While the daily MLS® statistics at FindCalgary.com provides an unparalleled transparent view of the Calgary real estate market in general, detailed neighborhood information was lacking – until now.
I’m happy to introduce another FindCalgary.com tool to fill that void that will provide you with in-depth, up-to-date Market Snapshot reports, packed with MLS® information from your preferred neighborhoods.
Although you’ve always been able to contact a realtor for the sold stats, you can now automatically do so yourself.
Whether you’re thinking of buying or selling, these reports provide you with a lot of information! Perhaps in the coming year you want to challenge your property tax assessment – what a great resource to start with.
Find out:
- How much a property sold for
- How much it was listed for
- How long it was listed for
- Price / square foot
- Asking Price VS Selling Price
- Visualize neighborhood trends with detailed graphs
- and more!
Detailed Calgary Neighborhood Information
It’s easiest to search by Postal Code (if you know it) or you can drill down in the map view.
If you’re interested in viewing a sample analysis (not Calgary), click here
This is a new feature, so hang in there as bugs might need to be ironed out. Because of our Boards rules, I have to approve each request — so it won’t be instant. But once it’s been approved, you’ll have full-access whenever you need it.
To signup for Neighborhood Snapshots – CLICK HERE!
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Sounds really interesting, this is something that you created, or is something now being offered by MLS/Realtor.ca ?
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I hope you find it worthwhile!
Mike Fotiou says: All I can take credit for is signing up and paying for it
No, it’s not being offered by MLS/Realtor.ca
Very cool. Next time around you’re definitely my realtor of choice!
I think it’s pretty useful Mike!
I’m curious as to how a company like HomeInsight is able to get the MLS data? I’m assuming they must have permission ?
I’ve always wondered what interesting and innovative sites could be created if the public had complete access to such data.
I won’t mention the realtor name, but there’s a realtor in Calgary that has some pretty cool/innovative features on his site. He’s set up ‘community profiles’ and you can click on each community and check out all kinds of things, like….
- absorption rate by community
- average price / dom by community
- $/ft by community
- census stats, age distribution, education level, crime stats, by community
He also has absorption rate maps showing the entire city. One glance at the map for September and you can see exactly where all the demand was (all of the suburbs were in high demand, inner city, not so much).
Mike, I was wondering if you could tell me if the following stats are accurate…
SFH, $/sq ft (all of Calgary)
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from Jan 1 to Dec 31
2007 – $311
2008 – $297
2009 – $279 <– year to date
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Mike Fotiou says: CM, I’m glad you find it useful. There are many third-party products that utilize MLS data, but in order to be viewed by the public they need to signup under a licensed agent (like Market Snapshot) All products must also adhere to the specific board rules.
I can’t quickly confirm your square footage stats at this time as I’m limited to 1500 sales records at once.
Very cool idea. I signed up for it. Seems you can’t pick all of calgary, just a Postal Code. But what happends if you do not know the Postal Code of your area of interest?
Mike
“But what happends if you do not know the Postal Code of your area of interest?
Mike”
Just Google the name of the community, Calgary, and postal code.
ie: tuscany calgary postal code
You’ll likely find a result quite easily, and the area it covers seems to be quite wide, usually more than just the community you’re looking for.
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Mike Fotiou says: You can also click on the magnifying glass during the signup process (next to the PC) and drill down to your desired area. Then right click to set the marker.
Yet again Mike F you have proved your awesomeness in giving home buyers information and “power”
I am throwing up my hands at the prices and pending numbers. Even as we are up to $410 median, people are still sucking up the inventory this late in the year. If this keeps up I will be forced to call “bubble” and fall in with “Mike not Mike F”, CM and the others.
CM by the way your calculation of SFH 279 per sqfoot won’t accurately describe 2009. Ideally you should volume adjust so that the months with more sales mean more.
To take an extreme example, if only 2 people bought tiny bungaloes in hot neighbourhoods in November and December for 600 per sqfoot each, it shouldn’t bump Calgary’s year total up to 320 right?
My guess would be that 2009 would come in at 285-290 ish right now. Definitely lower than last year but with 300+ price per sqfoot numbers in the fall I really have to wonder what’s going on.
“CM by the way your calculation of SFH 279 per sqfoot won’t accurately describe 2009. Ideally you should volume adjust so that the months with more sales mean more.”
Hi Jimmy, actually none of the calculations were mine, I saw those numbers posted on a different site, and I was just wondering if they were accurate. I believe the number for 2009 year-to-date might have only been up to September 30.
The calculations I’m looking for are just as you describe, not simply using the average of the 12 months, but using the total volume between Jan 1 to Dec 31.
I just noticed a disturbing stat on Mike F’s site:
1/3 SFHs are Vacant/New Construction and 1/2 Condos are Vacant/New Construction.
That sure is a lot.
CM/Jimmy — “SFH xxx per sqfoot. ”
I don’t think this is a good stat as it will differ from community to community. Try Bankview vs Mount Royal or Rosedale vs Mount Pleasant (across the street from each other). xxx per sqfoot is useless.
Jimmy – “If this keeps up I will be forced to call “bubble” and fall in with “Mike not Mike F”, CM and the others.”
You are always welcome to join the club. Maybe we should label it as “an over priced period” or “historically high” or “not good value for the money time”. If we just look at the cost of housing (without interest %), it is not the time to buy unless a buyer thinks it will go up more from here.
If you do think it will go up in a recession, I’d like to hear the reasons (other than low interest rates).
Mike
Mike not Mike F:
Vacant or New construction/total SFH inventory is not 1/3. It’s about 26%. You should check the stats more carefully because that’s actually better than most months going back to late 2007 when they first appear on Mike F’s page.
I respectfully disagree that price per sqfoot is useless.
I also disagree that price per sq foot is useless. I think it can help paint a clearer picture of price movement especially when there might be certain segments of the market doing better than others.
For example, if only high end homes were selling right now, looking at the stats you might think the entire market was doing well, but based on $/sq ft, there wouldn’t be much movement.
I’ve always thought median price / sq ft might be the best way to go? Perhaps, calculate each home individually like Mike does, but then take the median from those?
Home #1: $300/sq foot ($300k/1000 sq ft)
Home #2: $233/sq foot ($350k/1500 sq ft)
Home #3: $250/sq foot ($300k/1000 sq ft)
Home #4: $320/sq foot ($300k/1000 sq ft)
Home #5: $400/sq foot ($300k/1000 sq ft)
Median $/sq ft = $300/sq ft
Whoops forgot to edit the prices for homes 3,4,5
While price per square foot is a way to view market trends, it shouldn’t be used as the basis for setting a purchase/sale price.
- It doesn’t take into account land value (lot size, location)
-It doesn’t take into account any upgrades done to the property
-SFH Square footage is based on taking the measurements from the OUTSIDE of the home, and does NOT include levels below grade even if they are developed and even if it’s only partially below grade such as a walk-out basement.
I’ve noticed some listings that have the below-grade level included in the total square foot amount which is incorrect. (It should only be stated as a separate amount)
If using price/sq foot to compare properties, make sure they are similar in all other respects.
Here are the median price / sq foot for Metro-Calgary SFHs this year:
Jan: $252
Feb: $248
Mar: $252
Apr: $253
I’ll have to calculate May-July later
Aug: $269
Sept: $275
Oct MTD: $275
Agreed, price per sq ft doesn’t make sense. Case in point is when you buy an inner-city infill that is lower in price per sq ft than a nicely reno’d inner-city bungalow on double the land. This is because the newer infills are on subdivided lots.
So it may seem like the bungalows are overpriced, but then again the lots are huge and hold future investment value.