July 2023 Market Snapshot

Sure, the real estate market is not an episode of Friends but we are still talking about people moving between homes (IYKYK). Alberta is still seeing positive net migration because we still have affordable home prices, relative to other major cities in the country. Increased interest rates did not pump the brakes on price growth in July. Benchmark price of all residential homes in Calgary pushed up to $567,700 this month - more than 4% higher than the peak in May 2022.

Inventory levels are still slim pickings for buyers. This is the lowest that July inventory levels have been since the record-low in July of 2006. There were fewer new listings that hit the market but the months of supply sits at a mere 1.3 months. The scale continues to tip toward the sellers. There are supply challenges in most avenues of real estate. Resale, new home sales, and rental markets are exceptionally tight right now, pushing prices up, up, and away. Let's see how each property type is doing.

Out of the fire & into the frying pan... or something like that. In the month of July, sales levels trended down  and 1587 new listings hit the market so it helped with the supply shortage, but not by much. There were 1720 active detached home listings this month, which is still some of the lowest inventory levels seen in for the month of July. There was a drop in listings for sale for all properties priced under $1m. Buyers had a sliver of saving grace but even though there was a slight shift of the months of supply pushing up above the 1 month mark, market conditions still favour sellers. This month, the benchmark price of a detached home rose to $690,500 - almost 1% higher than the previous month and almost 8% higher than July 2022. Price growth was strongest in the city's most affordable NE and East districts.

It was an incredibly tight market for semi-detached homes in July. Sales were 12% lower than the previous month because of low inventory levels. There were only 257 active listings this month, 248 of those were new listings that came to market in July, and 211 recorded sales. That's a pretty competitive game of musical chairs, if you ask me. Needless to say, semi-detached properties are still deep in sellers' market territory. The July benchmark price pushed up to $616,800 this month, over 7% higher than the same time last year. Compared to June, the biggest price gains were recorded in NE and East districts - both saw price increases of more than 2%.

Townhomes have been the talk of the town lately. For the fourth month in a row, the months of supply for townhome sits below 1 month. July saw 467 sales but only 488 new listings. This brought the ales-to-new-listings ratio up to 96%. And in turn, it also pushed the benchmark price upwards. In July, the benchmark price of a typical townhome reached $407,500. That's up almost 2% from June, and nearly 14% higher than July of last year. All districts across Calgary saw prices trending up. The biggest upswing was recorded in the West district (almost 4%) and the slowest monthly gain was in City Centre.

The road to recovery has been keeping its momentum! More & more apartment owners are taking notice of the price improvements this year. This month's sales are over 50% higher than the same time last year. There were more new listings that came to market this month, which helped support the increased sales levels. However, market conditions remain tight with the sales-to-new-listings ratio at 86%, and only months of supply at only 1.4 months. With demand outnumbering supply, there was continued upward pressure on price growth. The benchmark price in July rose to $305,900 - almost 1% higher than last month and over 12% higher than last year. All districts in Calgary saw price gains this month but City Centre hasn't been seeing the same level of pressure on pricing.