What a heatwave this week! The weather is hot but the market simmered slightly (ever so slightly) this month. Don't get me wrong, Calgary real estate market is still rocking & rolling. More inventory but also more buyers coming out to play now that the weather is warming up. Real estate has a loose annual cycle that changes alongside the seasons. I say it's a loose cycle because the real estate market is much like Calgary's seasons throughout the year - hard to predict! If I were to put it in simple terms, March and April were "very, very hot" months, where May was a "very hot" month. Capiche?
DETACHED
This property type continues to lead the way on the road to recovery. There was an increased number of new listings this month, easing the tight market conditions from spring. More inventory gave buyers a bit of relief when it comes to selection and time restraints. The influx of new listings, like in previous months, was still not enough to stop the benchmark price from rising. That being said, the May benchmark price made much more modest gains than earlier this year. This is the first month in 2021 that we saw a decreased number of total sales. Price gains continued across the city except for City Centre and NE districts.
SEMI-DETACHED
We continue to see price gains in this segment, with months of supply just under 2 months. There were a total of 1,169 semi-detached homes sold in 2021 - this is the best 5-month total on record for this property type. Like its close cousin mentioned above, May was a slightly slower month for sales, about 6% fewer sales compared to April. Despite the simmer compared to April, total sales this month is still over 121% higher than this time in 2020. There were some adjustments in new listings but the tight market for semi-detached homes looks like it is here to stay; demand still surpasses supply, driving the benchmark price up 1.36% from last month. The biggest gains were seen in SE, South, and North parts of the city, while a few other districts are still sitting below their previous highs.
ROW & TOWNS
Upward momentum continues for townhomes as well! There were more new listings and almost 1.5% fewer sales in May causing the sales-new listings ratio to decrease to 64%. Despite these adjustments, May was still a seller's market for this segment. Benchmark pricing drove up to $296,400, about 1% higher than last month and almost 8% higher than May of last year. The recovery is not evenly spread across the city. There are some districts in Calary that still hover anywhere between 5% to 20% below their previous highs.
APARTMENTS
It's no news that there is continual oversupply in this segment. The pandemic has pushed many city dwellers to consider suburban areas and list their condominiums for sale. That, coupled with new construction projects has kept inventory levels high. It's not all doom & gloom this month though. There have been 1,659 sales since the beginning of the year - the highest number of YTD sales since 2014. It will likely be a while before we see this property type return to its glory days in 2014, but total sales in May were over 180% higher than same time last year. Solace for some homeowners!
The real estate market fluctuates as the seasons change. Sellers & buyers are more inclined to think about real estate during the warmer months, which holds true in this wild year. Seems like more sellers are inclined to list their homes for sale after seeing the upward pressure on prices since January. The real estate market in 2021 has been a wild ride so far and who knows what the coming months will look like. One thing we know is that it will probably be like Calgary's weather - unpredictable!
Source: creb.com
