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New bill is a win for consumers and the real estate industry |
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CREB® supports the provincial government in tabling the Condominium Property Amendment Act this week and bringing over 50 amendments for enhanced consumer protection and stronger governance within the condominium industry. In particular, the new Act will regulate a disclosure of information related to the sale and governance of condominium units.
“Information is power, and these changes will empower consumers and REALTORS® to make more informed purchasing decisions,” said Bill Kirk, CREB® president. “In a particular, it will create clarity around reserve funds and special assessments, and reduce those surprises for consumers on things like special levies.” The amendments include the creation of a condominium tribunal, that reduces the time and costs associated with dispute resolution between condo owners and corporations. As well, there will be increased regulation of the industry with the introduction of licensing requirements for condominium managers by the Real Estate Council of Alberta. As a stakeholder in industry consultations, CREB® is pleased to see its members’ concerns addressed in the amendments. The Act is a positive direction towards the modernization of condominium legislation and reflects the changes to the industry since the Condominium Property Act was first introduced in 2000. “Thanks to the input of owners, their associations and over 4,000 Albertans, Bill 9 makes intelligent and purposeful changes to protect current and future condo owners, brings consistency for condo developers and provides structure and stability to governance for condo boards,” said Stephen Khan, Minister of Service Alberta. “We followed the leadership of Albertans to develop legislation, and will continue to work with them to implement it.” Service Alberta indicates most of the regulations from the Bill will be implemented over the next year. CREB® looks forward to the implementation of the amendments and continuing to serve as advocates on issues that affect its members. There are over 320,000 condominium owners in the province and condominium sales account for approximately 20 percent of residential sales annual.
To view an overview of the changes click here |
Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
CREB® supports Condominium Property Amendment Act
Saturday, December 13th, 2014Nov 2014, Calgary Real Estate Market Snapshot
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014Stay 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 housing market softens slightly as we approach Christmas. Single family homes and apartment Condos moved slightly toward a balanced market while the Townhouse market went slightly deeper into a Sellers market. Below is a summary of some key areas with a few short comments.
Calgary Listing Inventory: As I would expect all Inventory levels decreased this last month. Inventories typically decrease at this time of year as some people now wait until the New Year to list. Interestingly the decrease was about 40% less than our decrease in November last year.
|
Inventory |
Oct 2014 |
Nov 2014 |
Change |
|
Single Family Home |
2780 |
2373 |
-408 |
|
Condo Townhouse |
568 |
511 |
-57 |
|
Condo Apartment |
1088 |
985 |
-103 |
|
Total |
4436 |
3869 |
-567 |
Calgary Sales:
Typically at this time of year we also see sales numbers decreasing. Sales in November decreased in all categories. Compared to last year sales from October to November decreased slightly more than last year however sales numbers are still higher than November 2013.
|
Sales |
Oct 2014 |
Nov 2014 |
Change |
% Change |
|
Single Family Home |
1462 |
1181 |
-281 |
-.19 |
|
Condo Townhouse |
300 |
277 |
-23 |
-.07 |
|
Condo Apartment |
385 |
324 |
-61 |
-.16 |
|
Total |
2147 |
1782 |
-365 |
.17 |
Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:
In November the benchmark price decreased for single family homes and increased for Townhouses and apartment condos. The change is so small it’s insignificant. December pricing should remain fairly stable. Based on what I am seeing my early prediction for the New Year is for prices to continue to increase for Single family homes, and less so for Townhouses. Apartment condo prices should remain fairly stable as we are in a balanced market state.
|
Sales Prices |
Oct 2014 Benchmark Price |
Nov 2014 Benchmark Price |
Change |
|
Single Family Homes |
513,500 |
511,300 |
-2,200 |
|
Condo Townhouse |
337,800 |
338,600 |
+800 |
|
Condo Apartment |
299,800 |
300,700 |
+900 |
Sales Prices “Year to Date”
Year to date prices – Prices have increased in all categories. Good news if you are a homeowner.
|
Sales Prices |
Dec 31 2013 Benchmark Price |
Nov 2014 Benchmark Price |
Change $ |
% Change |
|
Single Family Homes |
472,200 |
511,300 |
39,100 |
+9.3% |
|
Condo Townhouse |
307,100 |
338,600 |
31.500 |
+10.25% |
|
Condo Apartment |
278,600 |
300,700 |
22,100 |
+7.9% |
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 |
|
Balanced Market |
Between 2.8 to 4.0 |
|
Seller’s Market |
<2.8 |
*** Absorption Rate:
This month the absorption rate increased for Single Family homes and Apartment Condos while Townhouses decreased slightly. This moves Single family homes closer towards a balanced market, Townhouses in a deeper Sellers market and apartment condos move stronger into a balanced market.
