Calgary’s housing market showed signs of life this spring, but mounting inventory and lukewarm demand are keeping condos from recovering.
A total of 1,881 homes sold in March, up slightly from February, but down 13 per cent compared with the same month last year, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB).
The decline was driven largely by slower activity in the apartment condominium segment, where higher inventory and softer migration trends are spreading demand across more listings, leading to downward pressure on prices.
Supply varies by property type
Row and apartment-style homes remained well above their 10-year average inventory levels. With 1,774 units in inventory, levels are just shy of the record high reported during the financial crisis in 2008, said CREB.
“New supply growth, along with a sharp pullback in sales relative to new listings, has contributed to the rise in resale inventories,” reads the report.
As of March, the unadjusted benchmark price for condos was $300,300, over nine per cent lower than last year’s levels.
The gap reflects construction trends over the past year, including fewer detached housing starts and record levels of apartment development, said CREB.
The detached market shows the tightest conditions. With 982 sales and 1,614 new listings in March, the sales-to-new-listings ratio rose to 61 per cent, while inventory levels remained similar to those reported last year. The detached benchmark price was $741,300 in March, down by three per cent over last year.
“When considering total residential housing statistics, conditions appear to be relatively balanced as sales, new listings, inventories and prices all trended up over the previous month as we start to move into the spring market,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, CREB’s chief economist.
“However, when we look deeper, we are seeing a market that ranges from tighter conditions for detached homes to the apartment sector, where conditions tend to favour the buyer.”
The total unadjusted benchmark price in Calgary for all housing types reached $565,600 in March, up nearly one per cent from February but more than four per cent below last year’s levels.
