April housing sales tell different stories for districts 

While the sun might be shining in Calgary this spring, this city's resale residential housing market was overshadowed by another month of declining sales and prices in April, according to CREB®.

However, despite inclement conditions, some areas of the city and segments of the market emerged as bright spots, with several posting double-digit sales increases, the board reported in its recent monthly housing summary.
Calgary's West district recorded 128 detached sales in April, a nearly 31 per cent increase when compared to last year. It was followed by the North West, which posted a 20 per cent increase in detached sales with 187 units, the North at more than 11 per cent to 166 detached sales and City Centre at nearly four per cent to 111 detached units.

"Our market is incredibly diverse, and these numbers verify that. Different areas and price points have and will continue to react divergently to economic conditions," said CREB® president Cliff Stevenson.

By the numbers

Calgary's housing market has remained relatively unchanged this spring. With reoccurring year-over-year sales declines and benchmark price reductions receiving most of the attention, CREB®Now takes a closer look at some of the overlooked numbers to come out of the city's real estate market.

46
According to CREB®'s latest housing numbers, the average time a listing spent on the market before finding a new owner stood at 46 days in April. That's up from 43 days in March and 40 days in April 2015. With 3,127 homes in Calgary's inventory, the city currently has 2.76 months of supply, with a sales-to-new-listings ratio of 62 per cent.

Attached sector reacting similar to others during downturn

Softness in the city's attached housing market is creating opportunities for would-be buyers as increased selection is resulting in more competitive pricing, according to local housing officials.

Sales of row-type housing and semi-detached properties, which make up the city's attached market, decreased last month by 10.5 per cent compared to the same time last year, according to CREB®'s regional housing market report.

Listings also declined, yet by a more moderate 5.2 per cent. When combined with existing listings, year-over-year inventory levels jumped in January by more than 20 per cent.

More product on the market has meant sellers have had to be more competitive with their pricing. According to CREB®, the attached benchmark price was $345,600 last month, a 1.65 per cent decline from last month. Looking back on 2015, it slid 1.29 per cent from the start to the end of the year.

Understanding the lingo

CREB® released its regional housing market statistics earlier this week for January, showing the residential housing market is continued to be challenged by energy sector uncertainty. But what does it mean for homeowners?

CREB®Now breaks down the lingo in this week's "Five Things" feature.

Sales
CREB® reported that sales of all housing types in Calgary are down 13 per cent from last January to 763 units. By segment, however, a slightly different story begins to unfold. While sales in the detached market decreased by an identical 13 per cent, the attached sector dropped by just over 10 per cent, while the apartment sector fell by a precipitous 16 per cent. For sellers, this shows which segments are more active than others – keeping in mind that the detached sector still represents nearly two-thirds of all sales activity.

Housing stats indicate some buyers still sitting on the sidelines

Calgary's resale residential housing market picked up where it left off in 2015, with buyers' conditions prevailing through every major category last month, according to CREB®.

Yet with many homebuyers still sitting on the fence, local housing officials caution that historically it's been difficult to find a utopian moment to enter the market.

"Buyers, especially first-time buyers and investors, will do their best to time the bottom, but I think that will be really difficult," said CREB® president Cliff Stevenson, noting that few were able to do so during the last recession in 2008/09 when the upturn happened quickly. "I think this year it will be a guessing game as to when will be the best time to get into the market."

Calgary quadrant's showing staying power with price resilience

Northeast Calgary bucked housing trends in the city in 2015 by seeing strong price increases in the resale residential market, as opposed to others where prices remained flat or dipped, according to CREB®.

And some in the industry expect the still-relatively affordable offerings in the city's "new north" may continue to make it the darling of this year's even tougher market.

CREB® numbers show the annual benchmark price (the price of a typical home year-over-year) in the northeast rose 7.05 per cent for detached homes in 2015. When attached and apartment units are included, the rise was 6.21 per cent.

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over top of Calgary's housing market in 2016. To help anxious buyers and sellers, here are a few key numbers from CREB®'s 2016 Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast that will shed some light on what's to come.

18,416
After posting 25,543 sales in 2014 and 18,830 in 2015, CREB® is predicting Calgary's resale housing market to decline slightly in 2016 to 18,416 – below the 10-year average. Sales are expected to be down 2.5 per cent in the detached sector, 1.5 per cent in attached and two per cent in apartments. According to CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie, the beginning of the year will find Calgary in a buyer's market.