RISE UP!

New-home prices in Calgary region on the rise
By Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald July 13, 2012

Real estate . New-home prices in the Calgary region continued to rise in May.

Statistics Canada said Thursday that prices in the Calgary area were up 0.3 per cent from April and 0.8 per cent from a year ago.

Nationally, the index rose by 0.3 per cent and prices were up 2.4 per cent from May 2011.

Gains in Toronto, Oshawa and Calgary were the top contributors to the May increase, StatsCan said. The most significant monthly price declines were recorded in Victoria (0.8 per cent) and Charlottetown (0.4 per cent).

The Royal LePage house-price survey, released earlier this week, showed varied year-over-year resale house price increases in Calgary.

In the second quarter, detached bungalows posted the largest average year-over-year price increases, rising five per cent to $432,322. Prices for two-storey homes rose 2.5 per cent year-over-year to $425,456. Condominiums declined by 0.8 per cent year-over-year to $247,056.

LIVING UNDER JUNE

Construction of new homes in Calgary soared in June
By Mario Toneguzzi,
Calgary Herald July 9, 2010

CALGARY - Housing starts in the Calgary census metropolitan area soared in June compared with a year ago.

According to preliminary data released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., total starts during the month were 685, up by 57.8 per cent from June 2009.

Single-detached starts jumped to 531 from 374 last year, a 42 per cent hike while multiple-family starts rose by nearly 157 per cent from 60 in June 2009 to 154 last month.

To the end of June housing starts have increased in both categories year-to-date. There have been 4,617 total starts in the first half of this year compared wtih 1,981 for the same period a year ago. In the single-detached category, starts have increased from 1,549 last year to 3,335 this year while the multi-family category has seen a rise from 432 last year to 1,282 this year.

"This marks the 12th consecutive month where single-detached starts have increased on a year-over-year basis," said Richard Cho, senior market analyst for Calgary for the CMHC. "Builders in the last several months have taken the opportunity to replenish their inventory levels."

But Cho added that the year-over-year gains have started to moderate.

He said that despite the rise in multi-family production activity so far this year is behind last year's level.

"Elevated apartment inventories have contributed to fewer apartment projects breaking ground, keeping multi-family production below historial averages," said Cho.

In Alberta's seven largest cities, housing starts increased 33 per cent in June from 1,446 units in 2009 to 1,926 last month.