Let's talk a little bit about how we got here. Just six months ago homeprices in Canada were all the rage.
They were just going up so quickly with double digit gains in almost all markets.
And right here in Calgary the exact samething was happening. We were breaking records for sales activity and properties were selling at all time highs.
The rising cost of homes wasn't justbeing handled by people who were buying properties. Because landlords were passing along those extra costs onto their renters. Meaning if you needed a place to live you were facing higher costs. And to make matters worse the Bank of Canada's low interestrate policy that was meant to stimulatethe economy and incentivize people like you and me to take on debt and buy more things. It is creating imbalances in the economy and this in turn has caused the prices of everything to go up.
Interruptions in supply chains made it so difficult to get the goods that people wanted coupled with the low interest cash created so much demand with very little supply leading to inflation. Now with inflation running at nearly 40-year highs. The Bank of Canada decided they needed to raise interest rates aggressively.
At the beginning of the year, it was 0.25% until now nine months later it’s 3.25%. So if you're considering buying a home today you need to know how this will affect you in two distinct ways.
One is you'll be buying real estate near its all-time highs and two you'll be buying that real estate with mortgages and borrowed money that costs a lot more money than it did at the beginning of the year. These rate changes are starting to have the impact the Bank of Canada wanted.
But it's leading to these like fear-mongering headlines the Canadian housing market could drop at an unprecedented rate next year. A Bank of Montreal strategist is saying an enormous correction could be on the horizon based on all this.
You might be thinking that now would be a crazy time to invest or buy into Calgary and area real estate. But before you jump to that conclusion about our market here in Calgary, I want you to consider three separate points.
The first thing is when we hear those negative headlines they're talking about Toronto and Vancouver not Calgary. These two cities are the Canadian real estate market because they're so large.
What Calgary do is small in comparison to those markets. Those markets have been rising for years driven by speculation and by low interest rates. Which in turn has been driven by high demand and even things like pre-construction condosales.
People got conditioned to making money in Toronto and Vancouver by doing this they kept on upping their offers on condos and homes.
Calgary on the other hand has not Experienced those demands other than a brief run-up over late last winter and earlythis spring.
Our housing market has only gone up 30 percent in the last 15 years. That's only a 2% growth yea rover year and that's less thaninflation.
So, if you are moving from out of province or you're moving to Canada and you're considering Calgary the fact that they don't have that same excessive pricing for homes could make this a really great place for you.
Yes, they have a real estate agent but there are articles that have recently been released showing the same impacts on Toronto and Vancouver are just not playing out here in Calgary.
Secondly at a time when almost everything everywhere is getting just so expensive Calgary continues to top the lists of cities that are the most affordable. And they are not just cheap - they are also actually one of the best cities to live in. A recent study here talks about how the cost of living, the housing costs, the economy, health care and the overall safety add up to make Calgary one of the best places to raise a family.
Now it doesn't mean that living in Calgary is perfect because believe me not everyone loves the weather. Living this close to the Rocky Mountains means you're going to get some extreme changes in weather.
Sometimes it can be sunny and just hours later you can get a freak rainfall or snowstorm or high winds
So it's definitely not for everyone and geographically we are even a little bit isolated here in relation to other major cities.
But we also live in Canada's sunniest major city and living close to those Rocky Mountains give you awesome outdoor lifestyle activities things like skiing and snowboarding in the winter or hiking in those beautiful mountains in the summer.
And being so close to world-class destinations like Banff and Lake Louise you can be at either destination in less than 2 hours! And of course, we have the greatest Outdoor Show on Earth - the Calgary Stampede.
Economically there is a good reason to come to Calgary as well because even though we've had the ups and downs of the oil and Industry over the years we've still enjoyed the highest household median income in all of Canada. We've been diversifying our economy seeing Calgary grow now as a real tech city and despite all the unknowns about 2023 Alberta is set to lead the Canadian economy at over 4% growth.
Now Calgary has still experienced a bit of a softening in prices since its highest point in the spring. So, determining whether or not now is the right time for you to buy a home it's going to depend on whether you fall into one of these three categories. Are you an investor? Well, it might not be the perfect time for you to jump into the real estate market just in case there are a little bit better deals to be had in the middle of next year.
But keep in mind two things.
One is the opportunity cost of sitting on the sideline and two there are good deals to be had in almost any market if you know the numbers and you know the community and you know what people want to buy.
If you're a first-time home buyer or making a lateral move to a new neighborhood you need to know that if you're in that next property for four to five years can comfortably afford the future payments? Remember even though markets go up and down you won't realize any of the gains or the losses until you sell and over time you will see that real estate usually increase in value.
If you're new to Canada, you might be wondering what you should do about buying a property now. You could start to build equity, build your credit and you would begin to own an asset.
Overall, many Canadians have accumulated a lot of savings over the last few years allowing them to better weather any sort of economic storms.
So, if you’re ready to sell or buy get a hold of us today.
Media Contact
Company Name: Calgary MLX Real Estate
Email: Send Email
Phone: (587) 315-0700
Address:4034 16 St SW
City: Calgary
State: Alberta T2T 4H4
Country: Canada
Website: https://calgarymlx.com/
