CALGARY Are we looking at another residential condominium boom in the city?

This weekend two high-profile projects launch sales initiatives on the next phases of their developments to capture the renewed interest in the market.

Keynote Urban Village is opening its doors Saturday to a new show suite for its Residential Tower Two project in the east Beltline area while University City on Saturday and Sunday is having a VIP launch for a select group of people for its Building 3 project at the Brentwood LRT Station.

“Activity in the condo market has been gradually improving. Gains in employment, favourable mortgage rates, and price reductions have attracted buyers to the condo market, especially those looking for their first place. A majority of the condo sales in the city of Calgary were for units less than $300,000,” said Richard Cho, senior market analyst in Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

“We are also expecting to see more new apartment condominiums break ground in the coming months. There has been an uptick in the number of apartment permits issued, signalling the intention of more activity.”

According to the CMHC August had the highest number of monthly apartment starts since May 2008 with 451 units breaking ground in the Calgary census metropolitan area.

The second Keynote residential tower will be 29 storeys high, and will include 250 suites and a wet spa. Possessions are scheduled for the summer of 2013.

Keynote Urban Village project sales manager Jeannie Elrafie said sales have been surging over the past eight months and that’s telling us there is an upswing underway in the Calgary real-estate market.”

“We’re getting a lot more demand than we ever were,” she said.

Keynote Urban Village encompasses nearly an entire city block on 1st Street S.E., between 11th and 12th Avenues. The Keynote development already includes the 26-storey Residential Tower One with 179 units, and a 14-storey office tower with featured tenants CH2M Hill and Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc., and about 1,500 employees. It also has 40,000 square feet of retail space, occupied by Sunterra Market, Starbucks, and a full-service RBC Royal Bank branch.

Just last week the city’s subdivision and development appeal board gave the green light for the construction of the first two condo highrises for the University City project.

An invitation for the VIP launch of sales for Building 3 says 400 condos sold in five days for the projects first two buildings. Sales this weekend are for a select group of clients. A public launch is expected to be announced next week.

The first two towers are 18-storeys each with 216 units in each. The master-planned community will eventually consist of between 600 to 700 residences across from the University of Calgary at the Brentwood LRT station.

The University City website says phases 3 and 4 of the project will consist of 12-14 storey buildings while phase 5 will be four storeys.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — Calgary’s housing market continues to gradually strengthen, with sales for July and the year-until-now up over last year.

Sales of single-family homes and condos neared 12,000 for the first seven months of 2011, a five per cent increase over 2010, but still 17 per cent below the 10-year average, the Calgary Real Estate Board reported Tuesday.

“I would underline the improvement is gradual and measured,” CREB president Sano Stante said. “We’re getting a good balance of listings and buyers. We’re not seeing too many buyers and no listings or too many listings and no buyers.”

“It’s more of a healthy recovery.”

For Jen Hosie, who will be moving into first home next month with husband Danny, the foray into the real estate market was smooth.

“It was very, very fast,” she said of a process that ended with the possession of a three-bedroom home in New Brighton. “I looked at 15 houses in one day and by the end of the day picked one I loved.”

After her husband had checked it out and also approved, they stopped looking.

“There were lots and lots to choose from,” she said of the housing selection. “And tons within our price range.”

The Hosies spent less than the average price of a single family home in July, which was just over $455,000.

Condo sales averaged just over $286,000.

Stante said prices remained relatively consistent with where they were last year, but he cautioned that some sellers, viewing the market a little too optimistically, were pricing their homes too high.

“Stuff that’s priced accordingly sells relatively quickly. There seems to be a good bit of product that’s not priced according to the current market that seems to be sitting,” he said.

Cody Battershill, with Re/Max House of Real Estate, said last month was his busiest July in about three years.

“It’s the craziest July I’ve had in years, even though in summer things slow down,” he said. “I think there’s optimism in the business community, in job growth.

“I think more people are buying, but the listing still has to be priced well to sell.”

