Buy now: The "extreme" seller's market for houses in Calgary is easing
The real estate market in Calgary may still be burning hot compared to previous years but some signs are signalling that ember is slowly fizzling out.
The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) outlined in its monthly statistics package for July that it is starting to see some shifts in supply levels, with 2,380 sales and 3,604 new listings, the sales-to-new listings ratio fell to 66%, supporting a gain in inventory.
Although inventories rose to 4,158 units, that is still 33% below what the CREB typically sees in July; however, the first time they have pushed above 4,000 units in nearly two years.
The CREB added that even though most of the supply growth happened for homes priced above $600,000, the rise has helped shift the market away from the extreme seller’s market conditions experienced throughout the spring.
“While we are still dealing with supply challenges, especially for lower-priced homes, more options in both the new home and resale market have helped take some of the upward pressure off home prices this month,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist at CREB in the report.
“This is in line with our expectations for the second half of the year, and should inventories continue to rise, we should start to see more balanced conditions and stability in home prices.”
July sales also eased by 10% over last year’s record high but were still higher than long-term trends for the month. The gain in inventory combined with slower sales caused the months of supply to rise to 1.8 months, still low enough to favour the seller but a significant improvement from the under one month reported earlier this year.
In July, the total residential benchmark price was $606,700, similar to last month and nearly 8% higher than last year’s levels.
CREB
When it comes to detached home sales in Calgary for July, they fell by 8%, as the 15% rise for homes priced above $600,000 was not enough to offset the 50% decline occurring in the lower price ranges.
Year-to-date detached sales have eased by just over 1% compared to last year. With 1,098 sales and 1,721 new listings this month, inventories rose to 1,950 units.
You can read the full report here.