Real estate sales in Calgary saw record numbers in 2022, despite a December that was 31 per cent slower than the year before, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB).
Calgary saw a record 29,672 sales in 2022, outperforming expectations in sales and growth in prices.
“Really different dynamics throughout the year, but whatever we had happen in the second half (of the year) didn’t offset the strong gains we had earlier in the year,” CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said.
The benchmark house price marketwide increased by 7.8 per cent year-over-year to $518,800.
“We’re in a really interesting, changing market right now. We had a little bit of a slowdown in the second half of the year,” Bev Clark of Knag Real Estate said. “Part of the reason was because we had lower inventory because there was a flurry of people wanting to sell their homes as they saw the market going up and everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon.”
A pullback in new listings had December 2022 end with the lowest level of available inventory in over a decade, the CREB’s monthly report read.
“When you don’t have enough inventory, prices start to go up. The thing is that they don’t always go up as high as the sellers might like them to,” Clark said.
Detached home benchmark prices fell by seven per cent over the year, but still saw a 14 per cent increase in value as a segment when compared to last year.
Semi-detached houses didn’t see the same record numbers as 2021, but did beat long-term, pre-pandemic trends and annual benchmark prices jumped 12 per cent.
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Row and apartments saw the greatest drop in inventory compared to last year, with row houses seeing “significant reductions” in new listings and a record number of sales, locking in a seller’s market and 15 per cent increase to the annual benchmark price.
Apartments saw an increase in new listings over the year, but sales outpaced the new listings. “After several years of being oversupplied, the shift to tighter conditions supported annual price gains of nearly nine per cent,” the CREB report reads, but citywide prices remain “well below” previous highs in 2014.
Through 2022, the Bank of Canada increased its policy interest rate from 0.5 per cent to 4.25 per cent.
“You can’t deny that the higher lending rates obviously are impacting sales activity and I think to a certain extent it’s also impacting the supply,” Lurie said.
The CREB economist said the lower-priced detached market was the first to be impacted by increasing interest rates, but that has also impacted the higher end of the market.
Higher borrowing costs have also shifted people to different types of housing, resulting in the high sales numbers for apartments.
Clark said row houses have become attractive as a “very lovely entry-level product, and we don’t have enough of those.”
“The interesting one is the increase in sales in condominium (apartments) and the increase in sales and condominiums is being caused not only by local buyers trying to get into the market, but a lot of investors coming in our direction.”
Lurie said Calgary’s economy has helped buoy real estate prices and sales, as well as international and interprovincial migration.
“Higher lending rates are going to continue to impact it. But when we think about the impact on price, it’s still going to come down to how much supply is in the market relative to the demand,” the CREB economist said.
Clark said her advice to prospective home buyers hasn’t changed despite recent shifts in the market.
“When you’re looking to buy a home now, you need to make sure that you’re doing your due diligence to know that the property that you’re looking at and wanting to buy has comparative market analysis that supports the sale price of the home.”
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