Kate: Hey guys, this is Katelyn
Pete: and Pete de Jong
Kate: and we are here to bring you your monthly update for May.
Pete: Yeah, for the Calgary Real Estate. Yes. In Calgary. which is probably where Calgary real estate would be. I don’t know. Come to think of it .
It’s been quite a month, a as the last couple months have been like the kind of trend that we’ve been seeing. It just seems to continue, doesn’t it?
Kate: What has been the trend?
Pete: Well, just low inventory has been the problem. And it’s, it’s kind of, it’s not just a problem in Calgary. It appears to be a problem across the country.
That’s right. And even a different places. It’s almost like a friend of mine described to me that it’s like, it’s like the third world’s moving to the first world. You know, we, Canada accepted a million more people last year and and how many coming in like Ukrainians coming into Calgary, just like
Kate: a thousand a week,
Pete: a thousand Ukrainians per week coming, which we’re happy about.
We want them to be here, we want them to be safe, and they’re great folks and love to have them as part of our part of our neighborhoods and that kind of thing, but, Boy, we gotta, you know, we gotta think a little better about zoning and, and production of housing and stuff like that because we are not keeping up and it’s having an impact nationally, but, you know, right here in Calgary big time as well, so.
What’s happening, like, you know, sales are actually down, right? Yes. I mean, despite this, this activity, sales are down. So how can you have this many people moving to Calgary? And see less sales than you did last year.
Kate: Well, it’s cuz our inventory is also down so that that also helps The new listings is also down as well.
Pete: Yeah. New listings are down 15%. Yes. 15% from last year. And last year, if you remember around this time, we are saying, boy, we’ve got some really low inventory. Well, we’re down 15% from that and new listings. In fact, we’ve been having that for the last few months, which means now that our, our total inventory is down about 38%.
Now, almost compared to last, last year, almost 40%. Wow. I just need to make a slight, slight adjustment here to my camera. Okay. And like a leg technician using scotch tape. So here we go. Now it’s not gonna fall out. It was, it was starting to fall down.
Kate: Sponsor us.
Pete: Yeah. We couldn’t do this without scotch tape.
Kate: No, we actually couldn’t. If you guys saw our setup right now, yeah. You’d be like amazed.
Pete: We do the best we can on the budget we have, you know, and like I said, the, the city, you know, Now what the city wants to do is, is pay these well-healed developers to, to renovate office buildings in a residential towers, which like, if that’s a great idea, fine.
But I don’t know why our tax dollars have to do that. Don’t get me started. If you wanna read that opinion, by the way, it was in the National Post, I don’t know, two weeks ago, something like that. A week or two ago? A week ago? Yeah, a week ago. You’d have to Google it now, but, I did write an opinion piece in the National Post where I talk about how stupid this idea is that the city’s doing.
And how, if it’s a good idea, great, let the free market do it. But anyways, we’ll save that rant for another day, won’t we?
Kate: No, he will go.
Pete: Don’t, don’t get me renting about don’t get politics or don’t, so, so in terms of our benchmark price, though, our bench, so, so sales are down, inventory’s way down.
But we’re seeing price increases, right? Yes. We are year over year. So these numbers we’re talking about, by the way, just to reinforce this, this is all just May of 23 versus May of 22. So it’s not, versus last month like that, this is a year later, what is May done. So in terms of that, our benchmark price is now.
Kate: Benchmark prices at $557,000, which is an increase from two point. Six of last year percent. Yeah.
Pete: Yeah. 2.6% increase. That’s not bad. We’re seeing bigger increase in that in some markets, like for example. Yes. Well, the detached market is up 4.2% right. Up to, what do they now? Like $675,000?
Kate: Six. Yeah. $674,000. So that’s an increase of 4.2% compared to last year.
Pete: Yeah. What’s interesting, the detach market is, that’s where we signed. 8% fewer sales. So we talked initially about how there’s like a 2% drop in sales versus May of last year. In the detach market, we’re actually seeing an 8% drop.
And what’s really interesting is the active part of that market has been the market under $600,000, under $700,000. But right now it’s actually. It’s the homes over $700,0 00 that we’re seeing increases in, and the decreases are in the cheaper ones. And that’s again, because there’s just nothing for them to sell.
So a good example of that is if you go to the east part of Calgary where everyone said you don’t wanna buy in Forest Lawn and Dover and all that. Like they’re the, like the best performing area of the city now, right?
Kate: Yes, they actually are. So they’re outperforming all the other areas in Calgary.
