Low inventory leads into housing's busiest selling season
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Loading... - Lucy Richard
- 20 Mar 2023
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Calgary's single family benchmark price was up three per cent in February to $635,900.
High demand, meet low supply. That may best describe the coming spring real estate market, traditionally the busiest time of year for home resales in Calgary.
“If we don’t see inventory start to improve with those new listings coming onto the market, then we could see a scenario with stronger price growth than expected this spring,” says Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist with the Calgary Real Estate Board.
While demand is unlikely to be as high as it was last spring when March saw record sales (4,107), and May set an all-time high for the benchmark price of a home ($546,000), the market will likely enter spring with historically low inventory if CREB data from February continues on trend.
Last month, inventory fell nearly 24 per cent year over year to 2,750 homes, the lowest level since 2006.
Already, the market is showing the effects of low supply with moderate price growth amid falling year-over-year demand. Despite sales falling about 47 per cent year to 1,740 units, the benchmark price increased two per cent in February from the same month last year to $530,900.
Yet Lurie says that demand is also picking up with sales growing in February growing over January this year — a trend expected to continue this month (March) and into April.
As a result, while this spring is not expected to see record brokens like last year, activity is likely to remain above historical averages due to several favourable market forces.
Chief among them is a strong economy, which is drawing higher than normal migration. In fact, at the end of 2022, Alberta led the nation in net migration. Yet it’s not just economic growth; Calgary real estate is also very affordable relative to other large centres. Read More…
