Jeanne's Calgary Listings Blog 

 

Calgary Listings Blog - Thursday November 5, 2009 - Rising Residential Real Estate Sales Indicate Move Toward Market Stability

A surge in real estate transactions in October has Calgary real estate experts believing the market is back on track. According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, the number of single-family homes and condominiums sold grew significantly versus October 2008. Single-family home sales increased 57 percent in October from the same time last year. Some 51 percent more condos sold in October since a year ago.

The average single-family home price of $462,465, as documented by the Multi-Listing Service, set a record for October residential sale prices. This sum increased three percent over October 2008, as well as a remarkable $180,000 since October 2005. This hefty average sale price may be attributable to buyers’ willingness to trade up to pricier properties. The average sale price of $289,155 for condominiums is virtually identical to last October’s figure of $289,148. However, that price grew by more than $101,000 versus October 2005.

Bonnie Wegerich, president of CREB, believes the residential real estate market has moved past its biggest obstacles. Noting stable-to-increasing prices, higher levels of consumer confidence and attractive mortgage rates, Wegerich feels the market has regained stability.

Calgary Listings Blog - Tuesday October 27, 2009 - Financial Woes Cloud Future of Calgary’s Olympic Oval

The future of Calgary’s fabled 1988 Olympics complex is in peril. WinSports Canada, formerly known as the Calgary Olympic Development Association, has been forced to impose severe budget cuts for the legacy facility. The organization’s endowment funds have been decimated by the recent economic downturn. As of late 2008, the funds’ value had dropped by some $80 million, from a high of $185 million in 2007.

This news is devastating to not only athletes, but to people like Mark Greenwald, who lost his job as the Oval’s director last February. Greenwald worries about prospects for the facility that helped Canadians win 11 of 24 medals at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. Also called into question is Calgary’s future as a prime destination for winter sports.

With only a year remaining before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, WinSports officials have asked Canada’s courts for emergency consent to draw on cash in the endowment funds. The organization was given permission to spend $14 million in order to pay outstanding invoices. WinSports has established hiring freezes and travel cuts. Organizations such as Own the Podium and the University of Calgary are stepping up efforts to reduce WinSports’ deficit.

Calgary Listings Blog - Friday October 16, 2009 - Listing Inventory Dropping In The Calgary Area

Calgary’s resale housing market shows fewer active listings, which will help the city’s MLS price recovery. There is now actually a shortage of Calgary listings, showing that the market has experienced a turnaround. A recent survey show a slight increase in the average house price in the third quarter for Calgary.

First-time home owners capitalized on low interest rates and attractive home prices, which created an increase in housing prices for detached bungalows and two-storey homes. The exceptions to the recent trend are standard condominiums, which experienced a slight decrease last quarter.

The Calgary Real Estate Board shows that the inventory of available single family homes was down from this period last year, as were new home listings. Condos experienced a similar decline in inventory. This decline in inventory is due to a recent upturn in the number of sales, both for single family homes and condos. As the sales increased, so did average MLS prices. Single family homes saw increase of approximately 3.39 per cent, and condos increased 0.98 per cent.

Calgary Listings Blog - Friday September 25, 2009 - Greenpeace Protests on Dry Ocean of Oil

It seems that security at some of Canada’s energy installations may not be as healthy as once thought. The environmental group Greenpeace, more commonly seen in environmental mode on the open ocean, made its way into a Shell work station in the midst of Alberta’s oil sands.

The peaceful protest, highlighted by the display of a banner that read: “Tarsands: Climate Crime” ended without incident and with no arrests or charges being made. The group was on property for 31 hours. The bigger concern is how the group, about two dozen participants from Canada, the United States and France got into the supposedly secure site.

Thought the Greenpeace protest has been labelled more or less a publicity stunt, it is not the first natural resource facility to have its borders breached. In British Columbia, pipelines owned by EnCana Corporation (TSX-ECA) were targeted with explosives and the police have made no arrests to date.

The general thinking is that if someone wanted to damage the oil industry in Canada, they would target the delivery system rather than the oil sands. The political climate in Canada is considered stable, with few incidents, violent or otherwise haunting its energy industry. It is not expected that the Greenpeace incident will affect the country’s positive image in the field.

Calgary Listings Blog - Monday  August 17, 2009 - Realty Fraud Class Action Lawsuit Filed in Alberta

Alleging real estate fraud of $75million, Jennifer Lofgren and Lucia de Wet of Alberta have filed a class action lawsuit in Calgary’s Court of Queen’s Bench against Jeanette Cleone Couch of Shire International Real Estate and several other involved companies.

The lawsuit claims that between 2005 and 2009, the defendants swindled funds from investors for bogus development projects. Lofgren’s own investments total $75,000, all of which she fears is lost.

An investigation by the Alberta Securities Commission is underway but could take up to two years to complete. The commission has stated that investors were misled and never had a realistic prospect of developing properties or seeing a return on their investment.

While no defence has been filed, Couch previously denied all allegations and has threatened legal recourse, citing personal defamation and defamation of the company she represents.

So far, 380 investors, who are out a total $16.6 million, have been identified. The total number of potential plaintiffs could be as high as 3,000.

The allegations have yet to be proven and criminal charges have not been filed.

Calgary Listings Blog - Tuesday August 4, 2009 - Lights Out In Northeast Calgary

Power went out in Northeast neighbourhoods last night as a result of Monday mornings storms.  Almost 10000 homes were reported to have lost power, however by 6:30 the power grid in the area was fully restored.  There was an equipment failure, which Enmax was unsure if it caused the outage.

Peter Lougheed hospital was affected, thankfully no medical service was lost as backup generators kicked in.  This was the 2nd time power was interrupted in the region on Monday, as the stormy weather was responsible for another 11500 homes losing power Monday morning.

Calgary Listings Blog - Thursday July 16, 2009 - National Realty Market Way Up In June

Canada wide real estate sales have gone up dramatically in the early summer months, giving a large indication that the overall market is getting better.  Both of Canada’s biggest cities, Toronto and Vancouver, came very close to breaking sales records for the month of June.  Toronto saw almost 11 thousand homes change hands last month, which represented an increase of 27% from the same month last year.  Vancouver also saw a dramatic increase in activity, with over 4500 homes being sold, up a staggering 75% from the June of 2008.

Calgary also saw a major increase of almost 30% from the last year, which was nice to see in the local market.  According to Re/Max corporate, many of the countries markets started to recover from the economic downturn in March, with the level of activity hitting it’s high in June.  There were many factors, but it is largely believed this was due to three factors.  Homes are now more affordable, mortgage interest rates are low, and there was a rising demand due to so many people sitting on the sidelines during the latter months of 2008.

An increase in market activity could also have many benefits for the greater economy, as the more people who are getting into the market you will generally see an increase in purchases associated with their new home.  Most are in agreement that the market can’t sustain the level of activity seen in June, however the indications are there that we are headed for a nice steady market for the remainder of 2009.

Calgary Listings Blog - Tuesday July 6, 2009 - Active Realty Market Improving

The local real estate market has officially bounced back from a horrible winter and could be positioned towards stabilizing as a whole by the end of the year.  Canada wide the overall market is expecting a 2% decline in home values by the end of 2009, which is far better than predictions at the beginning of 2009.

A slight decline is expected for Calgary, but this is still relative in comparison to prices at the height of the boom.  Eastern Canada is expected to increase in price overall, with Western Canada bringing the average down.  Some are expecting up to around a 2% overall drop in Alberta.

One part of Western Canada that is an island amongst itself is Regina, where the market is still booming.  According to recent predictions, the average price of a Regina property will go up over 10% this year. 

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