A guide to distinguishing average, median and benchmark prices

Sellers and potential buyers in today's residential real estate market can be understandably excused if they are confused about what's happening with housing prices.
After all, for both, price changes in the market are supremely important. Plus, CREB® gathers price information that, to the untrained eye, can tell different stories.
For example, in February, CREB® reported the benchmark price in the city for all MLS® properties that were sold was $445,000, or down 3.45 per cent from February 2015. However, the average MLS® sale price increased by 2.72 per cent to $472,529 while the median price was unchanged at $420,000.
From top to bottom, that's a difference of close to $30,000.

"It's looking at values based on criteria such as square footage, total bedrooms and bathrooms, location, property type."

So what should one look at if they are either selling a home in this tough market or hoping to buy one?
A good start would be by looking at what each price category entails, said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie. For example, the median price looks at every sale that has occurred in the market, ranking them from lowest to highest. The median price is the midpoint of all the sales.
Lurie said the average sale price is adding up the total dollar sum of the purchases divided by the number of total sales.

The Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) is partnering with the Alberta Emerald Awards to sponsor the Shared Footprints Award celebrating excellence in land use.

The Shared Footprints Award, which recognizes excellence in Integrated Land Management (ILM)—a strategic planned approach to managing and reducing the human-caused footprint on public and/or private land—was created in 2009 in partnership with Alberta Sustainable Resource and Development.

For those who've had their fill of the hustle and bustle of the big city and yearn for a different way of living, perhaps it's time to embrace the option of acreage life.

With Calgary surrounded by wide open prairies, rolling foothills and the majestic Rocky Mountains, opting to live outside city limits has some obvious advantages.

Debbie LeBlanc has spent the last 25 years living on an acreage between Cochrane and Calgary. Having previously lived in Calgary, LeBlanc says the move was encouraged in large part by the ability to be closer to the great outdoors.

Alberta's housing market continues to hold top spot in all of Canada, sitting "head-and-shoulders" above the rest of the province in several economic categories.

The province's place at the top of the national outlook is the topic of a recent release from BMO Capital Markets, which points to employment, wages and interprovincial migration as the biggest reasons for the province's prosperity.