
Calgary’s red-hot housing market cooled off significantly in March, with overall sales down 19% year-over-year, according to a release from the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB).
Sales reached 2,159 units, slowing across all property types, with the steepest declines in multi-family homes.
While the market couldn’t be expected to continue at the pace it set over the last 18 months, economic uncertainty, brought on by tariffs, likely played a role the slowdown, said Ann-Marie Lurie, CREB’s chief economist.
“It is not a surprise to see a pullback in sales given the uncertainty,” said Lurie. “However, it is important to note that sales still remain stronger than anything reported throughout 2015 to 2020, where our economy faced significant economic challenges and job loss.”
“Nonetheless, easing demand has been met with gains in new listings and rising inventories, helping our market shift back toward balanced conditions, following four consecutive years where the market favoured the seller.”
Lurie said 4,000 new listings were added in March, taking the sales-to-new-listing ratio to 54%.
“That’s low enough to support further inventory gains. Total residential inventory levels reached 5,154 units and the months of supply pushed up to 2.4 months,” she said. “While this is a significant change from last year, with limited supply options across all property types and price ranges, conditions reflect a better balance between a seller and a buyer today.”
The new listings slowed the pace of price increases, after four years of steep price gains, said Lurie.
“In March, the unadjusted residential benchmark price reached $596,500, relatively stable compared to both last month and last March,” she said. “Both single-family and semi-detached prices remain consistent with peak prices and continue to rise, while apartment and row-style homes continue to report prices slightly lower than last year's peak.”
Here are Lurie’s market observations, based on home type:
Single-family homes
Sales reached 1,035 units in March, down 10% from March 2024.
“The decline in sales was met with improving new listings, supporting inventory gains over last year's extremely low levels. The improving supply compared to sales has caused the months of supply to rise to just over two months, a significant improvement over the less than one month reported last spring,” said Lurie. “However, the months of supply continue to remain tight with less than two months of supply for homes priced below $700,000. We are seeing a shift toward more balanced conditions for homes priced above $800,000.”
The unadjusted benchmark price was $769,800 last month, a 4% gain over March 2024.
Semi-detached homes
“March sales slowed over last year's levels, contributing to the first quarter decline of 11%,” said Lurie.“The decline in sales has also been met with a gain in new listings. While conditions remained relatively tight over the first two months of the year, the boost in new listings in March relative to sales did support further gains in inventory levels, causing the months of supply to push up to 2.2 months, the highest monthly level reported since the end of 2022.”
The semi-detached unadjusted benchmark price of $691,900 in March, was 5% above the March 2024 price.
“That’s still above the unadjusted peak reached in July last year,” said Lurie.
Row/townhomes
There was a surge of homes coming to market, with 697 new listings in March, said Lurie.
“The growth in new listings was met with 400 sales, causing the sales-to-new-listings ratio to ease, and inventories to rise from the lower levels reported last year,” she said. “There were 826 units in inventory in March, pushing above long-term trends, but remaining shy of some of the highs reported prior to the pandemic.”
In March, the unadjusted benchmark price was $454,000, 2% higher than last March, but nearly 4% below peak levels reported in June of last year.
Apartment condominiums
This segment of the market had the largest decline over last year compared to other property types, said Lurie.
“However, we achieved record highs last year, and the 1,383 sales remain well above long-term trends for the first quarter. Relatively strong demand has also been met with significant gains in new listings, causing the sales-to-new-listings ratio to fall below 50% and driving inventory gains,” she said. “As of March, there were 1,710 units in inventory, causing the months of supply to push up to just over three months.
More supply slowed the pace of price growth, said Lurie.
“The unadjusted benchmark price in March was $336,100, similar to last month and nearly 3% higher than last March,” she said. “Despite the year-over-year gain, prices remain below the peak reported last August.”