Good Deals for Homebuyers!!

Looking towards the current volatile economy, it’s quite difficult to predict the future of resale housing market in Calgary.  As of now, the biggest problem of the industry is oversupply of homes for sale and undersupply of willing buyers.

Figures from Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), it is fond that the sales of used single-family homes in the last 2 months have gone lower the sales of 2009, which was not the case for previous 5 months. And in case of condominium, for the first time, the year over year sales comparison have entered the red zone in the month of July.

Talking about the inventory level, the numbers of detached single family homes are getting bigger at a steady pace, which is almost doubled between January and June to a value of 5,991. But, during the last month it again fell back to 5,525. In the mean time, the inventory of condos is also falling down continuously for last two months with a peak of 2,656 in May. Is it the beginning of a new trend? Or because of the summer when people are on holidays and don’t want to involve in buying or selling? Things are quite unsure, isn’t it?

Statement of Sano Stante, president of CREB, gives a clear insight of the market. According to him, the slowdown of the housing market is only because of the changes in mortgages and declination in the migration rate to Calgary along with weaker job creation in this period. He says that the market is cooling-off after the record setting pace in the post recession period.

In the post recession period, the rumor that mortgage rates are going upward pushed the people in urgency for buying house. But, the drop down of mortgage rate brought the market in a downward direction.

While in comparison to last year, sales are going downward and the lists are moving upward, the average and median prices are still giving some sign of relief. So far the current year, the average prices for single family home is $467,397, which is about eight percent ahead than the average price of 2009. In case of condo, till now the value is $291,790, which is about four percent ahead than that of last year.

Stante hopes that the changes in mortgage rates will not have much affect on the prices. Excluding the markets with bulked up inventories, the prices will remain sticky in major parts of the country, with the economic improvement.

Ted Zaharko, broker/owner of Royal LePage Foothills, suggests that the first three months of 2011 will see a dramatic change in the market, and hopefully it will favor the sellers.

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