September is all about getting back to normal, back to routine, so – as we are doing that – the question on so many people’s minds is: “Did our real estate market settle down in the month of August?
In this market update you’ll learn exactly how the Calgary & surrounding area markets completed their summer months.
August was another stellar month for Calgary & Area real estate. There seems to be no real indication that we will revert back to historical normals just yet. The entire year has exceeded expectations, and it did so once again in the month of August.
THE SALES SUMMARY
August finished with 2151 sales for the month. This was a 37% increase from last year, and also from 2019.
In fact, this was the 3rd best August of all time! Another “podium finish” for 2021. 😀
Looking at this graph from the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) you’ll see just how special the month was when compared to the last 15 years.
Yes, this represents a drop in sales from July, but that’s to be expected due to the seasonal adjustments we are going through.
We continued to record a Sales-per-Day pace of about 70 total properties. This is pretty fantastic!
To put this in a little more perspective, when I look back past the historical highs we experienced earlier in 2021, August 2021 sold more homes than any month in 2020, more than any month in 2019, more than any month in 2018, 2017, 2016 and I had to roll the data back all the way to June 2015 to find a month that beat this month’s total sales.
Yup, despite us slowing down a bit from July, we are still experiencing an incredible pace in relation to most of the last 6 years.
So, it’s safe to say SALES are still ripping & roaring.
As you’d expect the various property types are acting a little differently, but all positively.
Detached homes had a 32% increase in year-over-year sales.
Apartments experienced a 49% increase – Wow!
Semi-Detached had a 25% increase.
And Row homes experienced a whopping 59% year-over-year increase.
Calgary is our major market centre and it contributed to 74% of all sales in August, but this isn’t all our region is about – not by a long shot. This month I feel compelled to speak to the positive stories happening in our surrounding regions, as well.
Airdrie is our 2nd busiest market centre. It achieved 183 sales in August, which was a 24% increase in sales year-over-year.
Cochrane had 90 sales (12% year-over-year increase) and Okotoks had 65 sales (11% gain year-over-year).
It’s pure positivity at every corner of the region!
THE INVENTORY STORY
We started the month of August with 6,680 homes on the market, and as we finished the month the active total was reduced to 6,053. That is a significant decline.
We currently sit with 7% less inventory than we did last year. Which is less than 2019, and much less than our recent August peak in 2018.
And as you look at this 15-year CREB graph, you’ll see that those numbers remain in line with the historical average. There’s certainly not “lots” on the market, but we’re not in a position of scarcity either.
We ended up listing nearly 10% more homes on the market than last year, totalling 2,822 new listings in August. But, despite that, we saw a significant 600-home decline due to the continued pace of sales, and at this time of the year we do naturally see more homeowners take their “non-selling” homes off the market for the time being.
Detached homes are sitting with 14% less inventory year-over-year.
Semi-Detached are at 10% less.
Row homes have 5% less inventory than this time last year.
Apartments continue to be the only product type with more, with 7% more active inventory than at this same point last year.
Now, the story is a little different in our surrounding markets. Their total active inventory is much lower than it was at this point last year.
Airdrie currently only has 260 homes on the market – 36% less than the year prior.
Cochrane has 154 homes on the market (39% less).
And Okotoks has only 85 available homes, a whopping 48% less than this time last year.
So, it’s fair to say that if you are trading real estate in these regions, things may be feeling even tighter than in metro Calgary.
THE PRICING PICTURE
The average benchmark sale price in the month of August was $459,600.
This is a year-over-year increase of 9.4%. So, yes, this remains a great news story for Calgarians.
Now, we did drop slightly from our year’s peak, recorded last month, of $460,100, but that’s nothing to worry about. It’s natural as we roll out of the peak selling months to start recording a slight easing in benchmark sales price. I expect a month-over-month drop each month now till we cross through into next year’s selling season. It’s all part of the real estate cycle of life.
Here is the breakdown for each property type:
Detached – 10.6% increase.
Semi Detached – 9.9% increase.
Row Homes – an 8% gain.
Apartments – a modest 2.3% increase.
Here is a graph that shows how this has changed across the various districts in the city.
Again, all GREEN arrows, all positive signs, and it’s quite consistent. The lowest performing district is the CITY CENTRE district, and that’s because it has the highest concentration of apartments and, as I just mentioned, the Apartment segment has the lowest year-over-year price gain.
CREB also comes out with a graph that is similar to this, showing how the “Detached only” price changes have occurred in the various surrounding areas. Let me show you that here, as well.
What you’ll likely notice is that the year-over-year price gains are all in the double digits. This just shows the continued strength of the detached market, not only in Calgary, but also in a big way all around our great city! Very positive and inspiring news for all!
When talking about overall benchmark price, another common question we get as Realtors is
“What sort of a deal can I expect in today’s market?”
This is certainly impossible to predict, as every area, price range, property type and – of course – seller will treat an offer differently, but right now as a whole we saw a 97.8% final sales price to current list price ratio.
This is about the same as we had last month.
This simply means that it’s a safe assumption that a new home to market, priced fairly, will realize a sale price that’s just a few percentage points shy of their list price.
So, things remain pretty tight. And this is further emphasized in the continued strength of another very important metric – the “Sales-to-New-Listing Ratio”.
This continues to be over 75% as a city-wide average. With some property types, like detached & row homes, being well over 80%, it even further demonstrates the strength and relative “tightness” of our end-of-summer market.
Earlier I mentioned the inventory being quite low in our surrounding communities, but we are also seeing very high sales-to-listing ratios around Calgary, too.
Regions like Foothills are selling 100% of the homes that are hitting the market, while areas like Airdrie, Chestermere & Rockyview County are all selling all in the high 80 percentiles.
So, the story here – even though summer is over and the main selling season is behind us – is that our real estate market remains a force to be reckoned with.
Homes will hit the market and sell in very short order in most parts of the CREB region.
This has us, as a whole, with a current “Days on Market” average of 42. That’s a full 20% faster than at this time last year.
SUMMARY
If you wanted things to slow down… well, they aren’t. There remains massive interest from citizens of our region to trade up, trade down, trade laterally and to continue investing in real estate.
And there continues to be consistent outside-our-market investment interest from the GTA, Greater Vancouver and beyond.
Calgary remains one of the most affordable metropolitan centres in all of North America and we are finally seeing the long-term confidence we’ve always believed our market deserves.
I expect us to continue having a tremendous year in Calgary & Area real estate.
So, if you need any advice about your specific situation, please reach out so we can connect you with one of our 85+ incredible realtors at Redline.
Thank you following us through another Calgary Real Estate Market Update Video, brought to you by Redline Real Estate Group.