According to the real estate board numbers, there were 11,798 sales in the first seven months of the year, up five per cent over the same period in 2010. If single-family homes are broken out, they rose eight per cent, while condo sales dropped by three per cent.

While the July numbers jumped over last year — condo sales were 14 per cent higher — Stante cautioned that last year was very slow for that month, as well as June.

He also pointed out that listings so far this year are lower than last year, leading to smaller inventories. That has dropped the condo inventory from a more than six-month supply last year just above four months this year.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

In a sign of rising optimism about Calgary’s housing market, a number of condo towers in the city’s centre are moving ahead – including two that stalled with the economy, with shovels already in the ground.

“It’s all very positive,” says David Watson, the city’s general manager of planning, development and assessment.

“It says to me people are pretty optimistic about the future, any of these plans are probably a two-year build, everyone’s looking two, three years out.”

The city is currently reviewing at least four applications for residential towers in the downtown area.

One is a new development permit for The Guardian, a Beltline condo building on a site originally slated to be the companion tower to Arriva. Construction on the second tower had stopped in early 2009, with the underground parkade underway.

Now, plans are in place to begin selling condos this fall, if the redesign is approved by the city, said Steven Cox, with Cause+Affect, which is marketing the project for owner Nicholas Hon.

While he didn’t want to reeal details about the height of the tower or the number of units, Cox said the homes have been redesigned, with “a larger proportion of more efficient units than there would’ve been.”

The preliminary website advertises that a “rare land deal + optimized living spaces = high end affordability.”

Cox said they are starting to see an increase in buyers in the Calgary market, making moving ahead with the project feasible.

“That neighbourhood is showing some signs of life and, for us, we’ve got some real confidence,” he said.

Suspended project Strategic on 4th, an excavated site at 4th Avenue and 21st Street in Mission, has applied for a $24-million building permit for a mixed-use development.

As well, a revised development permit is in for Keynote’s second tower, Watson said, as are new plans for the Lake Placid development at 13th Avenue and 2nd Street S.W.

And the group managing development in the East Village has submitted a building permit for an “experience centre” which will showcase display suites from the two housing projects set to build there.

Susan Veres, senior manager of marketing and communication for the Calgary Municipal Land Corp., said both plan to start selling units next year.

Embassy Bosa has submitted a development permit for its first phase, while FRAM+Slokker Real Estate Group’s is “imminent,” Veres added.

“The economic indicators we are seeing right now are very, very strong and very positive,” Ald. John Mar, whose ward houses most of the projects, said. “It’s incredibly positive for Calgary, especially the stalled sites.

“These are all issues we were faced with in the downturn in 2008, 2009 and much of 2010, and to see those projects come back is not only incredibly strong for the city of Calgary, it bodes well for Canada.”

Richard Cho, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing, said that after a period where there was much more condo stock than demand, the market is coming back into balance.

“The pace of sales are stabilizing and active listings are down from last year,” he said.

But he added that apartment and condo starts have been down.

“We haven’t had too many condo starts and we’re not expecting to see a lot this year,” he said.

“Year-to-date, apartment starts are slightly down from a year ago. The positive news is apartment inventories have been moving lower in the past couple of months.”

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — Calgary’s residential real estate market experienced a significant upswing in sales in June compared with a year ago.

Single-family MLS sales during the month were 1,398, up 32.01 per cent from June 2010’s 1,059 transactions, according to data released by the Calgary Real Estate Board on Monday.

And for the first time since April 2010, condo sales were up year-over-year, increasing by 30.56 per cent in June to 581 transactions. In June 2010, there were 445 condo sales.

The average sale price for a single-family home in June dropped by 0.33 per cent year-over-year falling to $479,580 from $481,960.

But the condo average rose by 0.79 per cent to $296,501 from $292,182 a year ago.

June’s condo average condo price was the highest since May 2010.

