The Gord Piper & Associates Real Estate Blog

You found your dream home and have started the purchasing process. Now what?

When you find your dream home and decide to make an offer, in most cases, a deposit is a requirement.

How much is required?
A typical deposit can be anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the cost of the property and other factors.

How do you pay?
If closing is within 30 days, the deposit must be a money order or bank draft.

So, when preparing to make an offer, keep the deposit in mind and make sure you have the money available that it will require.

Let our professional staff help you

Stay ahead of the curve by following our Monthly Market Snapshot of the Calgary Real Estate Market. This shows what’s really happening! 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.
Find out what your Neighbor’s home sold for – Our market report is set up based on your community! Register for our Market Report at http://www.calgaryareasolds.com/

July saw very little change to our inventory levels and a decrease in sales numbers in both detached homes and apartment condos. This is quite typical for Calgary as people are vacationing in July and of course we have our annual Calgary Stampede. In addition to that we have had beautiful weather and people are taking advantage of that while it’s here.

Calgary Listing Inventory: Inventory went down in all categories except Apartment Condos this month. All changes are really insignificant.

Calgary Sales:
Sales for detached homes and apartment condos decreased this month while attached homes remained even. As mentioned above a decrease in sales in typical in July.

Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:
Prices in all categories changed very little this month. Based on the absorption rate below my prediction is that detached and attached homes (in a Seller’s Market) will see small price increases while apartment condos (in a balanced market) should stay flat.

Sales Prices “Year to Date”

Year to date prices – All categories have decreased.

Absorption Rate (Months of Inventory) (the inventory divided by the number of sales in the last month). What does this mean you might ask?

*** Absorption Rate:   

In July the absorption rate increased marginally for all categories.  What this means is that the relation to sales over inventory decreased.  This leaves detached homes and attached homes in a seller’s market, while apartment condos have stayed in a balanced market but have reversed direction coming closer to a buyer’s market.

**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.

If you know anyone else who might enjoy seeing our monthly summary please feel free to pass this on. Gord, Eric, Brent

TSW Real Estate Group

One thing often overlooked when viewing property to buy is…
The Neighbors
When viewing homes it’s crucial to get an idea of what your neighbors are like. You don’t want the experience of falling in love with a house, purchasing, moving in and finding out your neighbors are a nightmare to deal with!
Good indicators are what their back yard and back lane look like. Is the property being well kept or piled up with junk? Do you want to live next door to a neighbor that has 3 dead cars in his back alley?
A simple knock on the door can provide invaluable information. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and let the neighbors know you are looking at a nearby property. Ask some questions about the neighborhood and see what they have to say.
This can help you gain a better understanding of the neighborhood dynamics and with whom you will be sharing space.

Stay ahead of the curve by following our Monthly Market Snapshot of the Calgary Real Estate Market. This shows what’s really happening! 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.

Find out what your Neighbor’s home sold for – Our market report is set up based on your community! Register for our Market Report at http://www.calgaryareasolds.com/

June showed very little change to inventory, sales or prices.  Supply is tightening a little and we have moved back into a sellers market.

Calgary Listing Inventory:   Inventory went down in all categories this month.  This is typical for June as we approach the summer and holiday season and therefore see less listings.

Calgary Sales:

Sales changed very little in all categories. The only significant category change is apartment condo’s  where sales went up by 11.1%.  A nice improvement as Condo sales have been slower that the other categories.

Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:  

Prices in all categories increased marginally this month.  Based on the absorption rate below my prediction is that detached and attached homes will see small price increases while apartment condos should stay flat.

Sales Prices “Year to Date”   

Year to date prices – All categories have decreased.

Absorption Rate (Months of Inventory)   (the inventory divided by the number of sales in the last month). What does this mean you might ask?

*** Absorption Rate:   

The absorption rate decreased again for all categories.  What this means is that the relation to sales over inventory decreased.  This puts detached homes and attached homes into a seller’s market, while apartment condos have stayed in a balanced market but are inching their way back into sellers market territory.

**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.

Stay 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.

Find out what your Neighbor’s home sold for – Register for our Market Report at http://www.calgaryareasolds.com/

Calgary housing market is changing again.  May saw a decrease in inventory and an increase in Sales tightening up the supply and moving us into a sellers’ market.

Calgary Listing Inventory:   It is interesting to see that the inventory went down in all categories this month.  This is partially due to not as many new listings hit the market and that sales increased.   This is opposite of what I would normally expect for May as typically people list in May as the summer is approaching.

Calgary Sales:

Sales in all categories increased this month.  This is a normal trend where getting near the summer the sales increase.

Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:  

Prices in all categories increased marginally this month.  Apartment condos showed the largest increase.

Based on the absorption rate below my prediction is that detached and attached homes will stay fairly stable or see small price increases while apartment condos should see slight decreases or stay flat.

Sales Prices “Year to Date”   

Year to date prices – All categories have decreased.

Absorption Rate (Months of Inventory)   (the inventory divided by the number of sales in the last month). What does this mean you might ask?

*** Absorption Rate:   

The absorption rate decreased again for all categories.  What this means is that the relation to sales over inventory decreased.  This puts detached homes and attached homes into a seller’s market, while apartment condos have stayed in a balanced market.

If this trend continues we are going to start seeing a lack of homes for buyers causing multiple offers and larger price increases.

**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.

If you know anyone else who might enjoy seeing our monthly summary please feel free to pass this on. Gord, Eric, Brent

TSW Real Estate Group