What a difference a year makes. From October to December 2007, just one condominium sold in the entire city for a price less than $200,000.

Calgary Herald ArchiveThe inventory of resale condos has declined by nearly half since May.

For the same period in 2008, nine neighbourhoods posted average prices below $200,000 for 23 condos.

The fourth quarter is traditionally one of the slowest in the year for anyone selling a home.

Kids in school are settled for the year, so their parents are not about to disrupt their children and won’t start looking again until spring.

And because it’s the time of year near the holiday season, visions of sugarplums, not homes, dance in potential buyers heads — not to mention the weather is colder for people to move their worldly possessions, especially this winter.

But now, the condo market is flooded with properties both resale and new, and the whole world is in an economic tailspin.

As a result, it should come as no surprise to anyone that condo sales were down for the fourth quarter of 2008 — and that, in turn, drove down prices.

“The condo resale inventory peaked in May of last year, when 3,391 were on the market,” says Elke Babiuk, realtor with Maxwell Canyon Creek.

“Now it’s at 1,914. That’s a huge difference and prices always follow supply and demand.” She’s predicting that if the inventory remains lower, prices will start to edge up. “We think prices have bottomed out.”

Meanwhile, it’s a great time to buy, she says. Prices for multi-family homes sold during the last quarter of 2008 averaged anywhere from the average low of $214,432 in the Calgary Real Estate Board’s zone B — where neighbourhoods are mostly in the northeast, traditionally one of the most affordable areas for homebuyers — to the average high of $299,314 in zone C, which includes some of the city’s tonier neighbourhoods such as Eau Claire and Stanley Park.

Eau Claire had the highest average selling price of the seven condos sold during the final three months of the year: $1.063 million.

The median price (the mid-point price between the highest and lowest price in the area) was $750,000. Buyers were looking everywhere for a bargain. The busiest neighbourhoods in the city during the final days of 2008 were varied: Connaught in the Beltline area of the inner city (in zone C) with 37 sales; McKenzie Towne in zone D with 34 multi-family sales; and Panorama Hills in zone A with 32 sales.

In zone A (predominantly north-central and northwest Calgary), other than Panorama Hills, Rocky Ridge Ranch was the second most active with 20 condo sales, followed by Country Hills Village with 13.

The highest-priced average of units sold was in Parkdale, where the one home sold for $415,000, followed by West Hillhurst, where two sales averaged $402,500.

The most-affordable zone A average price went to Greenview, where eight multi-family sales averaged $227,284. Bowness with five sales was next at $229,100.

Zone B was slower during the period, with the busiest communities being Rundle and Monterey Park at just eight sales each.

Monterey also posted the highest sale price with the condos averaging $256,375, followed by Whitehorn, where one house sold for $253,000.

The lowest average sales were in Forest Heights, where the two multi-family homes sold for about $163,350 (median price of $160,000) — followed by Marlborough Park, where two houses averaged $168,500 (median $142,000).
The zone C neighbourhood that was the busiest last quarter was right downtown in Connaught, where 37 condos changed hands, followed by Victoria Park with 25 sales, and Mission with 21.

Besides the more than $1 million average sale price in Eau Claire, Park Hill/Stanley Park had two sales averaging $650,000 (although the median on those was just $250,000), followed by downtown with nine sales averaging $531,111 (again the median was lower at $333,000).

The lowest-priced average went to Southwood, where six condos changed hands at an average $165,666. Kelvin Grove had one sale for $208,000, then Bridlewood had 19 sales averaging $213,894.

McKenzie Towne was the obvious favourite in zone D during the fourth quarter last year. Its 34 sales roundly beat all other neighbourhoods.

The next most active community was Cranston, where 12 condos were sold, followed by Lake Bonavista with 11.

The most expensive average prices in zone D were found in Midnapore. The five sales there averaged $477,500, although the median price was just $235,000.

Inglewood was next with six sales averaging $405,750.

Since October to December, “traffic has really picked up all over,” says Babiuk. “People are getting ready to buy.”