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Calgary Real Estate News

Calgary’s housing market continues to stabilize after a frantic spring season, but sales still remain at elevated levels. Average sold prices remained unchanged, brought about by a slight increase in detached home prices but a decrease in all other home types.

The average sold price of a home in Calgary was $488,043 in August 2021, a 4% year-over-year increase from August 2020. Home sales are up 36% year-over-year with 2,151 homes sold in the City of Calgary. This is higher than the 1,574 homes sold in August 2020 and 1,573 in August 2019. New listings in August are also up when compared to the previous two years.

Detached homes accounted for 60% of all home sales; semi-detached homes accounted for 8% of all home sales; townhouses accounted for 16% of all home sales; and condo apartments accounted for 15% of all home sales. This market share distribution has slightly shifted away from detached homes in favour of townhouses since late spring.

Growth in detached home prices counteracted declines in all other home types, helping average home sold prices to remain unchanged from July. Detached homes sold for $590,784 on average this August, a slight gain from July and up by 7% from last year. Semi-detached homes sold for $490,464 on average, a slight decrease but enough to cause it to not keep up with August 2020 prices, resulting in a 1% price decrease year-over-year. Townhouses settled with an average price of $318,977, about a 2% decrease month-over-month and a 4% increase year-over-year. Condo apartment prices fell slightly month-over-month and are up by 3% year-over-year to $258,609.

As a new regulatory tailwind to Calgary's housing market, the CMHC has recently decreased their standards for insured mortgages. This reverses the increase from last year and drops required credit scores from 680 to 600 and increases GDS and TDS ratio limits to 39% and 44% from 35% and 42%, respectively. This increases potential leverage for home buyers across Canada, especially in cities like Calgary where average home prices remain under $1 million.

However, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Ministry of Finance have recently raised the benchmark mortgage stress test rate for both insured and uninsured borrowers from 4.79% to 5.25%, limiting affordability for marginal buyers.

Mortgage rates have also risen from their 2020 lows but have remained stable for the past few months. However, the prospect of tighter monetary policy from the Bank of Canada as early as mid-2022 could lead to increased rates and limit home affordability in Calgary.

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.

Calgary Real Estate Tools for Buyers and Sellers