House prices in Calgary experienced a small increase in the first quarter of the year, according to the Royal LePage house price survey released Tuesday.
The aggregate price of a home in the city rose 0.6 per cent year-over-year to $461,635.
“This is projected to be a recovery year; oil prices have stabilized, and people are starting to feel more confident in the economy. This newfound confidence has led to a rising volume of sales and resulting lack of inventory, making it increasingly clear that people are becoming more comfortable with the real estate market in Calgary,” Corinne Lyall, broker and owner at Royal LePage Benchmark said in a news release.
“Despite the economic challenges Calgary experienced in recent years, it has always been a place where people continue to be optimistic.”
The median price of a two-storey home in Calgary remained relatively flat, increasing 0.1 per cent to $500,190 the first quarter of 2017. The median price of a bungalow increased 2.4 per cent to $479,543, while the price of a condo slid 0.4 per cent to $301,794.
The report says Canada’s two largest real estate markets continued their divergence in the first quarter of the year.
The aggregate price of a home in the Greater Toronto Area rose by an “unprecedented” 20 per cent across all housing types to $759,241 in the first three months of 2017.
In the Greater Vancouver area, the price of a home rose 12.3 per cent year-over-year to $1,179,482.
Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper says the housing correction in Vancouver began seven months ago, around the time that the B.C. government introduced a 15 per cent tax on foreign nationals buying real estate in the city.
Sales volumes then plunged and prices slowed their torrid upwards trajectory.
But just in the past month, sales in the Vancouver area have leapt forward by close to 50 per cent on a month-over-month basis, says Soper — better than the seasonal average.
“An unfortunate side effect of heavy-handed regulatory intervention is that we risk market whiplash,” Soper said in a statement.
“In the coming weeks, it is possible that six months of pent-up demand will be unleashed on the market, sending prices sharply upward again; this when the pre-intervention 2016 trend was a natural market slowdown based on eroding affordability.”
Across Canada, the aggregate price of a home grew 12.6 per cent year-over-year to $574,575 during the first quarter, Royal LePage said.
The price of a two-storey home climbed 13.9 per cent year-over-year to $681,728, while the price of a bungalow rose 10.9 per cent to $490,018. Condo prices increased by 8.9 per cent to $373,768.
In Edmonton, aggregate house prices rose 0.3 per cent to $381,733.
Source Article