It may come as a surprise to you, but there are over 100 real estate boards in Canada and they all have their own MLS Systems.

What won't surprise you is that the vast majority of home sales are completed with 2 agents involved through our local MLS Systems – somewhere near 98%. So how do real estate agents see listings for sale? They look at their own MLS System. As a Calgary real esate broker, I only have access to see the listing details of the homes listed for sale on the CALGARY MLS System. I don't have access to see the details on the listings from the other 10 MLS Systems in Alberta (let alone other systems from other provinces). Yes, I can sell homes and represent buyers and sellers of homes anywhere within Alberta, but at the moment we only see local listings.

So, how does that affect you?

Well – here is an example: I used my website to look for listings in Calgary and there are over 7,000 listings for sale (yep, no surprise there). Then, I looked for listings in Edmonton,...

Hello there, 2019! Here are the latest housing market updates for areas covered by the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB)!

In their latest media release, CREB has highlighted that job market weakness and lending restrictions was a common thread in 2018’s housing market.

As of December 2018, an oversupply continues in Calgary’s housing market. Prices for the month were lower compared to both the previous month, as well as the previous year.

According to CREB Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie,

“Persistent weakness in the job market and changes in the lending market impacted sales activity in the resale market this year. This contributed to elevated supply in the resale market, resulting in price declines.”

Regarding sales, a total of 794 units were recorded for the month, which shows a decline of 21% compared to December 2017. Overall year-to-date sales in the city totaled 16,144 units, which is 14% lower than the total in 2017, and is also almost 20% below long-term averages....

It's now the new year and yesterday morning I pulled off the stats for the month of December 2018 from the Calgary MLS® System.

While December is normally a slow month for sales and listings, it's VERY CLEAR — 2018 was an incredibly slow year for real estate sales and deals were available at every turn (if you knew where to find them). January is expected to slowly be populated with new listings. If you were waiting for the good selection of homes to choose from, don't wait any longer than the third week in January to start your hunt!

So, how is the market?

Here is the breakdown as of yesterday morning:

Total Calgary MLS® System within Calgary for residential properties for sale:

• 4,976 properties available in inventory
• 779 properties marked sold in the last 30 days
• That makes 6.39 MONTHS of inventory — a strong BUYERS' market

DETACHED homes:

• 2,634 properties available in inventory
• 484 properties marked sold in the last 30 days
• That makes 5.44 MONTHS...