According to CREB, June’s year-over-year increase in single-family home sales was the highest since January 2010’s 38.50 per cent while for the condo market it was the highest since March 2010’s 36.26 per cent.

On a year-to-date basis, single-family home sales for the first six months of this year are up 5.64 per cent from a year ago to 7,231 transactions while condo sales are down 4.91 per cent to 2,965 units.

“Strong monthly increases does not imply a housing boom, as it is important to put into perspective that sales activity remains below long-term averages,” said CREB in a statement.

Sano Stante, president of the Calgary Real Estate Board, said the housing market in Calgary has gradually improved throughout the year as anticipated.

“We had a late spring market this year,” he said. “It’s all starting to come together in June. And last year we had an exuberant market early on and it died in June. So to draw comparisons year-to-year for that month shows an exaggeration of the trend.”

After the first half of the year, it appears the recovery in the housing market is starting to find its footing, he added.

“This gradual levelling has been fuelled by growth in employment, and in particular growth in full-time jobs. Improved job prospects, combined with an increase in the number of people moving to Calgary, will give lift to our housing market for the remainder of this year and into the next.”

Stante said homes that are value-priced are selling and they’re moving relatively quickly. Homes that are over-priced are sitting on the market, he added.

Dan Sumner, economist with ATB Financial in Calgary, said a year-over-year comparison may be a little misleading as to the strength of the Calgary housing market in June specifically. June is often one of the busiest months for sales volumes but sales last June were abnormally slow, he explained.

“Fuelling sales is a stronger economy specifically in Alberta, which feeds through into consumer confidence and that’s making Albertans more comfortable with home purchases again. Very accommodative interest rates are also helping as well,” added Sumner.

He said prices have been stable for quite some time now, despite a fairly strong economy over the past year. Because housing prices have risen so much over the past 10 years in Alberta, they are about as high as they can be, he said.

“However, with the economy fairly strong in Alberta and rates increasing affordability, for the time being at least, that is preventing prices from moving any lower. What you end up with is resistance for prices to move in either direction, and flatness ensues,” said Sumner.

The key economic contributors to the current housing market include a strong energy sector and resource prices as well as an improving labour market and strong wage growth. Also interprovincial migration to Alberta has picked up, said Sumner.

“With economic conditions in Alberta strong and looking up, sales during the second half of 2011 should be higher than last year,” he said.

Richard Cho, senior market analyst for Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said that although demand for housing has been gradually improving, resale activity this time last year was also moderating.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

5 to 7% forecast in near term

CALGARY — The Calgary region can expect short-term year-over-year house price growth in the five to seven per cent range, according to a report released Tuesday by the Conference Board of Canada.

The board said the average house price in the Calgary census metropolitan area in May was $403,698, down from $404,361 in April and down from $409,143 in May 2010.

The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of sales in the existing home market for the Calgary region was 21,204 in May which was down slightly from 21,528 in April and from 21,360 in May 2010.

According to the website of Calgary realtor Mike Fotiou, of First Place Realty, there have been 919 single-family MLS sales in the city from June 1-20 for an average sale price of $476,450 compared with 1,313 sales and an average of $489,482 for the month of May.

In the condo market, there have been 376 transactions for an average price of $294,407 so far this month compared with 503 sales and an average price of $287,384 in May.

The conference board said resale market activity in Canada remained relatively stable last month with May sales below April volumes in 14 of 28 markets surveyed.

Short-term year-over-year price growth expectations of more than seven per cent were forecast for Saskatoon, Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, and Saguenay.

In the five to seven per cent range with Calgary were Victoria, Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Halifax, and Newfoundland.

Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Kitchener, Kingston, Ottawa, and Saint John were listed in the three to five per cent range.

And Toronto, Oshawa, London, and Windsor were in the zero to three per cent range.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — Single-family MLS sales and the average sale price rose in May compared with a year ago, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board.

