CREB’s latest statistics show there were 21,207 MLS sales in Calgary in 2012 at an average sale price of $428,655. The Calgary Herald points out that the previous high was $423,770 five years ago when there were 26,611 transactions.
So what caused the spike?
According to CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie, the high volume of sales in the luxury home market had a lot to do with it.
“We’ve had a lot more multi-million dollar sales,” the Herald quotes Lurie as saying. “And that really does tend to pull that average price up.”
In 2012, 544 homes sold for more than $1 million in Calgary. In fact, the all-time record for luxury home sales in any month was set in May when 80 properties sold for more than $1 million, the Herald reports.
But Lurie says CREB’s benchmark price – based on the typical home sale which considers things like square footage, lot size and location – tells a slightly different story than the average sale price.
The benchmark price in Calgary in 2012 was $381,408, up from $361,758 in 2011. In 2007, the price peaked at $404,950.
Still, Calgary’s housing market is expected to continue to gain strength over the next year and a half. As Don Campbell, a senior analyst and founding partner of the Real Estate Investment Network, told the Herald: “The positive impact of the large influx of people from across the country to fill jobs in the province will really begin to be felt in the resale market in 2013. Then later in the year and early 2014 this impact will be felt in the new housing market.”
Other notable statistics from CREB:
- The average price of a condo in Calgary in 2012 was $284,702, up from 2011’s $271,537 average
- Last year a townhouse in the city cost an average of 316,823, a 2.5 per cent increase from 2011’s average price.
Visit CREB’s website here for all the latest numbers. For more analysis, the Calgary Herald article is here.