Their benchmark price is up 10.8%. Yeah. So that’s at about $370,000 compared to what it was last year.
Pete: And like the really, like Richie areas like the, the Mount Royals and you know, some of those Albert Parks, Elbow Park and stuff like that. What are they at? They’re not even at half a percent.
Kate: Yeah, they’re at 0.3% increase from last year.
Pete: Yeah. So all the, all the price increases are at the lower level. And now we’re actually seeing sales drop off because there’s just nothing left. Yes. Yeah. So another good example of that, by the way, is the semi-detached market, right? Yeah. Where the sales to listing ratio in that market is over a hundred percent.
Now, we sold 4% more semi-detached houses in May than we listed, and as a result, we got a really good bump in prices there too, right?
Kate: Actually, for the first time, we’re looking at our benchmark price. Over just over $600,000. So $600,500. So that’s an increase of 3.2% compared to last year.
Pete: And in townhouses, we’re seeing a sales ding ratio there of like 90% as well. So that’s pretty good. We’ve seen inventories down, by the way, in town, in townhouses. By 50%. So a again, like, you know, people will say, you know, how’s the market? And it’s really a question of which market, you know, it’s like exactly like, where are you in the city?
What, what market are you interested in buying or selling? You know, and that kind of thing. Because that’s it. The, the variances between these different markets is kind of extraordinary. So yeah, the townhouses, they’re selling for close to $400,000 though, right? Close to $400,000 benchmark price.Yeah. Benchmark price.
Kate: Yeah. Close to $400,000. So that’s an increase of 8.7% compared to last year.
Pete: Yeah. And apartments has been the story too for a while, right? Oh, in fact, wasn’t it a year or so ago, maybe a year and a half ago, wasn’t it? Wasn’t there someone you knew that was recommending buying..
Kate: Oh, yeaaah.
Pete: ..Apartments, because he sort of saw that. I think it’s interesting because I think like in terms of price increases, they’re the ones that have experienced the best price increases.
Kate: Yes, I have goldfish memories, so I don’t know. I can’t remember.
Pete: Think, just think. I’ll give you a clue. He’s sitting beside you.
So, so anyway, so yeah, that’s the area that or that’s the market that’s actually seen the, the best price increases. And so they’re up like 11% or whatever. Yep. I, I read a report that said 12, so I’m not even sure. It’s between 11 and 12 anyways, something like that. And they’re selling now the benchmark price, there is like $300,000 or something like that.
Kate: Yeah. Close to $300,000.
Pete: So, Yeah. And sales in that, in, in the, in the apartments now are up 36%. So when you’re seeing 8% sales, 8% less sales and detached. 36% increase in apartments. It goes to show you how the variances within, within markets can be pretty extreme.
Kate: What was the highest price one to sell this month or in May? So highest price sale. Actually, can we just talk about how many sales that there were over 2 million? Yes.
Pete: Yeah!
Kate: How many?
Pete: 22. I know.
Kate: 22 homes sold over
Pete: 2 million in May. Yeah. That’s insane. So that really high end market is not dead. I mean, no, 22 is not nothing.
That’s, that’s still quite something for, yeah, for Calgary. So, yeah.
Kate: So the sorry, totally just sidetracked there. So our, the highest sale that actually sold back in May was for 4.8 million. And that’s sold in Elbow Park. Yeah. By Gordon Ross.
Pete: It was a nice house too. It was beautiful. It like, like beautiful.
It’s, it’s interesting, once in a while we’ll see a house that’s sold for two, three, 4 million and you kind of go, ugh. This place, like traditional style, it was built I think in 2004, if I’m not mistaken. It could be, but it was built in a very traditional st very homey home. Mm-hmm. And, Beautiful location and all that stuff.
It’s like, wow, that place is worth every nickel. Yes. The cheapest one. Probably worth every nickel too. Yes. It was in Chinatown. Which is like, that’s a second month in a row, right?
Kate: Yes. We’ve been talking about Chinatown, so shout out to Chinatown again.
Pete: If you want something cheap, man, head down to Chinatown.
This place sold for only $85,000, which is. Wow. You know, CHMP change. I don’t think you could even get a mortgage on it, bill, because it was only like 350 or
Kate: 366 square feet. Something like that. Yeah.
Pete: Yeah. It was basically a great big closet in, in the, in the home that. You know, sold in Albert Park, elbow Park.
