calgary home statistics

CALGARY REGIONAL HOUSING MARKET STATISTICS for August 2013

SUMMER SALES STAY STRONG
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Seller’s market conditions persist, pushing up prices

(click on the photo above to download the full report)

Residential sales within city limits totaled 2,196 units, an 27.5 per cent increase over 2012 and 8.7 per cent on a year-to-date basis.
The level of transactions was well above long-term trends for the month, mostly due to improved activity in the single-family sector. However, on a year-to-date basis, activity is only slightly higher than expectations.
“The sales have been limited by the need for more resale listings,” said CREB® President Becky Walters. “However, August did see more new listings than last year, giving buyers more choice.”
August new listings recorded a year-over-year improvement of 7.4 per cent. While seller’s market conditions persist and total inventory levels keep falling, improvement in new listings helped prevent further tightening in the market despite the sales growth.
Single-family sales totaled 1,517 units in August, a 30 per cent increase over the previous year. Despite strong sales in the past couple of months, year-to-date sales activity has grown by 5.4 per cent, slightly stronger than anticipated.
Click on the following link to download the full report of the Monthly Housing Statistics for August.

City's housing affordability 'among better in Canada'

Calgary’s housing market appears to have weathered the worst floods in memory with the second-strongest quarterly sales gain in four years, says the Royal Bank.
“A strong provincial economy, solid labour market, fast-rising population, and attractive affordability continue to fuel demand for Calgary housing,” said the bank’s latest Housing Trends and Affordability Report, to be released Tuesday.
The RBC report, which measured the April to June period, said monthly resale activity increased for six straight months, including in June (rising 1.1 per cent month-overmonth) and July (up 3.1 per cent). On a quarterly basis, home resales rose 12 per cent.
“While prices recently embarked on a more steeply upward trajectory, the effect of faster-rising prices has yet to undermine affordability in any material way,” said RBC. “In fact, affordability levels in Calgary continue to be among the better in Canada.”
The RBC affordability index determines the proportion of median pretax household income needed to service the cost of mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities.
Its measures for Calgary showed little movement in the second quarter, with two-storey homes rising by 0.5 percentage points to 33.6 per cent, while condominium apartments edged lower by 0.2 percentage points to 19.4 per cent.
And while the report cautions home ownership has become less affordable for the average Canadian, RBC said Alberta homebuyers continued to enjoy a relatively affordable housing market.
“Despite the fact that the market has kicked into higher gear since spring – thereby boosting prices and increasing ownership costs – Alberta continues to be a relatively affordable market,” said Craig Wright, senior vice-president and chief economist with RBC. “We will likely see some disruptions in market activity trickle through in summer data from the floods in southern Alberta; however, we anticipate the strong provincial economy will endure, supporting further housing growth in 2014.”
Nationally, during the second quarter, affordability measures rose for two of the three categories of homes tracked. RBC’s measure for the detached bungalow rose 0.3 percentage points and for the standard two-storey home rose 0.4 percentage points to 42.7 per cent and 48.4 per cent, respectively. The measure for the standard condominium was unchanged at 27.9 per cent.
Vancouver’s affordability measure gained 2.2 points to 82.1 on a detached bungalow, while Toronto’s increased half a point to 54.5.