There’s good news from resale housing. February was the second straight month in which sales increased, but nobody’s ready to climb onto the soapbox and declare a market shift. Not yet, anyway. The Calgary Real Estate Board reported that 1,168 detached homes and condominiums changed hands last month — an increase of more than 78 per cent from December and a 50per-cent rise from January.

Calgary Herald ArchiveRealtor Robbie O’Leary stands outside a home she sold. Monthly data coming out for February show sales have picked up for residential real estate over the previous month in Calgary.

“In my experience, February has always been a good month, so in that regard it was no blip that sales increased,” says Rob Blaker, general manager of Royal LePage Foothills.

“People are out there looking and buying. It’s good to see and it will interesting to see if it can be maintained.”

On the last weekend of February, Royal LePage blitzed the city with 170 open houses and Blaker says there were about 2,000 visitors touring the homes.

“There were definitely some transactions,” he says. “We considered it a success and are already planning a couple more.”

There were 825 detached resale homes sold in February, up 50 per cent from January and nearly 84 per cent higher than in December.

As for condos, the 343 deals signed last month were nearly 51 per cent higher than January and almost 79 per cent above December.

“Things are getting better, gradually,” says Wayne McAlister of Re/Max Landan.
“With prices holding, financing options improving and a good selection to choose from, there’s no better time to get into ownership.”

The average price of detached homes in February was $415,568, up about $2,000 from January but down about $4,000 from December. “We’ve had a fairly good start to the year,” says Bryan Morrow of Re/Max First. “We’re still down about 20 per cent in sales from a year ago, but the market has firmed up in the past two months.”

As for the level of listings, he says that while they are increasing, the pace of sales is keeping ahead of it.

“That’s a good thing,” he says.

Board president Bonnie Wegerich says that while the growth in sales, the levelling off of prices and the rate of inventory absorption are good to see, there is still a recession to deal with.

“Undoubtedly, the global economic downturn has battered consumer confidence, but there are promising signs we are moving towards a more balanced and stable market,” she says.

With stable prices, low mortgage rates and more product choice, affordability is returning to the Calgary marketplace.

“This is good news, particularly for first-time homebuyers who may have felt pushed out of the market,” says Wegerich.


People can also use buying incentives from the federal government in its January budget.