I keep saying Albert Park, completely different area. And the one that sold an elbow park probably had a walk-in closet about the size of this condo in Chinatown. And I think the banks sometimes kind of resist mortgaging properties, even under 500 square feet and stuff like that. So, yep. You’d probably have to buy a cash, but that’s why it’s $85,000.
We, and we did see one in the same building, or at least in the same area, right?
Kate: We did, yeah. That one was actually, Fully renoed though. Yeah. So it’s sold for $124,000.
Pete: Yeah. Something like that. $123,000-$124,000. So, hey, you buy a little place for 85, put a couple G’s into it and exactly.
Actually that guy probably did a little more, he granite countertops and all kinds of stuff in this little all this Chinatown condo, so. Yeah. But he got, you know, $40,000 more so good for him.
If you wanna know what’s what your place is worth, give us a shout because as you’ve seen in this video, or if you’re listening to this podcast, what you’re seeing is like the prices are all over the map.
The market is all over the map. Yeah. Things are going up, things are going down all over the place, depending on, on, you know, where you are and what you’re living in or what you’re looking at and stuff like that. Do get advice from from us or from a good real estate agent that you trust before you buy or sell anything in Calgary.
Right now, it’s a little nuts. Exactly. And also, I wanna mention this, if you’re thinking of moving outta Calgary, but you still want to work in Calgary. You know, there’s always this debate, right? Well, do you look in Okotokes or Airdrie or Chestermere or Cochrane? Right. And you know, I always hear from people from Cochrane that when you live there and you drive and you work in the city.
You have the sun of your eyes the whole way into work, and then when you’re driving home, you have the sun in your eyes the whole time because it rises.
Kate: That’s actually true. Yeah.
Pete: It rises in the east and sets in the west, no matter which way you’re going, whether you’re going to work or not. But if you live in chest, You’re actually probably even closer to downtown.
Like it’s really fast. True. To go to downtown from Chestermere and we’ve got this beautiful, like, and I’m talking gorgeous from top to bottom place in Chestermere it’s actually in the Kinniburgh area, which is kind of the high end area of Chestermere. And everything about this house has been done with like the top quality materials and, and design and stuff like that. You really have to look at it. We’ve just done our second price adjustment on it. It’s down from $850,000 down to like $815,000 or $814,900 now. So it’s like, it’s a good deal. Wow. And it’s like in a beautiful, beautiful home. Everything about this place from like the curb appeal to the kitchen design. I mean, is that kitchen something?
Kate: I love That kitchen. I would spend my entire day in that kitchen.
Pete: If you like to cook or bake, you want to be in this kitchen. But anyways, have a look at it on my website at and any questions on her? If you wanna take a look at it, gimme a show.
I’ll be happy to show it to you. But otherwise any questions about real estate at all? Outside of that, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. All those links will be below yes. And call or text us anytime we’re happy to chat with you or to anyone that you wanna refer to us.
Kate: Yes, exactly. And just a quick shout out to our Facebook page, moving to Alberta, if you guys have any other family or friends that are moving. Please send them to our Facebook page.
Pete: Yeah. Like we got a lot of people moving here from Ontario right now and from BC and stuff like that. Refer them to the moving to Alberta Facebook page.
And we’ll be, happy to chat with them there too. So. All right. Thanks so much and we’ll see you next month.
Kate: Bye guys.
May sales reach a record high
Thanks to a significant gain in apartment condominium sales, May sales rose to 3,120, a new record high for the month. While the monthly gains have not outweighed earlier declines, this does reflect a shift from the declines reported at the start of the year.
At the same time, we continue to see fewer new listings on the market than last year, causing inventory levels to fall. With a sales-to-new-listings ratio of 85 per cent and months of supply of one month, conditions continue to favour the seller placing further upward pressure on home prices.
“Calgary’s housing market continues to exceed expectations with the recent gain in sales activity this month,” said CREB® Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “The higher interest rate environment and recent rental rate gains have driven more consumers to seek apartment condominium units. In addition, the recent rise in new apartment listings has provided enough options to support the sales gain. Calgary continues to benefit from the relatively healthy job market and recent population growth keeping housing demand strong across all property types.”
Persistently tight market conditions drove further price growth this month. In May, the unadjusted benchmark price reached $557,000, over one per cent higher than last month and nearly three per cent higher than last year’s monthly peak price of $543,000.
Detached
Rising sales for homes priced above $600,000 was not enough to offset declines in the lower price ranges as May sales reached 1,486, a year-over-year decline of eight per cent. New listings continue to fall for homes priced below $700,000, providing limited choice for consumers seeking out lower-priced detached homes. While new listings did improve for higher-priced properties, the relatively strong demand kept conditions tight across all price ranges, driving further price gains.
