Construction of new homes in April has increased a whopping 307 percent over April of 2011. There were 1708 homes started, however many of those were for condos. Many of those condos will be in new towers so we will see more construction cranes this year. All of the new activity is being driven by a strong economy and more people moving to Calgary from other parts of Canada and other countries. Meanwhile on the resale side, sales of single family homes were up 31 % over April of 2011. That st ... Full Article...

April was a very active month for the housing market in Calgary. The number of sales went up by 26% in April when compared to the amount of homes sold in April of 2011. May is starting off nicely as well with sales up dramatically over May of last year although we only have a few days of data so far. When you break it down, single family houses were up 30% and apartment style condos were up 13%, while townhouse condos were up 19% When it comes to average price comparisons from April of 2011 ... Full Article...

There are actually very few houses or condos for sale in Calgary right now. As of today, there are only about 3,400 single family detached houses, and 1,700 condos and townhouses on the market. In fact, depending on the area, there may be some multiple offers on properties in the best locations of a hot neighborhood. You may have noticed quite a few sold stickers on the for sale signs in your neighborhood. The market has been somewhat balanced for the last few years with neither the buyer or ... Full Article...

I get a lot of buyers wanting to buy foreclosures. We as Canadians get bombarded with news from the States and most people have heard about the homes that you can get down there for a steal. Some of the American foreclosures have been selling for huge discounts because the banks just want to get rid of them. Well in Canada it just doesn't work that way. We have different rules and even if the rules were the same here as in the States, our Canadian banks are rich. They wouldn't have to unload ... Full Article...

If you are thinking of buying a house or condo in the near future, you need to lock in an interest rate now. The Major banks have some extreme discounts right now on fixed rate mortgages. For example TD, Royal, CIBC, and Scotia all have a 4 year fixed rate mortgage for 2.99% and you can get an amortization period of the maximum 30 years. They are offering this fantastic rate until February 29th so get it now. The cheapest variable rate you can get right now is around 2.8% so it may be worth it ... Full Article...

The Calgary real estate board has implemented a change to the rules on conditional offers. It used to be that when a home had a conditional offer, where the buyers and sellers had agreed on price and possession date, the listing would be changed on the MLS from Active to Pending. Pending means that there are some conditions on the offer that need to be satisfied in order for the deal to become firm. These conditions usually involve having the buyer get their financing in order where the bank ha ... Full Article...

According to the Calgary real estate board there were 962 single family houses sold in November which is an 8% increase when compared with November of 2010. For the first 11 months of the year there have been 12,464  single family homes sold which is a 10 percent increase when compared to the first 11 months of 2010. However sales are around 17% below the average for the last 10 years. So far this year the average price for a house is $467,140 and the median price is $406,500. See one of my pre ... Full Article...

 If you are thinking of selling and moving up in the housing market, or if you are a first time buyer, rates are still very low. You should be able to get well below 4% on a 5 year fixed rate closed mortgage. Just make sure you negotiate with your lender or use a mortgage broker. The mortgage broker will consult with all of their best lenders to get you a great rate. Never accept the bank's posted rate - it is usually much higher than the rate you will get with a little negotiating.

In the Northwest there were 336 houses sold in October with an average price of $482,781 and a median price of $428,000. As for condos there were 93 sold with an average price of $ 277,971 and a median price of $266,900 In the Northeast corner of the city there were 167 houses sold at an average price of $282,190 and with a median price of $280,000. There were 32 condos sold at an average price of $166,485 and a median price of $155,000.   Switching to the Southwest, there were 286 houses so ... Full Article...

Let me first explain the difference between the average price and median price. Average is when we add all the prices, then divide by the number of prices. For example if you had three houses sold in August and their prices were $250,000 $400,000 and $800,000 you would add them up to get a total of $1,450,000. Then you would divide by three to get an average price of $483,333. In the case of the median price, if you had seven houses that sold for $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 $5 ... Full Article...