estate. Whether you are buying or selling, now is the time to enter the market.

If you are planning to buy a home, June is a great month to start going to as many open houses as possible. Not only will this give you a good idea of what is out on the market, but it will also help you to get a feel for benchmark prices. Plus, open houses can be really fun if you go into them with a positive attitude.

There are a number of ways to find open houses to visit.

Open Houses are a lot like garage sales:…

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May 2015 Statistics

Spring is all about fresh beginnings, and that is what is happening in the Calgary real estate market: Calgary is finally recovering from the hit it took back in January when prices in oil fell. Against all odds, Calgary is coming back out on top.

While doomsday forecasters predicted an economic crisis to rival that of America’s crash, the Calgary Real Estate board held onto hope. That hope is starting to pay off. It has taken some time for the real estate market to stablilize after January’s economic hit frightened citizens away from being active in the market, but as the economy gets its footing once more, so has the housing market.

CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie reports, “For the third month in the row, new listings have eased compared to…

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The Perfect Patio

Imagine it is summertime. It’s not hard to, right? The birds are chirping, the sun is out, and Calgary is finally seeing the end of cold, snowy days. Imagine a cold drink in your hand, a bowl of fruit and good book at your side, and those shorts you’ve had buried under jackets and scarves all winter long. You can smell ribs on the barbecue, and George Strait is playing on the radio. Where are you? Outside on the patio! You don’t have a functioning patio? Well, here’s how you can make one.

Step One: Measure the area you want to cover and buy enough supplies to cover the space. We recommend using pegs to map it out beforehand so you get a good idea of how much space it will take up.

Step Two: Your patio should be elevated off the ground, or else the…

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Property Investments and Vacation Homes

When people think of recreational properties, they often think of a small house in Palm Springs or Arizona that they can retreat to during the cold winter months. This is absolutely true: many people who can afford the cost and upkeep of a second property somewhere outside of their primary area of living choose to invest.

Recreational properties are great for personal use, but they can also make extremely sound investments. Many people pursue real estate as a way to make money, whether its their primary job or not, and investment properties are one of the ways they do this. An investment property is not so different from a recreational property. In fact, the only difference is the mindset: a recreational property is for personal enjoyment, and an…

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