Real Estate Market in Canada. Sizzle or Fizzle?

Over the last year Real Estate in many areas of Canada has shot through the roof leaving us to wonder when the boom will come to an end. Many Real Estate experts feel that we have now comfortably reached that place. Others, however, disagree and insist that round two is upon us.

Let's look at a case study. Calgary, AB. In some areas Calgary houses went up 30% in value in less than a year's time. Such enormous growth leads one to believe there is no place to go but down. In fact, at one point in the early summer housing was going up an average of $1500 / day in Calgary. That was the average! Hard to believe and certainly a strong catalyst too much change in the Calgary economy.

During this time there were roughly 600 single family listings on the market with 100 to 150 new listings coming on the market each day and 110 to 200 sales each day. This created a frenzy, and many houses were selling within hours of being on the market. A listing that took more than a week to sell was unheard of and likely grossly over priced.

Today, Calgary has roughly 3500 single family properties on the market or close to 6 times as many as in the early summer. Does this mean the market has crashed? The answer is no. Things have slowed a bit for the time, but what will the future bring?

In all likelihood, property values will remain stable and the real estate market will continue to show strong growth. Will things get as crazy as they were in Calgary in the near future? Again I would suggest it is unlikely but certainly not impossible. The market should remain strong in the near and not so distant future.

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