I thought I would post this after reading a very confusing article in the Edmonton Sun on Friday October 17th 2008. Basically the article conveys that the Calgary market is turning into a seller’s market again. I am not sure where they attain their information from or how they work the numbers, but I would like to post more meaningfully statistics. If you ask any Realtor in Calgary the market is still a far cry from being a seller’s market.
Below is the article posted by SUN Media. You can also view it online at http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/10/16/7101831-sun.html
SUN Media ” CALGARY — After hovering in buyers’ territory for much of this summer, home resale markets in Alberta’s two largest cities are on the verge of slipping back to a sellers’ market, thanks to pronounced drops in new listings.
New listings in Calgary fell by 11.7% to 4,709 units in September compared to one year ago, whereas in Edmonton, new listings sank by 19.8% to 3,142 units, says data released yesterday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
Sales rose by 3.7% to 2,006 units in Calgary in September, and by 65.9% to 1,729 units in Edmonton. The price of an average home listed on the MLS system slipped by 6% in Calgary to $390,599, and decreased by 5.6% to $324,906 in Edmonton.
Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said both Calgary and Edmonton are now “much firmer markets” than just a few months ago. ”
Where I find this to be very confusing and misleading is that in September there were only 1,612 properties sold on the Calgary MLS system. Digging further the SUN quotes “New Listings fell by 11.7% to 4,709 units”. Really this number is irrelevant because there were still close to 9,000 active listings on the market, approx 4,000 listings away from the market being balanced. As well the average sale price in September for all types of homes including condos and single family was $399,169. I hope you can start to see the confusion that can arise from looking at these numbers.
Most of the time the media gets there statistics from the local real estate boards such as CREB but in this case it appears they contacted the Canadian Real estate Association which should also be a very reliable source for statistics.
I don’t think the SUN is trying to mislead anyone intentionally. I believe this is just a case were the numbers and wording can be a bit tricky to interpret. If you read this article I would enjoy hearing your thoughts and interpretations posted to my blog.
Nevin Van Nest . Realtor . Royal LePage Foothills
Your Calgary Real Estate Expert
