Archive for March, 2015
Open Houses
Friday, March 27th, 2015Strange Home Decor
Friday, March 20th, 2015
Great Tips for Painting your Home
Tuesday, March 10th, 2015Cover your paint trays with tinfoil for easy clean up.
Cut out the side of a milk jug to create a paint holder that’s easy to carry and has a built in brush holder too!
Tap nails into each leg when painting a small table or chairs – now you can get all the way around the legs!
Protect awkward objects with plastic wrap
If you plan to save a pint roller, store it in a Ziploc bag, and keep it in a Pringles can.
Just be sure to label it or you might make someone very, very sad
Use a rubber band to wipe excess paint on instead of the rim.
Along with preventing splatters, it will also keep the rim from getting all caked up
Store your leftover paint in a Rubbermaid Paint Buddy so you can easily make future touch-ups.
Calgary Real Estate Market Snapshot, March 1, 2015
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015Stay ahead of the curve by following our Monthly Market Snapshot of the Calgary Real Estate Market. This shows what’s really happening in the Calgary Real Estate Market. The market is driven by supply and demand so here we show the inventory (supply) and sales (demand) and the effect on the price of Calgary Real Estate. A simple way to keep up to date and ahead of most!
Below are the details along with a few comments, all numbers were taken from the Calgary Real Estate Boards Stats package for Realtors.
Want to see stats specific to your Community? Register for our Market Report at http://www.calgaryareasolds.com/
Find out what your Neighbor’s home sold for – Register for our Market Report at http://www.calgaryareasolds.com/
Calgary Real Estate Stats have changed.
The Calgary Real Estate Board just changed the operating system for Realtors and with that the monthly Stats categories have changed as well. Here is the categories.
| Old Categories | New Categories | What’s changed |
| Single Family Home | Detached | Does not include attached homes |
| Condo Townhouse | Attached | Now includes Attached Homes |
| Condo Apartment | Apartment Condos | Same |
What this means is simply that attached homes are now taken out of the Single family category and lumped in with the townhouse category. There are a few other classification changes but they are very small and won’t show in the stats. This will affect a few of the numbers below.
Oil Prices and the impact on the Calgary Real Estate Market.
I am certainly not going to predict the future here as I am not an expert in the Oil Industry. What I find interesting is that in what I have been reading there seems to be two sides
- Optimists are predicting that we will be back to at least the 60 – 70 dollar oil by mid year
- The pessimists are saying that we will be low forever or years anyway
My Stats summary below will show you the facts of what has happened to date and some short term predictions. Please note that the market shifted very fast and when oil prices rebound the market can shift very quickly in the other direction. The big question is when? And if you have the answer to that please share it with me.
Now onto the Stats Market Snapshot
Calgary Listing Inventory: Yes, listings are up again in all categories this month. In Feb we usually see an increase from January and will typically see listing numbers increase in the next 3 to 4 months.
| Inventory | Jan 2015 | Feb 2015 | Change |
| Detached | 2359 | 2830 | +471 |
| Attached | 950 | 1190 | +240 |
| Apartment | 1117 | 1276 | +159 |
| Total City of Calgary | 4426 | 5296 | +870 |
Calgary Sales:
While we are down considerably from last year’s sales the sales increased substantially over January. What I noticed is that first 2 weeks of Feb were similar to January the last 2 weeks picked up.
| Sales | Jan 2015 | Feb 2015 | Change | % Change |
| Detached | 535 | 739 | +204 | +38.1% |
| Attached | 190 | 261 | +71 | +37.3% |
| Apartment | 155 | 217 | +62 | +40.0% |
| Total City of Calgary | 880 | 1217 | +337 | +39.3% |
Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:
Prices in all categories decreased this month. The largest decrease is in Apartment condos which have the highest inventory compared to sales. This trend will continue as long as the absorption rates stay where they are.
| Sales Prices | Jan 2014 Benchmark Price | Feb 2015 Benchmark Price | Change |
| Detached | 518,600 | 516,000 | -2,600 |
| Attached | 356,000 | 354,600 | -1,800 |
| Apartment | 298,700 | 296,000 | -2,700 |
| Total City of Calgary | 459,100 | 456,300 | -2,800 |
Sales Prices “Year to Date”
Year to date prices – Again, all categories decreased but none substantially.
| Sales Prices | Dec 31, 2014 Benchmark Price | Feb 2015 Benchmark Price | Change
$ |
% Change |
| Detached | 518,600 | 516,000 | -$2,600 | -.5% |
| Attached | 356,200 | 354,600 | -$2,200 | -.61% |
| Apartment | 300,400 | 296,000 | -$4,400 | -1.45% |
| Total City of Calgary | 459,500 | 456,300 | -$3,200 | -.7% |
Absorption Rate (Months of Inventory) (the inventory divided by the number of sales in the last month). What does this mean you might ask?
| Buyer’s Market | >4.0 | Drives prices down |
| Balanced Market | Between 2.8 to 4.0 | Prices typically remain stable |
| Seller’s Market | <2.8 | Drives prices up |
*** Absorption Rate:
The absorption rate decreased for all categories. What this means is that the relation to sales over inventory decreased. This change put detached homes back into a balanced market while all other categories stayed in a Buyers Market.
| Absorption Rate | Jan 2015 | Feb 2015 | Change |
| Detached | 4.41 | 3.83 | -.58 |
| Attached | 5.0 | 4.56 | -.44% |
| Apartment | 7.21 | 5.88 | -1.33% |
| Total City of Calgary | 5.03 | 4.35 | -.68% |
**Please note that these numbers do change on a community basis and more so for towns. If you would like to find stats on your community just let me know. If you have any questions about this summary, the attached stats package or any Real Estate questions please feel free to contact us.