Calgary, July 3, 2012 – Residential sales in the City of Calgary totaled 11,752 for the first half of this year, a 16-per-cent increase over the same period last year. The rise in sales has brought activity levels closer to long-term trends in the city.

 

“Recent mortgage rule changes may dampen some of the gains in the resale market,” says Ann-Marie Lurie, CREB®’s chief economist. “But this is not expected to cause a full reversal of either sales or price growth, provided the global economic situation does not significantly worsen.

 

“Our housing market is returning to normal levels of activity, supported by the improvements in our employment sector and rise in migration.”

 

Single family monthly sales reached 1,609 units in June, a decline over the previous month, but 16 per cent higher than levels recorded in June 2011. However, new...

Source: KWRI - used under standard YouTube license terms.

Wow, my blog and Twitter posts on the forecasted effects of the new mortgage rules created the highest amount of feedback yet - albeit quite negative from other agents who felt I was forecasting "doom and gloom" that would drastically reduce sales for the next several months. One stated, "How dare I cause fear?" I countered, that I did no such thing. I merely posted the fact-based research and forecast that the City of Calgary had completed in regards to the impact of the new mortgage rules on a LOCAL housing basis. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Read on...

 

On a national basis, almost every economist is forecasting a ten to 15 percent price correction (price drop) - on average - over the next two years. That isn't particularly rosy, but based on the over-inflated prices in Vancouver and the super-hot condo market in Toronto, this makes total sense. Those two cities, alone, make up a significant number of the total sales in the country.

 

Locally, the City of Calgary report...