Calgary's real estate prices recover in 2009: CREB
By Dan Healing
Calgary Herald
January 6, 2010
CALGARY - The Ross family’s quest to get more house for their buck ran aground in 2008 as the depressed Calgary area resale market produced the lowest number of house sales in 13 years.
But their next dive into the market this past summer resulted in a success story beyond what Dwight, Tanya and their two sons had anticipated.
“We moved from really expensive dirt to less expensive dirt and in the process we ended up with a lot more space, a newer home, and got a few other bonuses, including a view and separate bedrooms for the kids and a bigger garage,” said Dwight, 46, an information officer for a Calgary engineering company.
“It was actually a financial downsize but a house upsize, and quite substantial, too,” he added. “We went from about 2,700 square feet to over 4,000 square feet.”
The downside is that their new home in Tuscany on the west end of Calgary requires a longer commute to work downtown — Tanya is in human resources for an oil and gas company — than from the inner-city house in Collingwood they had owned for five years.
Year-end statistics published by the Calgary Real Estate Board Tuesday show that 2009 was a recovery year after a dismal 2008 but still fell well short of the records set in 2007.
CREB president Bonnie Wegerich said she doesn’t expect to see a repeat of the climate of 2007 — when the average single family home price peaked at $505,920 in July and condo prices hit a record $332,237 in May — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“I don’t think we’re going to see as hectic a market for a couple of years,” she said. “I think what we’ll see is a nice sustained recovery. Those days we’re really hectic and really insane.
“I think it’s nicer for the buyers, too, if prices are stable and they know that what they’re buying today is going to still be worth that in a year or maybe up a few per cent.”
In 2008, single-family home sales were the lowest since 1996, at 13,455, down 27 per cent from 2007, while the average sale price fell 2.5 per cent to $460,327 and the median price dropped by 2.9 per cent to $409,000.
Statistics from this past year show 14,440 single family home sales in the city, up seven per cent over 2008, and an average sale price of $442,237, a four per cent decline. The median price also fell about four per cent to $392,000
The condominium market, which plunged by 31.3 per cent to 5,661 sales in 2008 compared with 2007, grew by 12 per cent to 6,328 in 2009.
The average condo sale price dropped six per cent to $283,734 from $302,408 in 2008 (which was down 4.4 per cent from 2007) and the median price, at $260,000, was off by seven per cent from 2008 (when it fell 5.3 per cent from 2007).
December illustrates the recovery part of the story, with 799 single-family homes sold in the city, a whopping 78 per cent increase over December 2008, when just 449 traded hands (a 47 per cent slide from 2007).
The average monthly price jumped to $451,349, up eight per cent from $417,398 in December 2008 (which was down 6.2 per cent from 2007) while the median price was $401,000, up five per cent from December 2008.
The number of condominium sales for December 2009 was 341, well ahead of the 205 in December 2008, while the average price of $288,640 showed a five per cent increase.
Inventory in December was down. New single family listings in the city in December totalled 806, down four per cent from December 2008. New condo listings in the city in December were 444, up three per cent from December 2008.
Wegerich said interest rates are expected to rise this year and that prospect may encourage more buyers to get into the market.
Todd Hirsch, a senior economist with ATB Financial, said housing activity should be stable this year.
“I would expect that the year will be pretty flat, not a lot of excitement up or down,” he said.
“We’re still going to see good movement because mortgage rates are still favourable and I think people have a sense we want to get in on it now because rates will be going up.”
Dwight Ross said he and his wife had been watching the market closely before deciding to move this year. The Collingwood home, sold by Justin Havre of CIR Realty, attracted two competing bids and actually sold for a price that was higher than listed.
The house in Tuscany they had been keeping an eye on was still available and they made the successful transition in November, cutting their debt load by more than $100,000.
Wegerich said a buyers’ market a year ago has transformed into a balanced market.
Photo By: ayuen
