Top Real Estate Agents in Calgary.

Calgary Real Estate News

Best 5-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates in Calgary

BMO

5.24%

Promotional Rate

TD

5.44%

CIBC

5.49%

RBC

5.69%

Scotiabank

6.34%

Fixed Rate

Variable Rate

Check Canada Mortgage Rates From 40+ Lenders

The average home price in Calgary for December 2022 was $495,231. That's 3.6% higher than last December’s average sales price and 1% higher compared with last month. Average home prices do not show the true extent of price changes because of the substitution effect. When increases in home prices or mortgage rates reduce consumers' buying power, they shift their purchases to more affordable options.

There is a change in the property types that buyers are interested in. On a year-to-date basis, people buy more condos and townhouses than last year while buying fewer detached and semi-detached houses. A better understanding of the market trend can be achieved via the Calgary Real Estate Board's Benchmark Price rising 22% in two years and 7.8% year-over-year to $518,800. The median home prices in Calgary reached $451,250, exhibiting a 4.9% annual increase.

Calgary's real estate market was hyperactive during the period February-April 2022. In December 2022, 1,204 homes changed hands. This shows a sharp decline in activity compared with the spring. The heightened activity level earlier this year might have been because many people anticipated the rise in interest rates and rushed their purchases. The current activity level is low compared with the past 18 months but very healthy compared with Calgary’s historical norm.

In 2022, 29,672 Calgary homes changed hands. This is a record achieved because of the very high level of activity in the first half of the year and in spite of slowing sales activity in the later part of the year.

New listings in the city of Calgary decreased 16% year over year (YoY) and 36% month over month (MoM) to 1,031 homes during December 2022. The sales-to-new listings ratio stood at the elevated and unsustainable level of 117%, suggesting a tight market favouring sellers. Inventory decreased 15% YOY, and 29% MoM and currently stands at 2,215 homes equaling 1.8 months of sales compared with 1.9 months in November and 2.1 months in October 2022.

The Calgary housing market is exhibiting very interesting dynamics. Benchmark prices are slowly decreasing from their all-time high in May 2022 while the inventory levels are very low. We see a slowdown in sales but an even faster slowdown in listings. The year-end inventory of 2,214 homes is a historically low level for the Calgary housing market. This condition suggests that buyers have become more disciplined about their purchase price and more conservative about the risk they are willing to take.

There seems to be a large divergence in understanding market dynamics between potential buyers and potential sellers. While potential buyers seem to perceive more downside risk to real estate prices and have become disciplined about their purchase price, sellers seem to perceive the downside price risk as temporary. They are holding out for the return of inflation to housing prices.

In December 2022,

• The benchmark price of a detached home in Calgary increased 9.8% year-over-year to $619,600 while staying unchanged month-over-month.
• The sale of 617 detached homes shows a 39% year-over-year and a 25% month-over-month decline in the number of detached homes sold. Currently, inventory stands at 1.9 months of detached home sales.
• Semi-detached benchmark home prices grew by 9% year-over-year to $563,000 and hardly changed month-over-month.
• Sales of semi-detached homes decreased by 36% YoY and decreased by 35% MoM, reaching 87 units. Currently, inventory stands at 2.6 months of semi-detached home sales.
• Benchmark townhouse prices grew 14% YoY but decreased 0.1% MoM to $358,300 for December 2022.
• The number of row houses sold decreased 34% YoY and 24% MoM to 189 units. Currently, inventory stands at 1.5 months of row home sales.
• Benchmark apartment prices are up 9.2% year-over-year to $274,800 while decreasing 0.8% compared with November.
• The number of apartments sold increased by 1.3% YoY to 311 units. Currently, inventory stands at 2.1 months of apartment home sales.

These data suggest that high prices for detached and semi-detached homes and limited availability have pushed homebuyers towards apartment houses. Total sales volume in the City of Calgary decreased by 28% YoY to $596.3 million. While sales volume in 2022 grew by 12% compared with 2021 and reached $15.34 billion. On average, Calgary houses sold at 97% of their list price.

As another price indicator, we can also look at the median prices for Calgary houses, increasing by 5% yearly to $451,250. Calgary median home prices are 1.4% higher than in November 2022. Median house prices for detached and semi-detached houses respectively reached $570,000 and $512,000, respectively, increasing by 8.6% and 12.5%, compared with last December. Median prices for row houses and apartments reached $350,000 and $258,500, respectively, increasing by 18% and 10% annually.

Also, looking at data for the whole year, Calgary's benchmark real estate prices have increased by 12% this year, reaching $529,317. Average prices increased 4.9% this year, reaching $516,865 and median prices increased 6.9% in 2022 compared with 2021 and reached $492,657.

