Katelyn: Hi guys, this is Katelyn.
Pete: I’m Pete!
Katelyn: With our monthly market update for the month of March, 2023. So Pete, if you could describe the Calgary real estate market in one sentence, how would you break it down?
Pete: It’d be hard to do, but I think I’d probably say that sales are down, but only because listings are down.
I think that’s really what it comes down to. I think we’re, you know, we would see more, we’d see more sales if we had more listings, cuz right now we, we have more buyers than we have houses for sale, so. Yep. Yeah, that’d be the, that’d be the Cole’s notes. Yeah, that’d be the gist of what we’re doing.
Katelyn: That’d be the gist.
So, how are sales doing, Pete? What’s going on there?
Pete: Well, in terms of sales, like I mentioned, sales are down 40% from March of last year. Now, a couple things to keep in mind. Of course, March of last year was an extraordinarily good for March, right? So we’re down from an inordinate number of sales last year.
But also, again, it’s because of, you know, there’s just not a lot of houses for sale. I think anyone watching this, you’d be driving around your neighborhood. You’re probably agreeing. There’s just not a lot of for sale signs right now.
Katelyn: Or if they are, they’re sold.
Pete: Yes, yes. Yeah. Very quickly. Yeah. If they’re, you know, if they’re priced reasonably, you know there’s people in this market, of course, that are trying to get greeting, it’s not gonna work.
Cuz people would, you know, people always have the option of not buying your house at all. Right. You know, so. Yeah. But when I say that sales that new listings are down, that sales are down because new listings are down. What, what’s going on with new listings?
Katelyn: Well, Like Pete was just saying, new listings are down almost 40% as well. 39.6% to be exact.
Pete: So 40% down in sales, 39% down in listings. Mm-hmm. There’s the story. Yeah. And what it means is inventory is actually down just over 25% from last year as well. Yeah. Which is what you’d see, you know, inventory slowly. Going down from last and last year we didn’t have a lot of inventory.
We really didn’t. Prices were going up last year at this time, if you remember, because we had such a shortage of inventory. Right. And we’re actually starting to see that creep up a little bit now, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Mm-hmm. In terms of month supply, this is interesting.
Katelyn: Yeah. Months of supply is up, but. Like very little. Like it’s, it’s,
Pete: oh, it is up.
Katelyn: Yes. Yes.
Pete: But it’s still up just a little bit.
Katelyn: Yes. Still up just a little bit.
Pete: 20 per 24% can sound like a lot when it’s not. Yeah. It’s like we went up from, you know, a month supply to a month and a week supply. Yeah. So that’s an increased. It’s kind of like people were talking about this the other day with, with respect to interest rates.
Like do you know how much of a percentage increase it is to go from a 2% interest rate on your mortgage to a 6%?
Katelyn: Pete, you’re gonna make me do mental math right now, and I am not about it.
Pete: But it sounds like people go, oh, two to six, that’s 4%, right? Yeah, it’s two. It’s a 200% increase in your interest rate.
So, you know, it’s like if even if you went from 4% interest on your mortgage to 6%, you go, well, it’s 2%. It’s actually, well, it is going up 2%, but it’s actually a 50%. From four to six. So, you know, that’s really where some of this has, has been tough on buyers. Yeah. Yeah. And where they’re going, oh, geezes, you know, it’s like, you know, anyone that has a variable mortgage and some of us have one or two.
It’s like, it’s, it’s scary to all of a sudden go, man, my mortgage payment just doubled. And that’s causing some fear, trepidation in the market. The reality is, mm-hmm. Look, it, it, it is what it is. And as long as you’re buying and selling in the same market, it’s not like, you know, you’re gonna win or lose.
It’s like if you’re gonna get more for your house than you thought you were going to. Yeah. And then you were gonna pay more for your house than you thought you were going to. You’re still in. It’s, it’s still leveled out. It’s kind of a wash. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So in terms of prices though, we’ve, after seeing some price declines since price go back, we’re actually starting to see the, we are the train come to a stop and head the other way, right?
