JOIN THE CLUB!

Membership grows in Calgary's $1M home club
By Eva Ferguson
Calgary Herald January 5, 2011

A growing number of properties are joining Calgary's million-dollar home club, with sales of high-end houses up by 25 per cent in some areas as the city's luxury home market whittles its way out of a recession.

The city of Calgary will send out its annual property assessment notices this week, showing a total 8,198 single-family residential homes and condominiums assessed at $1 million or more, significantly higher than last year's total of 6,496 million-dollar properties.

Richard Cho, senior market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., says more million-dollar homes are available in Calgary for a combination of reasons. More high-end homes are being upgraded in the inner-city or built on the edge of town, in areas like Aspen and Tuscany.

As well, thousands of homes that were valued around the $900,000-range last year have probably broken the million-dollar barrier this year.

"Prices were growing somewhat in the middle of last year, so houses that may have been below a million have crossed over," said Cho.

"But it's still a buyer's market out there, we'll see prices come down a little in December, January and then come up again in the spring."

Rachelle Starnes of Royal Lepage Foothills, said demand for high-end homes is growing, adding that her luxury homes division celebrated a record year in 2010, showing "huge recovery in high-end real estate."

In upscale areas on the city's southwest edge, including Elbow Valley, Springbank and Bearspaw, sales for homes priced over $1.5 million showed a 25 per cent increase from the previous year.

The team also just sold a custom home in Stonepine, just west of Elbow Valley, for $4 million, averaging one of the highest price per square foot sales since 2007.

"It proves that Calgarians in the high-end market are confident of our future and we believe it's going to be the start of an incredible 2011 in real estate."

Calgary's highest-assessed home, holding the top spot for more than four years, is in Pump Hill S.W., with an assessed value of $20,190,000, down slightly from the $22 million it was billed at in 2008, well before the global economic downturn.

Following behind a distant second is a home on 4th Street S.W. valued at $10,220,000; third is on Riverdale Avenue S.W. at $8,870,000; fourth is another Riverdale Avenue home at $8,760,000; and fifth is on Briar Crescent N.W. at $7,580,000.

The list is similar to last year's top five, assessment officials say, with slight changes possibly due to major renovations or additions that would result in value increases.

City assessors releasing figures Tuesday said assessments for all homes, whether low-income or high-end, didn't see significant rises or falls, with up to 93 per cent of properties falling between plus or minus 10 per cent of last year's taxes.

"Preparing assessments on an annual basis ensures property and business owners' assessments maintain currency with changing market conditions and experience more stability in year to year property and business tax levels," said Stuart Dalgleish, city assessor.

But small adjustments in assessment don't always indicate small change in real estate values, says realtor Jim Sparrow. "Property assessment isn't really an accurate assessment of what your property is worth," Sparrow said, explaining that city assessors aren't always aware of a home's upgrades over the years.

Anyone who doesn't agree with their assessment can call the city at 403-268-2888.

Complaints to city assessment have come down significantly in recent years.

In 2008, 7,620 complaints were filed, in 2009 that went down to 4,377 complaints and last year, assessors only took 898 complaints.