April 2013

Calgary's luxury home market is making headlines again, as a recent report has named our city one of the most 'robust markets for luxury homes'.

Sotheby's International Realty released a report this week that states the baseline entry point for a single-family luxury home in Calgary has reached the $2 million point. Year-to-date, there have been 204 luxury home sales in our city of properties over $1 million (according to statistics from CREB).

A story in the Calgary Herald today stated:

“According to agents surveyed, top-tier single-family homes start at $2 million dollars with a minimum of 3,500 square feet and are typically in the Traditional, Craftsman/Arts and Crafts, Westcoast Modern or Character architectural styles,” said the report.

We've already heard the recent reports about the price growth of resale Northwest Calgary real estate, but now we're getting word that new home prices in Calgary are showing price growth—4.3% growth to be exact.

Statistics Canada is reporting that our city is showing the second highest rate of year-over-year growth in the new home market since February. If you're wondering where the highest market is, that would be Winnipeg (5.5%). Because of the rise here and other Western markets, growth nationally is sitting at 2.1%.

According to a Calgary Herald article:

“Calgary was the top contributor to the advance in February, up 1.0 per cent from January. This was the largest month-over-month increase in that region since May 2007. Builders indicated

New numbers from Royal LePage Canada show that average home prices are up year-over-year for the first quarter of this year.

A story published in the Financial Post outlined this trend:

“The combination of very low mortgage rates and flat home prices, against a background of general economic improvement across the nation, is not something we’ve seen before,” [Phil] Soper [Royal LePage CEO] said Thursday. “The current environment is very supportive for housing,” Soper added.

Here's a breakdown of the figures:

• Average price for 2-storey detached house = $407,044, up 2.2%
• Average price for detached bungalow = $364,857, up 2.4%
• Average price for a condominium = $246,071, up 1.2%

Read the full story from the Financial Post here.