Katelyn: Yep, yep. We are. So let’s talk about the detach prices right now. So they are up year by year, 1.8%. So that’s about an average of $649,000.
Pete: So the whole market has gone up 0.8%.
Katelyn: Yes.
Pete: Detached homes have gone up. Yeah. 1.82. Well, it’s only 2%, but hey, we’ll take it. They’re, they’re now selling at 650,000, right? For the benchmark price. Detached homes are up about the same. They’re up about 1.6%, so they’re selling at $580,000. Townhouses are up pretty good, right?
Katelyn: Yeah. Townhouses are up almost 8%, so 7.5%. Right. So that’s 378,000.
Pete: Yeah, and then, and apartments. And that’s for real houses, right?
Yep. That’s townhouses, townhouse. And so for apartments, this is really where, you know, we’ve seen the, the biggest increase and I think it’s a reflection of the fact that they’d crashed the hardest when things kind of crashed. That’s true. So we’re just sort of making up to a back to where we were, but that meant an 11% increase.
So that’s kind of where the. Yeah. And, and you know, like any realtor will tell you right now, it’s hard to find a condo downtown It is, which has been a complete reversal of a few years ago . When 30% of the BeltLine listings were vacant. It was crazy. Yeah. So that’s where the market’s at. You know, again, your market might be a little bit different depending on what area you’re in or what kind of house you have and that kind of stuff.
So you always still want to be in touch with me or a, or a realtor that you trust to sort of. What’s going in my immediate market, but mm-hmm. That’s in general what’s going on in terms of the cheapest house, cuz we like talking about the cheapest sale every month and the most expensive sale. Yes. So, because the cheapest one is the one that I can afford, and the most expensive house is the one that Katelyn can afford.
What? Oh, we’re not supposed to tell anybody. No, it’s a secret. It’s supposed to like hush hush. I didn’t, I didn’t know that. We weren’t supposed to talk to you about, talk to people about how no wealthy you are. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Okay. So anyways, the cheapest house, this is one that I can afford. Tell me about that one.
Katelyn: Okay, so you can still buy an apartment in downtown.
Pete: Wait for those listening in Toronto or Vancouver. Putting your coffee down and pay attention this, you’re not gonna believe this, but it’s true.
Katelyn: Yeah. Yep. So you can still buy an apartment for under a hundred K in Calgary. Do that there downtown. Yeah.
This is downtown. Downtown, yeah.
Pete: 90,000 bucks. Whew. Take that. So if you’re moving here from Vancouver or Toronto, call us up. We’ll sell you a dozen of them for the price that you sold your, your condo for in Toronto or Vancouver. And then in terms of the most expensive house to sell, this one’s interesting.
I hope I get the real, by the way, who sold that house? The, the $90,000 one Simon Wong. That’s right. Yes. The wong realtor. Yes. And that’s his. Wong. So he is in fact the Wong realtor. Yeah. But the most expensive house to sell was sold by, and I’m gonna butcher this guy’s name. And Michael, I sincerely apologize.
It’s Michael Farianic…, we don’t know how to say your last name, and I apologize because Michael did sell the most expensive house to sell in March. It was an upper Mount Royal, which is kind of like, it’s always been like the, you know. Yes. A pretty posh neighborhood. Yeah. But this is a brand new place, so I don’t know if they tore down the old house or if he found a vacant lot in there, or what Somebody sub-divided, who knows.
But that one sold for almost $4 million. 3.7 million. Yeah. My gosh. Nice big house in upper Mount Royal, which is a great area, too close to downtown and all that stuff, so, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good. So Katelyn, I noticed that you’ve been around for a while. Are you, you must be heading a, like usually, usually you’re on vacation, right?
Katelyn: I, wow. He would bring this up right now, of course, I..
Pete: It’s been a couple of weeks since you’ve been in the sun.
Katelyn: I’m starting to prune, so I need to rejuvenate. So I am leaving next week. Oh. But for good reasons. Sure. I’m looking for a wedding. Yeah, yeah, sure. I, it’s not my choice. A wedding.
