Calgary Real Estate Board - Calgary MLS® April 2008

Sellers Need To Pay Attention To The Current Market

Calgary MLS® listings are taking twice as long to sell over last year according to figures released by the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®). Calgary's MLS® listings remain elevated for April indicating two things: Calgary is a buyer's market and sellers need to pay attention and price their homes appropriately for today's market and ensure that their homes are well staged and well kept in order to encourage buyers.

Single family Calgary metro new listings added for the month of April totaled 3,377 an increase of 8.9% over April 2007 when new listings added totaled 3,100 and a decrease of 3.3% over March 2008 when the new listings added to the market were 3,493.

Calgary metro condominium new listings added in April 2008 were 1,493 showing a increase of 29.0% from the 1,157 new condominium listings added in April 2007 and a decrease of 4.4% from the 1,561 new condominium listings brought to market last month.

Single family Calgary metro sales for the month of April came in at 1,363 showing a decrease of 34.7% from the 2,086 sales in April 2007 and showing a decrease of 3.9% over last month's sales of 1,418.

Calgary metro condominium sales in April 2008 were 581, a decrease of 30.8% from the 839 condominium sales recorded in April 2007 and showing a slight increase of just 2.8% from the 565 condominium sales in March 2008.

"Given the hectic pace of the resale market in the past few years, many buyers are breathing a sigh of relief. There are more listings on the market, which means more choice for buyers, with more inventory, buyers are taking their time to find the home that is right for them at the price that is right for them. What that means however for a seller; you need to pay more attention to how you price your home. The market is no longer bearing the prices that it did a year ago. A professional REALTOR® who understands what is going on in the market can help the seller with all of these issues in order to more effectively sell a home", said Calgary Real Estate Board President, Ed Jensen.

The median price of a single family Calgary metro home in April 2008 was $420,000 showing a decrease of 2.8% over April 2007 when the median price was $432,000 and showing no change from last month when the median price was also $420,000.

All Calgary Metro MLS Statistics include properties listed and sold only within Calgary's City Limits. The median price is the best price that is midway between the least expensive and the most expensive home sold in an area during a given period of time. During that time, half the buyers bought homes that cost more than the median price and half bought homes for less than the median price.

The average price of a single family Calgary metro home in April 2008 was $474,564 showing almost no change from April 2007 when the average price was $474,250. The average price of a metro condominium was $312,586 showing a 5.1% decrease from April 2007 when the average price was $329,429.