Calgary’s real estate market saw a small decline in sales and the city-wide benchmark price, with an increase in supply in August, compared to July, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB). Multi-family homes saw an increase in prices, says Ann-Marie Lurie, CREB’s chief economist. “Higher price adjustments are occurring for apartment and row style properties while detached and semi-detached properties have reported modest declines,” says Lurie. “As of August, the unadjusted benchmark price was $577,200, down from $582,900 in July and nearly four percent lower than last year.” Lurie says perspective is needed when it comes to price adjustments. “The most significant price adjustments are occurring for row and apartment-style homes as they are also the product facing the largest gains in supply,” she said. “Price adjustments in the detached and semi-detached markets range from modest growth in some areas to larger declines in areas with large supply growth. Overall, recent price adjustments have not offset all the gains that have occurred over the past several years.” There were 1,989 sales in August, down from 2,099 sales in July and down nine percent from August 2024. ."Sales have slowed compared to the high levels reported over the past four years,” said Lurie. “However, activity is still above long-term trends, reflecting relatively strong demand.” “What has changed is the supply situation. New listings remain elevated, keeping the sales-to-new-listings ratio below 60% and pushing inventory to 6,661 homes, the highest August amount since 2019.” Improving supply has changed the dynamics of the Calgary market. “More inventory choice coupled with lower sales has caused the months of supply to rise to 3.4 months in August, much higher than the sellers' market conditions reported over the previous four years, but still well below the buyer market conditions observed prior to the pandemic.” “While the market is much more balanced compared to last year, there is significant variation depending on property type, price range and location.” Here are Lurie’s overview of the market by housing type. Single-family “Sales eased to 995 units in August, while new listings rose to 1,748 units. This prevented any significant shift in inventory, as the 3,051 units were the highest levels reported in August since 2020.” For the most part the single-family market is in balanced territory, however, “districts like the northeast, north and east are experiencing buyer market conditions,” said Lurie. .The benchmark price was $755,600, down less than one percent from July and August last year. “While prices have eased there is significant variation depending on location,” said Lurie. “Compared to last year, prices reported the largest decline in the northeast and east districts at five percent, while prices in the city centre were more than two percent higher.” Semi-Detached “Sales improved over last year, but not enough to offset earlier pullbacks with year-to-date sales of 1,557, eight percent lower than last year, but higher than long-term trends,” said Lurie. “New listings slowed compared to sales, pushing the sales-to-new listings ratio up to 67% and preventing any further monthly inventory gains and the months of supply remained below three months.” “The unadjusted benchmark price was $687,200 down from July, but nearly one percent higher than last year and nearly four percent higher on a year-to-date basis. Price growth has varied across the city, with the largest year-over-year gains occurring in city centre and the largest declines in the northeast, east and north districts.” .Row/townhomes Slow sales contributed to the year-to-date decline of nearly 16%. “While new listings did ease in August compared to last year and last month, they have generally been on the rise pushing up inventory levels,” said Lurie. “There were 1,103 units in inventory, reaching the second highest level on record for August, slightly lower than the record high in 2018.” “Due to the relatively strong sales, the months of supply has only pushed slightly above three months, far more balanced than last year.” “The unadjusted benchmark price was $439,600, the fourth consecutive monthly decline. While prices eased across all districts, price declines exceeded five percent in the northeast, north, south and east districts, which generally reported high levels of supply in the resale sector or had significant competition from new home supply.” Apartment Condominium Sales slowed, contributing to a year-to-date decline of nearly 30%. “While sales are still above long-term trends, they have not been high enough to offset the level of new listings in the market,” said Lurie. “In August there were 877 new listings compared to the 449 sales. The low ratio that has persisted throughout this year has contributed to the higher inventory levels seen in the market with 1,979 units available, the highest August inventory ever reported.” .The excess supply relative to demand has been weighing on prices. “As of August, the unadjusted benchmark price was $326,500, the fifth consecutive monthly decline and nearly six percent lower than levels reported last August,” said Lurie. “Most of the supply is concentrated in the city centre, which reported a year-over-year decline of five percent, slightly higher than the rate of decline reported in the West district at three percent.”