In releasing its monthly data Wednesday, CREB said there were 1,313 single-family transactions for an average price of $489,482 during the month. Sales were up 4.04 per cent from the 1,262 sales in May 2010 and the average price increased by 1.29 per cent from the $483,240 a year ago.

However, the condominium market continues to be slow. In May, 503 condos sold for an average price of $287,384. Sales were down 2.9 per cent from a year ago (518) and the average price was off by 5.67 per cent from May 2010 ($304,662).

Despite the decline in condo sales, Anthony Nguyen and his girlfriend Jeanette Tran bought a one bedroom condo in May near the downtown. They take possession of it today, after nearly a month of searching.

“I was really surprised actually,” said Nguyen. “We weren’t planning on rushing into it but things just fell into place.”

Nguyen said he thought there would be more choice going into their house hunting expedition.

“Everyone was telling me it’s kind of a buyer’s market but at the same time there wasn’t as much supply as I thought there would be.”

CREB said year-to-date residential sales in the inner-city grew nearly four per cent, outperforming the citywide average. As the city grows, improvements in the inner-city communities are consistent with changing preferences in lifestyle options.

“Consumers are looking for shorter commute times to work and easy access to a wider range of services provided by these inner-city communities,” said Sano Stante, president of CREB, in a news release.

“Many of these communities are surrounded by abundant amenities such as parks, mature trees, diverse shopping and transit which appeals to a wide range of consumers; furthermore, inner-city homes can be considered a stable real estate investment, as there is significant value in land located near the city’s core.”

State said the board expects single-family home prices to remain stable in the coming months and the rate of decline in condo sales seems to be easing, “indicating signs of improvement in this market.”

“Full time employment growth has been sluggish in Calgary, with only notable improvements occurring in April,” said Stante. “All indications point to the trend that as full-time employment growth takes hold in the latter portion of the year, so too will improvements in-migration, ultimately translating into improvements in the housing market.”

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — A report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecasts MLS sales in the Calgary region to increase by nearly five per cent this year compared with a year ago while the average sale price will rise by just over one per cent.

The CMHC’s Spring 2011 Calgary Housing Market Outlook, released Monday, predicted MLS sales in the Calgary census metropolitan area would hit 22,000 this year, up by 4.8 per cent, and increase a further 2.3 per cent in 2012 to 22,500 transactions.

The agency forecast the average sale price to increase by 1.1 per cent this year to $403,000 while it would jump another 2.2 per cent in 2012 to $412,000.

However, the CMHC forecast total housing starts in the region to drop by 8.2 per cent this year to 8,500 units but rebound in 2012 to 9,600 units, a 12.9 per cent annual hike.

“Really right now in the housing market you’ve kind of got two opposing forces over the next couple of months,” said Dan Sumner, economist with ATB Financial in Calgary. “We’re going to have higher interest rates starting in 2011 and that’s not going to be good news but the economy is still performing quite well and it’s growing. We’re also expecting to see higher in-migration and that’s going to help things.

“Overall, it’s going to be interesting to see which kind of factor offsets the other. So far in 2011 the housing market has been pretty slow. There’s no question throughout the spring, which is usually the busy season, things have been pretty slow despite really low interest rates.”

Sumner said the Alberta economy is in good shape and it’s hard to imagine that the housing market isn’t going to improve slightly because of that.

“It’s been so slow over the last year and a half,” he said. “The market still remains quite expensive for first-time home buyers and as rates go up that’s going to definitely be a bit of a drag.”

Lai Sing Louie, regional economist with the CMHC in Calgary, said the local residential real estate market has been in a period best characterized as being a buyers’ market.

“We see the market strengthening over the forecast period,” he said. “We expect a little bit of an increase in terms of MLS sales, fractional price growth. This will transition in 2012 with a growing economy, more employment growth. It wasn’t that long ago that Calgary was in a period where employment was actually declining over the economic downturn at the end of 2008, 2009 and 2010.

“The economy is improving. We expect that will translate into more household formation and housing demand going forward.”