|
Absorption Rate |
Oct 2014 |
Nov 2014 |
Change |
|
Single Family Homes |
1.90 |
2.01 |
+.11 |
|
Condo Townhouse |
1.89 |
1.84 |
-.05 |
|
Condo Apartment |
2.83 |
3.04 |
+.21 |
|
Total Calgary |
2.06 |
2.17 |
+.11 |
**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.
October 2014, Calgary Real Estate Market Snapshot
Monday, November 3rd, 2014Stay 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/
An interesting month in the Calgary Real Estate market. Apartment Condos and Townhouses continued to slowly shift away from a seller’s market towards a more balanced market. I find it interesting that Single Family homes moved slightly deeper into a Seller’s market. Attached please find a copy of the stats package from the Calgary Real Estate Board for the month of Oct 2014. Below is a summary of some key areas with a few short comments.
Calgary Listing Inventory: Inventory levels typically decrease at this time of year as some people now wait until the New Year to list. That was the case for Single Family homes. Townhouses and Apartment condos increased very slightly but not big enough to make any substantial difference.
| Inventory | Sept 2014 | Oct 2014 | Change |
| Single Family Home | 2961 | 2780 | -181 |
| Condo Townhouse | 552 | 568 | +16 |
| Condo Apartment | 1081 | 1088 | +7 |
| Total | 4594 | 4436 | -158 |
Calgary Sales:
Typically at this time of year we also see sales numbers decreasing. Sales in October decreased marginally for Townhouses and Apartment Condos while sales for Single Family Homes increased. I believe this may be still a backlog of buyers waiting for the perfect home to come on the market. It is critical to note that even though the sales are decreasing we are still substantially above our sales for 2013.
| Sales | Sept 2014 | Oct 2014 | Change | % Change |
| Single Family Home | 1397 | 1462 | +65 | +4.6 |
| Condo Townhouse | 318 | 300 | -18 | -5.6 |
| Condo Apartment | 432 | 385 | -47 | -10.9 |
| Total | 2267 | 2147 | -120 | -5.3 |
Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:
In October, the benchmark price increased for all categories. Based on what I am seeing my prediction is for prices to continue to increase for Single family homes, and less so for Townhouses but Apartment condo prices should flatten as they are now in a balanced market state. If you have been following my reports you will notice the increases are continuing to get smaller every month.
| Sales Prices | Sept 2014 Benchmark Price | Oct 2014 Benchmark Price | Change |
| Single Family Homes | 512,800 | 513,500 | +700 |
| Condo Townhouse | 336,300 | 337,800 | +1500 |
| Condo Apartment | 298,800 | 299,800 | +1000 |
Sales Prices “Year to Date”
Year to date prices – Prices have increased in all categories. Good news if you are a homeowner.
| Sales Prices | Dec 31 2013 Benchmark Price | Oct 2014 Benchmark Price | Change$ | % Change |
| Single Family Homes | 472,200 | 513,500 | +41,300 | 8.75 |
| Condo Townhouse | 307,100 | 337,800 | +30,700 | +9.99 |
| Condo Apartment | 278,600 | 299,800 | +21,200 | +7.61 |
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 |
| Balanced Market | Between 2.8 to 4.0 |
| Seller’s Market | <2.8 |
Absorption Rate:
This month the absorption rate increased for Townhouses and Apartment Condos and decreased for single family homes. This puts single family homes in more of a sellers market while it puts apartment condos into a balanced market.
| Absorption Rate | Sept 2014 | Oct 2014 | Change |
| Single Family Homes | 2.11 | 1.90 | -.12 |
| Condo Townhouse | 1.74 | 1.89 | +.15 |
| Condo Apartment | 2.50 | 2.83 | +.33 |
| Total Calgary | 2.14 | 2.06 | -.08 |
**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.
Existing Home Market Sales Projected to Reach Highest Level on Record
Friday, October 31st, 2014CMHC has just released their Calgary Fall 2014 Housing Market Outlook. They show what has happened and they also predict what they believe is going to happen.
