I was recently asked by Inman News to respond to their 'Question of the Day' for the state of home prices in Calgary - here was my response :)
As expected with a sudden surge in home prices as we saw in Calgary through 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 we are now seeing a correction - which is bringing prices down. Some home owners and potential purchasers have been concerned about how low the prices will drop - "Is our market crashing like the US?", my answer is no. The reason we can safely say no to this, is because in our market there are very few foreclosures - we are not seeing hundreds or thousands of home owners being forced out of their homes. The vast majority of properties for sale in the Calgary market right now are home owners who are choosing to sell.
On a side of caution, when we look at the entire world economy - Alberta is not immune to what we see in Britain, Spain and of course the US. Watching the entire world economy is very important and the world economic forecast is not very strong as consumer confidence drops, inflation rises and home prices drop. We definitely need time to see how the bail out of the American mortgage giants affects the US housing market as well as what happens in Europe as Britain teeter's on full blown recession.
For now, we are simply not seeing "fire sales" for homes. Yes, the prices are down but there are plenty of cards to fall into place before I would say that we are heading to a "crash".
*****
:)
Dan