One of the hottest markets for luxury homes these days is Calgary in Alberta, Canada. According to a report from cbc.ca, about 600 homes were listed for sale last month at around $1 million. Unfortunately, only 65 were sold in April, making for about nine months of available luxury homes in the market.
Calgary realtor Len Wong stated, "The big thing we've noticed, some people put product on to sell because of the drop in oil. And I hate to say it, there's some uncertainty about the NDP." She added, "If you're in the public sector - police, teacher, fireman, nurse - not related to oil and gas, those are the buyers. That's why you don't see the high end going up."
In related news, according to a report from the calgaryherald.com, May 2015 was the sixth consecutive month that home sales declined year-on-year in the Calgary market. It was also the fifth straight month that average prices had fallen on a year-on-year basis. Sales in May 2015 fell 25.5 percent compared to May 2014, with just about 2,190 home sales transactions. The average price also dipped from the previous year; it is now pegged at $478,790 while median price also fell 0.3 percent to $433,000. Today, it reportedly takes an average of 40 days to sell a luxury home, which is twice as long as it took to sell a house in 2014.
On the other hand, Calgary Real Estate Board Chief Economist Anne Marie Lurie said in a report from 660news.com that new listings for May 2015 were "unusually low." "They're down over last year by 30 percent. They are below long term average just for the month of May; we are about 18 percent below the five-year average, 20 percent below our 20-year average." She added, "We still have more people employed today than we had last year. The job losses that we're seeing are mostly from the energy sector."