A few interesting tidbits
- MLS sales are expected to increase through 2016
- New MLS listings are expected to increase through 2016 giving buyers more selection.
- Prices in Calgary are expected to rise.
What’s best about this report is that it also gives you they WHY they are making the predictions
If you want to keep on top of the Calgary Housing Market this report is a must read.
Check it out here
Calgary Real Estate Market Snapshot Sept 2014
Friday, October 3rd, 2014Stay 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! The Calgary housing market is deeply entrenched is a Sellers Market however is slowly changing and is moving toward a balanced market.
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/
Calgary Listing Inventory: Inventory levels for Single Family homes decreased while everything else increased this month. Typically this time of year we show increases in inventory. Single family home inventory went down which is not normal. I believe the reason is that we still have a large backlog of buyers waiting for the perfect home to come on the market, especially in the starter home price range.
| Inventory | Aug 2014 | Sept 2014 | Change |
| Single Family Home | 3021 | 2961 | -60 |
| Condo Townhouse | 437 | 552 | +115 |
| Condo Apartment | 1056 | 1081 | +25 |
| Total | 4514 | 4594 | +80 |
Calgary Sales:
Sales in September decreased marginally in all categories. Sales numbers decreasing is very normal at this time of year. It is critical to note that even though the sales are decreasing we are still substantially above our sales for 2013.
| Sales | Aug 2014 | Sept 2014 | Change | % Change |
| Single Family Home | 1477 | 1398 | -79 | -5.3 |
| Condo Townhouse | 338 | 318 | -20 | -5.9 |
| Condo Apartment | 452 | 432 | -20 | -4.4 |
| Total | 2267 | 2148 | -119 | -5.2 |
Calgary Real Estate Sales Prices:
In September, the benchmark price increased for all categories. Based on the inventory change, prices are likely to increase moderately for a few more months as we move from a seller’s market to a more balanced market. If you have been following my reports you will notice the increases are continuing to get smaller every month.
| Sales Prices | Aug 2014 Benchmark Price | Sept 2014 Benchmark Price | Change |
| Single Family Homes | 512,300 | 512,800 | +500 |
| Condo Townhouse | 328,300 | 330,200 | +1900 |
| Condo Apartment | 298,200 | 298,800 | +600 |
Sales Prices “Year to Date”
Year to date prices – Prices have increased in all categories. Good news if you are a homeowner.
| Sales Prices | Dec 31 2013 Benchmark Price | Sept 2014 Benchmark Price | Change$ | % Change |
| Single Family Homes | 472,200 | 512,800 | +40,600 | +8.6 |
| Condo Townhouse | 307,100 | 330,200 | +23,100 | +7.5 |
| Condo Apartment | 278,600 | 298,800 | +20,200 | +7.3 |
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 |
| Balanced Market | Between 2.8 to 4.0 |
| Seller’s Market | <2.8 |
Absorption Rate:
This month the absorption rate increased in all categories. For Single Family homes the ratio went up even though our inventory decreased – this is because sales decreased more. Condo Townhouses took the largest jump of .45, I believe this is just catching up as last month it went opposite of everything else.
| Absorption Rate | Aug 2014 | Sept 2014 | Change |
| Single Family Homes | 2.05 | 2.11 | +.06 |
| Condo Townhouse | 1.29 | 1.74 | +.45 |
| Condo Apartment | 2.33 | 2.50 | +.17 |
| Total Calgary | 1.99 | 2.14 | +.15 |
**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 share
CIR REALTY wants to give your local community project, charity or community group $5,000!
Friday, September 5th, 2014CIR REALTY wants to give your local community project, charity or community group $5,000!
Starting September 1st CIR REALTY will be giving out four, $5,000 grants to local community projects and initiatives. All members of the public are encouraged to submit an entry and winners will be decided by public votes!
You can submit your entry to one of four categories:
1. Locally Registered Non-profit grant
2. Community Facility Improvement grant
3. Youth Extracurricular Activities grant
4. Local Sustainability & Conservation grant
Submitting an entry is easy –
just upload a photo and write a brief description and then share your entry with friends and family and encourage them to vote for you!
