REBOUND REAL ESTATE

Get ready for rebound
Realtors say market in 2010 under-performed
By Marty Hope, Calgary Herald
February 5, 2011

"Under-performed" was the phrase used by both the outgoing and incoming presidents of the Calgary Real Estate Board to describe last year's resale market.

But both current president Sano Stante and his 2010 counterpart, Diane Scott, are calling for a revival in sales activity this year based on stronger job and migration growth.

Single-family housing underwent some interesting trends last year, says CREB:

- Annual sales in Calgary's four quadrants totalled 12,094, down from 14,438 in 2009. "Undoubtedly, housing markets in Alberta and Calgary under-performed in 2010 as sales did not materialize as forecast," Scott said in her final news release last year.

- The board's Zone A, which roughly corresponds to northwest Calgary, was the busiest of the four zones in 2010 at 4,300 sales, down from 5,270 the previous year.

- The two most active communities in the city -- for the second year in a row -- were Tuscany and Coventry Hills in the northwest.

In 2010, Tuscany had 359 sales, with Coventry Hills 278. A year earlier, Coventry Hills had 426 sales, while Tuscany had 422.

- The most affordable community in Calgary last year was Falconridge in the northeast, where the average price for homes was $238,586. A year earlier, West Dover, in the southeast held that honour with an average of $221,125.

- At the other end of the price scale, BelAire had the highest average price at $1.79 million last year -- replacing Roxboro, which topped the list in 2009 at $1.8 million.

- In 2010, there were 13 communities across the city in which the average price was more than $1 million. In 2009, there were nine.

Calgary resale homes
2010 2009

Sales P rice Sales Price

- Zone A (N. W.) 4,300 $468,969 5,270 $449,057

- ZoneB(N. E.) 1,912 $296,231 2,184 $297,428

- Zone C (S. W.) 3,480 $570,649 4,163 $530,305

- ZoneD(S. E.) 2,402 $419,819 2,821 $412,072