Calgary MLS listings surge

水管工

Single-family home prices drop $5,000
Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
! q, z/ q# Y- v) o' R  ]: R4 wPublished: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
: j) e% B9 O) n0 E1 RCalgary's resale housing market has taken a dramatic turn and the latest MLS sales data from the month of March suggest it has become a buyer's market with listings continuing to soar and sales plunging compared with a year ago.

"We have moved into a market that is currently providing a great variety of choice for the buyer," said Ed Jensen, president of the Calgary Real Estate Board.

+ ]+ a/ K% j; C! {2 kTotal MLS listings inventory at the end of March was 12,597, a whopping 167 per cent increase from 4,723 registered in March 2007. The month-end inventory for single-family homes in Calgary metro was 5,957, up 155 per cent from a year ago, while for condos it was up a staggering 283 per cent from a year ago to 2,781 listings from 726.

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EWith that surplus in inventory, what we're seeing here is roughly one in five of the homes are selling," said Jensen.
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' |9 x( f1 p0 O/ J"The days of the sellers in the last couple of crazy market years just naming their price and throwing their house on without presenting their house correctly, those days are done. And I think we have to come to reality.

6 }0 z7 a3 q3 ^3 n5 W"Right now the excess inventory is allowing the buyers to choose what they want. . . . That allows them to be picky and sellers need to pay attention to whatever their specific marketplace is doing . . . You just can't name your price."

2 e% A) N* h+ ?According to data released Tuesday by the real estate board, the average sale price of a single-family home in Calgary metro last month was $474,513, down 1.13 per cent from the $479,914 in March 2007. The median price also declined in a year-over-year comparison by 1.64 per cent from $427,000 to $420,000. Sales plunged by 37.6 per cent compared with a year ago -- 1,418 in March and 2,272 in March 2007.
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3 ], Y1 p; M4 q+ n$ EIn the condominium market, the average price in March for Calgary metro was $312,620, up 0.1 per cent from $312,280 in March 2007. The median price increased by 1.03 per cent in the past year from $290,000 to $293,000. But sales, like in the single-family market, dropped by 44.9 per cent in the past year from 1,026 in March 2007 to 565 last month.
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/ x7 Z& D) P& V' zPrices are starting to firm up, but "that one overhanging question is that supply level and how that will impact prices," said Lai Sing Louie, senior market analyst in Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

  Q& m$ V+ N6 f"I don't believe we've reached the highest level of supply yet," he said.
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6 R2 O. I0 }4 Z"Overall, I don't think we're going to see a lot of price movement. We don't expect any dramatic decrease in prices but we think that prices are going to go up and likely the annual average is going to be less than five per cent. Things are stabilizing right now but still the biggest risk is that with all that supply out there, it's going to give people even more time for selection. It's going to cause people maybe to compete more with each other . . . That sense of urgency to buy has diminished dramatically from a year ago."

$ @$ G" {+ b' W3 B. YThe average sale price of a single-family home in Calgary metro has increased for each month this year from the $444,769 it was in December -- $455, 297 in January, $471,696 in February. It had peaked at $505,920 last July.

The average price of a condo in Calgary metro has remained fairly stable this year after registering $304,719 in December. In January it was $311,232 and rose slightly to $311,812 in February.
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4 F8 d, o1 b! \" ]4 @* z# o% HAt the first quarter mark of the year, the average price of a single-family home was $468,042 in Calgary metro, up 2.4 per cent from $456,980 for the first three months of 2007.
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: g! {* [% I" s/ ?) V" JHowever, sales have dropped by 34.4 per cent for the first three months -- 3,747 this year versus 5,709 last year.
In the condo market for the first quarter of the year, the average sale price in Calgary metro was $311,967, an increase of 3.3 per cent from the $301,932 in the same period a year ago. But sales were down 40.6 per cent this year -- from 2,656 to 1,577.

Jensen said despite the drop in sales there is confidence in the Calgary resale market as prices have stabilized and sales have increased slightly each month of this year for both condos and single-family homes.
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$ u: {/ `% N7 l"We've gone through some crazy years where our inventory was almost non-existent," said Jensen. "I think the sellers need to pay attention that this is a buyer's marketplace."

6 S# g6 x$ r+ x0 g; K. INew listings added in March increased by 11.6 per cent for single-family homes in the past year and by

24.9 per cent for condos.

mtoneguzzi@theherald.canwest.com

没有青春的青春

依勒特

前几周都是每天有250左右的新房子上市，今天是300套房子上市！