Real Estate Update

For the fourth consecutive month, the Calgary Real Estate market has recorded year-over-year inventory declines. The month of January is 18 per cent below last year’s levels.

CREB was quick to temper expectations by saying “Conditions have improved over last year, but people need to remember that last year’s market was one of the weakest on record. Despite the appearance of a major shift in activity, the transition in the housing market is going to be a slow process.”

January sales were 24 per cent above last year, but 21 per cent below 10-year averages for the month. Sales activity improved across all product types, but only when compared to the near record lows that occurred in January 2016.

As expected, the detached segment of the market is demonstrating the most improvement. Sales activity was up 25 per cent over 2016. Inventories have also declined pushing the months of supply to 3.2 months well below the 5.4 months of January 2016.

As for prices, since the highs in 2014, residential prices have declined from a low of five per cent in the detached sector to highs of almost 12 per cent in the apartment condominium market.

As mentioned last month, it’s still early in the year and we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves, there are still lots of unknowns that will shape decision-making for consumers.