City of Calgary, February 1, 2017 – For the fourth consecutive month, housing inventory levels have recorded year-over-year declines. At 4,112 total units, January’s inventory was 18 per cent below last year’s levels.
“While housing conditions continue to favour buyers, a slow transition toward more balanced conditions is helping to ease downward pressure on home prices,” said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “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 totaled 947 units, 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.
The detached segment of the market is demonstrating the most improvement. Sales activity totalled 584 units in January, a considerable improvement over the 466 sales recorded last year. Inventories have also declined pushing the months of supply to 3.2 months well below the 5.4 months recorded in January 2016.
Despite an improvement in apartment sales, new listings in the apartment sector continued to increase, causing a rise in apartment inventories. The apartment sector continues to face elevated levels of inventory in comparison to sales, weighing on prices.
The apartment benchmark price totaled $269,900 in January, five per cent lower than levels recorded last year. This change represents a total decline of 11.5 per cent since the 2014 high.
While the City of Calgary Detached segment has shown improvement that is not the case in the MD of Foothills, Airdrie, Cochrane and Okotoks.
For those who are considering taking advantage of the low interest rates to invest in real estate there are still several market segments with low 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 – January 2017
