First off, 2010 wasn’t just a bad dream, instead 2010 really was just an extension of the last few years which have really been a nightmare for Alberta Real Estate values. The official 2010 CREB statistics are out now and total sales for single family homes in Calgary and area were the lowest in ten years. What a difference from only five years ago when we were setting sales records.
For a slightly more positive view, condominiums were not affected quite as bad; they were only the lowest in nine years. See, much better. To really let both of those sink in, you also have to understand that the Calgary population has increased by over 100,000 people in the area since then.
In a normal market, the increase in the population would help offset the slowdown in sales, but as many of you are aware, we definitely do not have a normal Real Estate market in Alberta! Our economy is so tightly woven into the oil and gas industries that we are well known as a boom or bust economy and no matter how many times we say, “This times different”, it really isn’t.
We still get caught, we still buy in, and we continue to buy our homes and our properties and our toys, no matter how often we see the down side of the cycle. Now part of it may just be ingrained optimism, after all when an area has this much sunshine, how couldn’t you be just a little more upbeat? Or perhaps deep down we understand that in the big picture, as long as we can look down the road, owning your own property is a good thing.
How else can we explain the other interesting statistics that have also come out regarding prices? Both the average selling price in Calgary for 2010 and the median selling price of both single family homes and of condominiums has risen from the 2009 Real Estate statistics. Let me just repeat that as it’s so unique, prices are continuing to go up, while the number of actual sales continues to decrease.
That’s not normal folks. When sales decrease, there is less competition for a product or service and the prices are supposed to decrease to keep pace with lessened demand. Yet our market doesn’t seem to work that way.
So back to my optimism theory then. Could it be true that many of us still believe that a home is a good investment and that it’s still a good time to buy? We’ve gone through a few years of the bust part of our cycle, so shouldn’t we start to be a bit more optimistic about the possibilities?
Could it be there is a possibility that we may have another shot at the boom side of the cycle and the possibility that perhaps there is still some upside to Real Estate? Time will only tell and I was hoping it would have been a couple years earlier, but I think we may get to see things really turn around in 2011, but then perhaps I am just being optimistic!