The CMHC report said job creation in Calgary will improve with increased activity in the energy sector and its supporting industries.

That will also give a boost to net migration which declined 50 per cent in 2010 to 11,100 people, down from 22,136 in the previous year. CMHC is forecasting total net migration to the Calgary region to rise 11 per cent in 2011 to 12,300 and another 14 per cent in 2012 to 14,000.

“Overall, anticipated migration patterns are expected to support demand for all housing types in Calgary,” said the CMHC.

For Alberta, the CMHC is forecasting housing starts to dip to 25,700 units this year from 27,088 in 2010 and to increase to 29,000 in 2012.

Total MLS sales in the province are forecast to increase to 51,300 this year and to 52,700 next year from 49,722 in 2010.

And the average MLS sale price in Alberta is forecast to jump to $354,800 this year and to $363,000 in 2012 from $352,301 in 2010.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — After contracting this year, housing starts are forecast to bounce back in Calgary in 2012, says an Altus Group Housing Report.

The report by the economic consulting firm says total starts in Calgary for 2011 are expected to be 8,200 in 2011, falling from the 9,300 experienced in 2010. The forecast for 2012 is 9,700 housing starts.

A key factor is job growth. The report says job recovery bypassed Calgary last year “but so far in 2011 employment growth has shown sign of improvement” with forecast increases of 19,400 this year and 17,300 in 2012.

In Alberta, housing starts are forecast to drop to 25,261 this year from 27,088 in 2010. But the report forecasts starts to bounce back in 2012 to 27,625 units.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

CALGARY — Short-term year-over-year price growth for Calgary’s housing market is expected to be in the five to seven per cent range, says the Conference Board of Canada.

The board’s Metro Resale Index indicates the average price in the city for a residential property in April was $407,900, up from $393,427 in March and from $395,468 in April 2010.

The board also classified Calgary’s housing market as being in balanced conditions.

The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of house sales in the city in April was 21,312, which was down slightly from March’s 21,840 and from April 2010’s 23,556.

“Tightening of federal mortgage-insurance rules hurt April resale activity,” said the board. “Sales fell from March levels in 23 of our 28 markets, and from a year earlier in 26 areas. The drop in sales in April added to vendors’ gloom. Although listings in April fell from March levels in only nine markets, they trailed year-earlier levels in 19.”

Calgary’s annualized rate of listings was 42,240 in April, up from 41,952 in March but down from 55,548 in April 2010.

The board listed the following areas as having short-term year-over-year price growth expectations of over seven per cent: Saskatoon, Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, and Saguenay.

Joining Calgary in the five to seven per cent range were Victoria, Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Halifax and Newfoundland.

In the three to five per cent range were Thunder Bay, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Kitchener, Kingston, Ottawa and Saint John.

Toronto, Oshawa, London and Windsor were in the zero to three per cent category.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage

There has already been “some softening” in the Canadian real-estate market so there is no need for further tightening of mortgage rules, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Tuesday.

In his first public comments since the election, Flaherty said the country continues to weather the ongoing upheaval in the global economy. He said his first priority is to deal with the budget — which will likely be presented in June — in order to continue to implement his government’s economic action plan.

Unlike the United States and Europe, the Canadian housing market has continued to rise after the financial crisis, leading some observers to caution we could be headed for a bubble.

Flaherty said he’s already intervened to toughen mortgage rules three times in the last few years and there’s no need for further action as conditions in the market are finally moving in the right direction.

Flaherty said he does not believe there were any unintended consequences in the housing market resulting from government intervention in the mortgage business during the financial crisis to keep banks lending money.

Still, he said his government keeps a close eye on the housing market and subsequently stepped in three times with changes to mortgage rules when there were concerns about risk.

Flaherty said his government will present a slightly revamped budget in June. It will be changed to reflect an economic update and may include some items from the election platform, but will be largely the same budget he presented in March, he said.

Posted by Calgary mortgage broker Conexia Mortgage