Whether you have a community garden that needs a little love, a playground that needs to be rebuilt, a swim team that needs funding or a local animal shelter that needs new dog beds, we want to help YOU!
visit www.cirrealty.ca to enter
2404, 604 East Lake Blvd Airdrie Ab. T4A 0G6
Wednesday, August 27th, 2014&Experience life in the Edge Airdrie’s finest. This 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath and den condo with 2 titled
parking stalls is on the top floor. Kitchen with espresso cabinets, granite counter tops and
stainless steel appliances. Living room is open and offers access to balcony. Master bedroom
features walk though closet and full 3 piece ensuite. Second bedroom located on other side of
unit. Features in suite laundry hookup. The Edge is conveniently located right beside Genesis
Place and is convenient to major routes and transit. Cross Iron Mills is minutes away for all your
shopping needs. Check out our video tour at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB0SRBoR99E
MLS # C3633148
The Third Quarter 2014 edition of CMHC’s Housing Market Outlook
Friday, August 15th, 2014http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/odpub/esub/61500/61500_2014_Q03.pdf
Here is what they say about Alberta
Alberta
Overview Economic growth in Alberta is expected to lead all provinces in Canada over the next two years. GDP is forecast to increase by 3.8 per cent in 2014 and 3.0 per cent in 2015. Higher oil and natural gas prices this year will help increase the value of energy exports and encourage investment in the energy sector. Consumer spending is also projected to rise, supported by strong population growth and rising wages. Labour market conditions in Alberta are projected to remain favourable as the economy generates employment growth of 2.8 per cent in 2014 and 2.2 per cent in 2015.
Alberta’s attraction of new migrants will help expand the labour force and keep the unemployment rate close to its ,current levels. The unemployment rate in Alberta is projected to average 4.6 per cent in 2014 and 4.5 per cent in 2015..After two consecutive years of record net migration, inflows of migrants to Alberta are projected to moderate as economic growth in other jurisdictions improve relative to Alberta. Net migration to Alberta will decline from the record of 102,465 people in 2013 to 79,000 in 2014 and to 64,000 in 2015.
In Detail,
Single Starts: Single-detached starts are forecast to increase from 18,431 units in 2013 to 19,100 in 2014 and then moderate to 18,800 units in ,2015. With active listings in the resale market below that of last year, some ,home buyers will look to the new home market to meet their needs, helping to lift starts this year. By 2015, the declining level of migration, combined with more listings in the resale market and rising new home inventory, are expected to moderate new production. Listings are expected to rise because housing prices in some markets have surpassed prices that last peaked in 2007/2008, thus providing an opportunity for homeowners to move up.
Multiple Starts: Multi-unit starts are projected to rise from 17,580 units in 2013 to 19,500 in 2014 and then ease to 18,000 units in 2015. The lift in multi-unit construction this year is primarily due to increased production in Calgary, where multi-unit starts are projected to attain a 33-year high. The multi-unit inventory has been trending lower over the past two years encouraging new production.
Resales:
MLS® sales are projected to increase to 69,900 in 2014 and to 71,900 in 2015. A large inflow of migrants over the past few years has generated momentum for housing demand. This will help lift sales over the forecast period, as will employment growth and income gains. While MLS® sales are projected to increase in 2015, growth will become more subdued as migration continues to ease.
Prices:
The average MLS® sales price is projected to increase to $396,800 in 2014 and then to $407,000 in 2015. A higher level of demand relative to supply will help lift resale prices in 2014. As 2014 progresses, new listings are expected to increase and continue rising into 2015.
1620, 8710 Horton Road SW Cal Ab. T2V 0P7
Wednesday, August 6th, 2014Proudly presenting, one of the best unit locations in the sought after London at Heritage. This southwest facing corner unit features panoramic city and mountain views and a large wrap around balcony. This unit is located on the top floor of this section of building, it has no units above it. The Westminster floor plan is bright and open. Extensive upgrades including 9 Ft ceilings, hardwood, ceramic tile, granite counter tops and backsplash, under cabinet lighting, stainless steel appliances, alcoves above closets, recessed lighting in bedrooms, 2 air conditioning units and more. Master features full ensuite bath and the second bedroom features a built in murphy bed. London at Heritage is an environmentally friendly development and is pet friendly. Building features 24 hour security, daytime concierge, roof top patio and a bike storage. Location is fantastic with overpass to C-Train, walking distance to shops, restaurants, gym and pubs. Furniture is also available for sale. View our video tour at http://youtu.be/lxUocbckIKo
MLS C3630029
