Some Calgary homeowners may have cringed after opening their municipal property assessments this week, but real estate experts say the ongoing slide in single family home prices should end later in 2017.
In its annual forecast, the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) said Wednesday the city’s housing market should slowly reach stability this year in the detached and attached market, while condo prices are expected to drop by another two per cent.
Calgary’s long period of economic downturn appears to have bottomed out, but little job growth is expected until later in the year.
“It’s about when those rising oil prices start to influence the employment in the market,” CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said.
She said employment levels have a direct impact on the housing market, adding the transition in the market would be a slow process.
City-wide sales are forecasted to total 18,335 units in 2017.
That would be a three per cent gain over 2016, but 12 per cent below long-term averages.
In a statement, CREB said it expects the modest demand change to “merge with declining listings and easing inventory in the new home market to support more balanced conditions and prevent further downward pressure on prices.”
Since the economic slump began in the fall of 2014, detached home prices have dropped five per cent, while apartment prices have fallen as much as 11 per cent due to oversupply.
Comments