Many Canadian energy-related municipalities within Alberta and Saskatchewan have seen housing markets struggle over the past few years, resulting in price declines.

The recent mortgage rule changes and higher lending rates are factors weighing on demand and prices across some of those areas.

Segment rallies as overall market continues to face challenges

Once considered out for the count, Calgary's luxury housing sector has seemingly rallied, posting a double-digit sales increase so far in 2016, according to new statistics.

Home sales in the city valued at more than $1 million totalled 118 over the first three months of the year – up more than 20 per cent from 98 during the same period last year. In March, $1-million-plus sales totalled 54, up from 49 in 2015.

This comes as CREB® released its most recent monthly housing summary, showing overall sales in the city this year have declined so far this year by nearly 10 per cent.

"While the $1-million-plus segment accounts for a small share of the activity, there has certainly been some improvement in sales over last year," said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie.

A look back at Calgary's resale residential housing market

If nothing else, 2015 was an interesting year for Calgary's housing market.

While it remained resilient even while oil prices began to slide, the conditions that arose as 2014 drew to a close signaled a change was in the air.

And so as Christmas came and went, December 2014 saw the first year-year-year sales decline following 11 consecutive months of year-over-year growth. And with little expectation that things would change, once-lofty expectations gave way to a more realistic outlook.

Sales activity remains well below long-term averages  

Elevated inventory levels in October contributed to a second consecutive month of price declines in Calgary's resale residential housing market.

Benchmark prices declined 0.7 per cent from the previous month, and 1.2 per cent from the same time last year, to $453,100.

"Persistent weakness in the overall economy continued to impact housing demand in Calgary as October sales were nearly 16 per cent below long-term averages," said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie. "In addition, new listings did not decline enough to prevent inventory gains and, ultimately, price contractions."

Roller-coaster ride to start 2015 ended with more balanced conditions

The arrival of 2015 was bound to signal a change of pace for Calgary's resale real estate industry, which had just wrapped a bow around a banner 2014.

In fact, with oil prices showing signs of deteriorating toward the end of 2014, December's four per cent sales decline – following 11 consecutive months of sales increases –was really a sign of things to come.

"Changes in the economic climate are expected to cool housing market conditions in 2015, and December activity may be the first indication of this shift," said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie at the time.

That change came early and it came swift, with sales falling by more than 30 per cent in January to five-year lows even though new listings maintained their upward momentum by increasing by 37 per cent compared to the same period last year.

With an increase in Calgary's single-family market sales, a decline in new listings has brought inventory numbers to their lowest level for the month of March since 2006.

Single-family sales at the end of the first quarter of this year totalled 3,901 units, a 9.5 per cent increase over the same period last year while new listings declined by nearly five per cent. As sales growth outpaced the amount of new listings growth in the market, inventory levels dropped to just over 2,000 units.

Calgary, April 1, 2014 – Residential sales activity improved across all sectors in March. However, declining new listings in the single family sector combined with further gains in sales activity decreased single family inventory to the lowest March level since 2006.

"There are several factors contributing to the growth in housing demand, including the inflow of people to our province over the past two years, strong gains in employment and tight rental conditions," says CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie.

Calgary's housing market emerged from February's deep freeze to post some impressive numbers. While keeping active proved to be a difficult task for many Calgarians, with wind chills in the city dropping down to minus 40, activity amongst home buyers and sellers remained brisk.

According to CREB®, 1,854 homes changed owners in February, marking an 8.7 per cent increase over February 2013. While still representing a significant rise in sales, February's gain fell short of the impressive double-digit growth seen in January, when yearover- year sales grew by 17 per cent.