Every January, CREB (the Calgary Real Estate Board) hosts their annual “Forecast & Trade Show” where thousands of Calgary’s industry experts convene to see if maybe this might  be the year that our economist shows up with a crystal ball. Realtors are sitting on the edge of their chair waiting to hear if we need to get ready for another 2006 with unconditional multiple offers, or if we need to brace to more challenging market conditions. In addition to hearing a stats summary and Calgary real estate market predictions for 2018, it is a great way to stay sharp with the latest and greatest industry tools and techniques, hear some fantastic speakers and get more than a few takeaways.

Here are the highlights if you are looking for a quick summary CREB annual forecast conference and a Calgary Real Estate Update in 2018:

“Alberta is leading the country in growth – but coming out of two years of decline we are still not back where we were, we still need to fully recover.” Said Chief Economist, Ann-Marie Lurie at the 2018 CREB Forecast Conference.

• Our downtown office vacancy rate is still very high. There are fewer people moving to Calgary and that affects housing, if we are not offering high paying jobs it is difficult to attract people.
• There has been a turn around in unemployment rates but after the huge dips in 2015/16 they are still higher than what Calgary is used to.
• Condos have not seen any real improvement from values back to 2007 – every quadrant in the city has seen decline this last year for Condo values and it is expected to continue the same throughout the next year while Calgary absorbs the excess supply.
• The west side has seen the best stability and slight growth of year-over-year benchmark price changes.
• Stricter lending criteria and volatility of the energy sector have created some nervousness for some buyers over the last few years, but optimism is gaining momentum quickly.

In my humble opinion, this will be a year of modest growth in Calgary & area.

• There are still incredible deals to be had in the luxury sector.
• Cost of construction has not come down, and cost of materials has gone up. This bodes well for custom home re-sale market.
• Things are selling at 97.5% of asking price in Calgary and inventory is very tight in specific markets which continues to drive prices upwards.
• There is only so much dirt; with the City of Calgary putting increasing pressure on developers to stop the urban sprawl. Inner city and other desirable land locations are getting scooped up with those that have the means to do so. We can learn a lot by understanding investor’s buying habits.

Long story short: It is still a buyer favoured market, but if you have something special you will be just fine when it comes time to sell. If you want to read the full report you can find it here.

Feel free to shoot us a note anytime and we can grab a coffee to chat about your specific situation.