In December, average prices for detached and semi-detached homes increased 8.8% and 9.6% yearly to reach $638,916 and $543,886. At the same time, row house and apartment average prices increased by 11% and 8.2% year-over-year, respectively, to reach $352,447 and $283,333.

Over the first quarter of 2020, the Bank of Canada (BoC) feared that the Covid pandemic would cause a severe economic downturn. Thus, the BoC brought its policy overnight interest rate close to zero and started pumping billions of dollars into the Canadian economy.

To see the extent of expansion in Canada’s money supply, consider the total assets on the BoC’s balance sheet. Assets of BoC were around $120B in early March 2020; these assets reached a peak of $575B in March 2021. Newly created Canadian dollars paid for this $475B increase in BoC’s assets.

The housing market became a destination for some of this newly created money. Though home prices are not included in the official inflation number, increases in house prices cause increases in landlords' asking rents, which in turn increases tenants' rents. with a considerable time lag, real estate inflation finds its way into official inflation numbers.

Canada’s official inflation topped 5% in January last year, which was the highest inflation number seen in close to three decades. This level of inflation was a threat to the central bank's credibility. Because central banks’ mandate requires them to maintain price stability, the BoC started raising interest rates in its first policy meeting after inflation passed 5%. Shortly after, BoC started removing (destroying) money through the quantitative tightening (QT) program. This is the money the bank had created earlier through a program called quantitative easing (QE).

The CPI inflation rate topped 8% in June and has slowly decreased over the past few months. It reached 6.9% in September, stayed at 6.9% for October and declined to 6.8% in November 2022. BoC has reduced the pace of rate rises, and very likely further reduces this pace in its next meeting. After that, the BoC is likely to pause for the effects of tighter monetary policy to work its way through the economy and bring inflation back to the 2% target.

The continuation of the Bank of Canada rate hikes is a headwind for real estate markets as it raises prime rates at financial institutions and causes mortgage rates in Canada to rise. This headwind acts on Canadian real estate, the Canadian stock market, and the bond market. This headwind shows its effect on the Canadian real estate market in the form of declining prices.

These rate increases by BoC immediately impact prime rates and affect variable-rate mortgages and HELOCs. The possibility of higher Alberta mortgage rates and reduced home affordability has caused a few months of record home sales (from February to April) in Calgary. However, higher mortgage rates and home prices are weakening the demand for housing in Calgary this year.

In contrast to the strong headwind of monetary policy facing the Calgary housing market, there are also a few tailwinds. Over the past three years, the Calgary region has been an affordable housing market among large Canadian cities, especially compared with two of the largest Canadian cities. Namely, the Calgary housing market is inexpensive compared to the Toronto housing market and Vancouver housing market. At the same time, the Calgary housing market is almost as affordable as the Montreal housing market. This affordability is a tailwind for the Calgary real estate market as some people move their residences from the Ontario housing market or the British Columbia housing market to Calgary.

Additionally, Alberta’s favourable income tax rates give people an extra incentive to move to Calgary. Some real estate investors have made enormous gains in the southern Ontario and Southern BC housing markets and are moving their investments to another large but comparatively cheap housing market in Calgary.

Another tailwind for the Calgary housing market is supply chain disruptions. Supply chain disruptions materially slow down the completion of new homes and thus limit supply. However, many real estate markets across Canada are facing the same issue.

The third tailwind behind the Calgary housing market relates to Alberta having the fourth-largest oil reserves behind Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. As the most populous metropolitan area in Alberta, Calgary houses many headquarters for energy companies. At higher oil prices, these companies hire more people and improve the demand in the Calgary housing market. Historically there has been a positive correlation between Calgary home prices and oil prices. Thus the current rise in oil and gas prices is another tailwind for the Calgary real estate market.

Calgary Commission Structure

Real estate commissions are the fees that home sellers pay to the seller and buyer real estate agents for their services. In Calgary, the total commission rate is structured as 7% for the first $100,000 of a home’s sale price and 3% on the remaining balance. Seller agents usually get half or 50% of this total commission with buyer agents getting the other half. To calculate your real estate commission for Calgary, see our calculator below. For other cities in Alberta, please visit our Alberta real estate commission calculator page for more information.

Inputs

Sold Price

$

Results

You will pay around...

$29,40029k

7%

on first $100k

3%

on remainder

Buying Agent Commission

$14,00014k

Selling Agent Commission

$14,00014k

5% GST

$1,4001.40k

---

The seller of the property will pay for both buying and selling agents' commission. For example, if the seller agent commission is 2.5% and the buyer agent commission is 2.5%, you will pay a total commission of 5%.

Calgary Real Estate Tools for Buyers and Sellers