Yeah. Where are you going this time?
Probably like Vegas. Vegas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s what Katelyn does. You know, it’s like I’ve been in the office for a couple of weeks. It’s about time I took off and went to Vegas or. Yeah.
Pete: I’m pruning. I told you I’m pruning. I need to, you know. Yeah, yeah. Your tan is starting to fade.
Katelyn: Exactly. Yeah. This is a fake tan, guys.
This is actually not real.
Pete: She’s not Filipino.
Katelyn: No, I’m not.
Pete: She’s got Cajun. She just, she’s just always on holidays. Exactly. So anyways, Katelyn, nice to have you around for a while.
Katelyn: Aw, thanks. I appreciate that.
Pete: Enjoy your, enjoy your vacation again. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns regarding real estate, you’ll have to talk to me, unfortunately.
Katelyn: And I also want to mention our Facebook page. Yes. Yeah. We have a Facebook page called Moving to Alberta. So if you have any friends or family moving from Vancouver, Toronto, wherever, we have almost 700 people on this.
Pete: And it’s cool, it’s turning into a cool little community where people can ask questions and other people on the page can even answer them for them and stuff.
And when we say Vancouver, Toronto, by the way, what we mean is. Vancouver and the Fraser Valley or Toronto and the whole Gordon, the whole gold golden horseshoe area. Those kind, I mean, anywhere in those areas, those kind of folks are those kind of folks are there, is there a kind of, anyways, sounds a little weird.
People living in those areas, kind of folks are all looking at Calgary right now, but I don’t blame them. Especially not if you like blue skies. And you like mountains and rivers and hiking and biking and, and an economy and so much more. This is where you’d wanna live. So go to Moving Tell Alberta on Facebook and let it subscribe.
Of course you can like and subscribe. My page on Facebook too, just Pete de Jong realtor. And also what I, what I’m actually looking for is if you’ve, if you’ve watched this for a while and you’re a client of mine or a friend or whatever, and you haven’t left me a Google Review, I really, really like them.
They make my day. Katelyn will tell you that to me, they’re better than a commission check is getting a good Google review. Yep. And I think I’m up to 73 5 star reviews in aronia. Oh, wow. So, but I’d like to get some more. Because I’m gluttonous this that way. No, I just, I just like hearing how I’m doing.
So whatever you want to give me in terms of review, I’d appreciate it. Mm-hmm. But yeah, if you wanna gimme a Google Review, I’d love that too. In the meantime, thanks so much. Be in touch. Be in touch with us anytime. We’re happy to answer any questions or talk about real estate. It’s kind of our favorite thing to talk about.
Katelyn: It is. Yeah, it is. Awesome. Take care guys.
Pete: See you next time. Thanks.
Prices rise as conditions favour the seller
Sales and new listings have improved over the levels reported at the beginning of the year. As a result, the spread between sales and new listings supported some expected monthly inventory level gains. However, the 3,233 available units reflected the lowest March inventory levels since 2006 and left the months of supply just above one month, firmly in the seller’s territory. While conditions are not as tight as last March, low inventory levels leave purchasers with limited choice, once again driving up home prices.
Total unadjusted residential home prices reached $541,800 in March, a two per cent gain over last month and nearly one per cent higher than prices reported last year. While prices remain below the May 2022 high of $546,000, the pace of price growth over the first quarter has been stronger than expected due to the persistent seller’s market conditions.
“As expected, sales have eased from record levels while remaining stronger than they were before the pandemic thanks to recent gains in migration supporting demand,” said CREB® Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie.
“The challenge has been centered around supply. As a result, existing homeowners may be reluctant to list as they struggle to find an acceptable housing alternative in this market. At the same time, higher lending rates can also reduce the incentives for existing homeowners to list their home.”
March recorded 3,318 new listings compared to the 2,432 sales, leaving the sales-to-new listings ratio relatively high at 73 per cent. However, both sales and new listings have eased by 40 per cent compared to levels reported last March.
