Demand for detached housing continues to rise
City of Calgary, June 1, 2017 – Fueled by the detached sector, Calgary home prices trended up for the fourth consecutive month, but remain below 2014 highs.
“The economic climate is supporting detached housing market recovery,” said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “Improved demand and easing supply has created more balanced conditions and ultimately some modest price gains. While it will still take some time for prices to recover, the transition in the detached segment is an important first step to stabilization across all segments of the housing market.”
For the first time since June 2015, prices in the detached sector did not decline on a year-over-year basis. Unadjusted detached benchmark prices reached $509,000 in May, one per cent higher than last month and May 2016 levels.
Against this backdrop, the number of new listings rose to 3,866 units in May, which is 17 per cent higher than last year’s total for the month. Despite this rise, year-to-date new listings have declined by one per cent over last year.
Like the detached market, the attached product has moved towards more balanced conditions. This has supported some recent directional shifts in pricing. However, monthly price declines had fallen by 4.7 per cent over peak levels and year-to-date benchmark prices remain two per cent below last year’s levels.
Apartment-style inventory levels totaled 1,780 in May, 11 per cent higher than last year’s levels and accounting for nearly 30 per cent of city wide inventory. Inventory gains were mostly under $300,000 and occurred across all districts except the North West. Apartment benchmark prices totaled $271,200 in May, 2.9 per cent below, and over 11 per cent below 2014 monthly highs. Apartment price adjustments have varied across the city, with the largest peak to declines occurring in the South East, South and City Centre district. This is likely related to the amount of new condominium construction in these areas.
The above data further illustrates how differently the market segments perform from one another. Whether you are buying or selling it is vital to know how your market segment is performing and how that affects your transaction.
For those who are considering taking advantage of the low interest rates to invest in real estate there are still several market segments with lower absorption rates to choose from. If you are interested in an investment strategy specific to your needs please contact us. We would love to help!
Susanita de Diego
Download: Calgary & Area Real Estate Statistics – May 2017