In May, the detached benchmark price reached $674,000, nearly two per cent higher than last month and over four per cent higher than last year’s peak price of $647,000. While each district reported a new record high price this month, the year-over-year gains ranged from a high of 12 per cent in the East District to a low of two per cent in the City Centre.
Semi-Detached
Sales also rose to near-record highs for the month for semi-detached homes. However, with 279 sales and 269 new listings this month, inventories fell, and the months of supply dropped below one month.
The exceptionally tight conditions caused further price gains, which for the first time, pushed above $600,000. This is the seventh consecutive month where prices have trended up, and as of May, levels are over three per cent higher than last year’s monthly peak. Like the detached sector, each district reported new record high prices in May. However, the strongest year-over-year gains occurred in the most affordable East district at nearly 12 per cent.
Row
New listings in May improved over levels seen earlier in the year, but thanks to monthly gains in sales, the sales-to-new listings ratio remained exceptionally high at 89 per cent, preventing any significant shift in the low inventory situation. While sales activity is still lower than last year’s levels, this is likely related to the lack of supply in this segment of the market. Inventory levels are down 50 per cent compared to last year.
With less than one month of supply, it is not a surprise that prices continue to rise. In May, the benchmark price reached $390,500, a two per cent gain over last month and nearly nine per cent higher than last year’s peak price of $359,600. Row prices rose across all districts, with year-over-year gains exceeding 15 per cent in the city’s North East, South and East districts. The slowest price gains occurred in The City Centre, North West and South East at rates of over seven per cent.
Apartment Condominium
Sales in May reached 858 units, a year-over-year gain of 36 per cent and high enough to cause year-to-date sales to rise by four per cent for a new record high. Stronger sales were possible thanks to the recent gains in new listings. There were 1,025 new listings in May, a year-over-year gain of eight per cent. Despite the gain in new listings, the sales-to-new listings ratio remained high at 84 per cent, preventing any significant shift in inventory levels. As a result, inventory levels remained 23 per cent lower than what was available in the market in May 2022. The rising sales and low inventories kept the months of supply low at just over one month.
Persistently tight conditions drove further price gains in May. The unadjusted benchmark price reached $298,600, a monthly gain of over one per cent and a year-over-year gain of nearly 11 per cent. The recent growth has finally caused unadjusted apartment condominium prices to return to 2014 levels. Unlike other areas, not all districts reported a new record high price. The only areas to report a full recovery were the North, North West, West and South East districts. Overall year-over-year price growth ranged from a high of 16 per cent in the North District to a low of 10 per cent growth in the City Centre.
REGIONAL MARKET FACTS
Airdrie
Limited supply choice continues to weigh on sales activity in Airdrie. In May, there were 260 new listings and 225 sales, keeping the sales to new listings ratio high at 87 per cent and preventing any significant shift in inventory levels. However, with less than one month of supply, conditions are tighter than they were last year at this time.
Persistently tight conditions caused prices to trend up for the fifth consecutive month. The benchmark price reached $502,900 in May, remaining shy of the record high of $504,200 achieved in April 2022. While total residential prices have not reached new record highs, detached home prices have reached a new record with a benchmark price of $587,200.
Cochrane
Like other markets in the area, the limited level of new listings is preventing stronger sales activity. In May, 135 new listings came onto the market, and there were 122 sales, keeping the sales-to-new listings ratio elevated at 90 per cent. While inventory levels are still higher than last year’s, they are still exceptionally low for this time of year, leaving the months of supply just above one month in May.
The persistently tight conditions caused prices to trend up for the fourth consecutive month. While the benchmark price of $515,600 remains below the monthly high of $517,900 achieved in June 2022, should conditions continue to remain this tight, we could see further upward pressure on home prices over the next several months.
Okotoks
Like other markets, low levels of new listings are limiting sales activity in the town. In May, new listings reached 87 units, and with 76 sales, the sales to new listings ratio pushed above 87 per cent. This also prevented any significant shift in inventory levels, and the months of supply once again dropped below one month.
Persistently tight market conditions caused prices to trend up for the fifth consecutive month. With a benchmark price of $575,900, prices are nearly four per cent above last year’s levels and at a new record high.
Click here to view the full City of Calgary monthly stats package.
Click here to view the full Calgary region monthly stats package.