Detached
Lower listings and higher lending rates have contributed to the steep pullback in detached sales. With 1,145 sales, this is the only property type where activity has fallen below long-term trends for the month. However, despite the drop in sales, inventory levels remain comparable to the lowest March levels recorded in 2006.
The persistently tight market conditions have contributed to further price growth. In March, the detached benchmark price reached a new record high at $649,800. Conditions are much tighter at the lower end of the market as supply levels have shifted. Nearly 63 per cent of the new listings that have come onto the market so far this year are priced over $600,000, much higher than the 48 per cent reported last year.
Semi-Detached
Like other property types, sales and new listings reported a significant drop over last year’s levels, leaving the market exceptionally tight with a sales-to-new listings ratio of 78 per cent in March. In addition, higher lending rates have driven many purchasers to seek semi-detached properties. However, conditions remained exceptionally tight for properties priced below $600,000.
Low inventory levels relative to the sales in the market drove further price gains this month. As a result, the unadjusted benchmark price reached $581,300 in March, over two per cent higher than last month and nearly two per cent higher than last year’s levels. However, despite the strong gains over the past several months, prices remain shy of the May 2022 monthly high of $584,700.
Row
While row sales, new listings and inventory levels have all trended up compared to levels seen at the start of the year, like other property types, levels are much lower than last year. With one month of supply available, conditions continue to favour the seller. The tight market conditions also placed further upward pressure on prices.
In March, the benchmark price rose to $378,100, reflecting a year-over-year gain of nearly eight per cent and representing a new monthly record high. Price growth was strongest in the city’s North East and South districts, with the lowest year-over-year gains occurring in the West district.
Apartment Condominium
March reported 682 apartment condominium sales, a decline of 11 per cent over last year’s record high. New listings also eased by eight per cent compared to last year, keeping inventory levels relatively low at 1,000 units. The low inventory levels compared to sales kept the months of supply well below two months, ensuring the market continued to favour the seller.
The benchmark price in Calgary reached $293,500, a year-over-year gain of nearly 11 per cent. The recent increase in price is shifting this market closer to full price recovery. For example, apartment condominium prices reached a monthly high back in November 2014 at $306,600.
REGIONAL MARKET FACTS
Airdrie
With 154 sales and 203 new listings in March, the sales-to-new listings ratio pushed up to 76 per cent, and inventory levels fell to the lowest levels for the month since 2014. While conditions are not as tight as they were last year, the months of supply did fall to the lowest level seen in over eight months. The months of supply in Airdrie has not risen above two months since January 2021, and the persistent tightness so far this year has caused prices to trend up again compared to levels seen at the end of 2022.
In March, the benchmark price reached $497,400, a two per cent gain over last month. Despite the recent improvements, levels are nearly two per cent below last year’s and still below the monthly peak of $510,700 reported in April 2022. While prices are still lower than last year’s peak, it is important to keep a perspective on how much prices have risen in this market over the past several years. As of March, the benchmark price is over 20 per cent higher than the levels reported in March 2021.
Cochrane
While both sales and new listings have improved over levels seen over the past several months, they are still much lower than the high levels reported last year. In addition, unlike other areas, inventory levels are higher than the low levels reported in the previous year. However, with only 155 units available in March and sales of 87, the months of supply has once again fallen below two months.
For the second month in a row, residential benchmark prices increased over the previous month reaching $501,900. Despite the monthly gain, prices are still slightly lower than last year’s levels, and the monthly high achieved in June of 2022 at $522,600. Like Airdrie, prices in the area have risen significantly over the past several years and are over 20 per cent higher than levels reported back in March 2021.
Okotoks
Sales and new listings have improved over levels seen earlier this year. However, with 55 sales and 67 new listings, conditions remained exceptionally tight, and with 61 units available in March, levels were amongst the lowest levels ever recorded for the month. Before the March 2020 pandemic, Okotoks would typically see over 200 units available in inventory.
With one month of supply, conditions continue to favour the seller placing upward pressure on prices. After three consecutive months of price gains, in March, the benchmark price reached $561,600, a new record high for the area.
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