Balanced forecast in Calgary housing market for 2013
Posted Dec 11, 2012 12:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary’s housing market will continue to buck the trend of contraction for the coming year with moderate price growth.
That’s according to Calgary Real Estate Board’s Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie who provided an outlook into what we can expect in 2013.
Sales growth in the city will ease to 2.9 per cent down from the 5 per cent we enjoyed this year.
“Now prices still remain slightly lower than peak and next year they’re going to get closer to what that higher level was,” says Lurie. “But we’re still going to remain shy and there will obviously be differences in the single family and condo market as well.”
What those differences are, Lurie’s not saying and is keeping her projections under wraps until January.
She believes single family homes will lead the way.
Strong growth and jobs has been helping to anchor those numbers where as other major markets are contracting.
It’s still good news as far as President Bob Jablonski is concerned.
“It’s nice to have a normal market!” he says. “And it was a normal market this year, you can price a product properly, you can get good activity on it and as a consumer or buyer….you can take your time.”
Both believe the market is well on it’s way to returning to the peak pricing points we saw a couple of years ago.
“But it won’t happen in one year, it will be a slow, gradual increase again but that’s good,” says Jablonski. “Slow and steady is fine, a normal market is a good thing and it’s a balanced market right now.”
The downside is the natural gas market faces potential restructuring, which if greater than expected, would create a risk for the housing sector.
On the plus side, the recent approval of Nexen Inc. and Progress Energy Resources Corp. could provide unexpected growth in investment spending.
Combined with approval of some pipelines, Lurie says this could boost consumer confidence causing greater than expected growth in housing.
CREB will provide it’s full forecast at it’s annual conference on January 16, 2013.
