Monthly Archives: August 2010

Question Box: Where can I get the blueprints for my house?

Posted on August 27, 2010 | 7 Comments

The easiest and most direct way to obtain the building plans would be from the builder itself.   If you`re not sure who the builder of your home is, you can contact  City of Calgary Development Building & Licensing at 403-268-5311.  The operators are quite helpful.

If the builder doesn`t have the plans readily available, there is another method of obtaining them:

  1. Call the City of Calgary at 311.  Out of area callers can use 403-268-2489.
  2. Ask for Property Research Center in regards to obtaining building plans for a home.
  3. You will receive a 6 digit reference number for your request, and can take up to 4 business days to hear back from them. (Usually it`s the next business day)
  4. Someone from PRC will call back and confirm that you would like the drawings retrieved from their storage facility which can take 3-5 business days.

The cost for them retrieving the drawings (as of the date of this posting) is $55 (non-refundable) and is payable upfront.

Once they have retrieved the plans, they will contact you.  You are then able to go down to City Hall and view them.

But since the plans are protected by copyright, if you want copies of them you must first obtain a written permission letter or letter of authorization from the builder.

I would recommend getting this written permission first so you can make copies of the plan during your first visit so you don`t have to come down to City Hall again.  If you don`t have the written authorization on hand, you will have 2 weeks from the time PRC retrieved the documents from storage to get it.  (They will grant you an extension if you need more time getting the approval from the builder just as long as you let them know)

If the plans are on 11 x 17, the cost is $1 per page and can be made for you right away.   However, if the drawings are on a larger format, the cost is $8 per page and will take 2-3 business days for the copies to be made for you.

Building plans are available going back to the mid-1960`s for residential homes.

What if the builder is no longer in business? You must then visit an Alberta Registries office and do a corporate search to prove that the company is defunct.  With that proof you can go down to City Hall in lieu of the builder`s written authorization.

Hope this helps!

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House Price Index (HPI) – June 2010

Posted on August 25, 2010 | 7 Comments

According to June’s Teranet-National Bank House Price Index released today, Canadian home prices were up 13.6% from a year earlier. The 12-month gain of 13.6% was identical to that of May and was strongly influenced by Vancouver, up 16.3%, and Toronto, up 16.2%. In the other 4 markets surveyed, the year-over-year rise ranged from 7.1% in Halifax to 12.0% in Ottawa.

June marked the 3rd consecutive month that prices were up from the month before in all 6 cities in the index. Month-over-month, the index rose 1.5%, the largest increase since last August. For the composite index it was the 14th straight monthly increase, the longest such run since October 2006.

In Calgary, house prices were up 0.2% from May, and up 8.3% from the previous June.  Year-to-date, prices are up 0.97%.

Source: Teranet National Bank

From the report:

Since the resale market has been slackening across Canada – from April to July of this year, more existing homes came on the market than were sold – it is too early to conclude that the relatively vigorous prices rises of April, May and June launched a trend. The prospect of harmonized sales taxes coming into effect July 1 in Ontario and B.C. may have stimulated sales in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa in the preceding months.

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August 1-21, 2010 Calgary Real Estate Statistics

Posted on August 22, 2010 | 13 Comments

SFH pending sales continue to fall but are showing that an increase in the average price is in the works.  This is due to the strength of several multi-million dollar homes that are C/S, including a $5.9M property in Bel Aire.

Still, figures are pointing to another monthly drop in the average price and might end below August 2009′s month-end of $454,130. The SFH median seems to have settled around the $400k mark for a second consecutive month.

Similarly, pending sales figures and month-to-date numbers are showing that condo prices will decrease from July.

You can view more price stats on my webpage here

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Sales remain below previous years levels and not just compared to a strong 2009 as some keep alluding.

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The drop in condo sales is even more pronounced than SFH’s:

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Unoccupied listings (Vacant & New construction) have continued to rise over the past several weeks even as total inventory has dropped.   We’ll take a closer look at this at the month-end review.

Will September mark the return to a balanced market as some have predicted?

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On a lighter note, this might be a conversation you would overhear at an open house today in Calgary between a stereotypical agent and a low-balling buyer.  Maybe you’ll get a chuckle out of.  Or maybe it will waste 3 minutes of your life . :P

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August 1-14, 2010 Calgary Real Estate Statistics

Posted on August 15, 2010 | 10 Comments

SFH sales remain close to the sluggish pace set in the first two weeks of July and are still down dramatically when compared to previous years.

Condo sales have slowed further between Aug 1-14 , down 10% from the same time period in July.    Sales have dropped over 50% from August 2009 and  27% from August 2008.

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SFH sales are down 34.5% from 2009 and down 26% from 2008.

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After July’s month-end inventory declined due to expired listings, the first two weeks of August have shown steady levels.  SFH inventory is currently down 8% from this time last month, condo listings are down 7%.

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For more information including average and median prices, and to view homes that have sold each day, please visit my website at www.FindCalgary.ca

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New House Price Index (NHPI): June 2010

Posted on August 10, 2010 | 7 Comments

The price of a new home in Calgary remained flat in June according to the NHPI released by Statistics Canada today.

There was no change month-over-month (between May and June) in Calgary new home prices.   Between June 2009 and June 2010, prices were up 3.2%

Canada-wide, the index was up 0.1% MoM and up 3.3% YoY.

Between May and June, the largest increases were recorded in Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton (+1.3%), Winnipeg (+0.5%), and Ottawa-Gatineau (+0.5%)

The largest increases year-over-year were in:

  • Regina (+6.9%)
  • Vancouver (+6.5%).
  • St. John’s (+6.1%)
  • Winnipeg (+4.9%)
  • Ottawa-Gatineau (+4.7%)

Among the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed, 2 registered 12-month declines in June: Victoria (-3.5%) and Charlottetown (-1.8%).

CLICK TO ENLARGE. Source: Statistics Canada

About the NHPI

The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) measures changes over time in the selling prices of new residential houses agreed upon between the contractor and the buyer at the time of the signing of the contract. It is designed to measure the changes in the selling prices of new houses where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive periods. The prices collected from builders and included in the index are market selling prices less value added taxes, such as the Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) or the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).

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Scotia capital report

Scotia released their Global Real Estate Trends report today which touched on new housing, so I’ll include it in this post.

Sellers of resale homes have consistently commanded greater price increases from buyers over the past decade than have new home builders. Between 2000 and the first half of 2010, the average cost of a new home increased by just over 50%.

Over the same period, the average price of a resale home more than doubled. Sales of new and resale homes are driven by the same underlying factors — primarily interest rates and employment/ income growth. Traditionally, the demand and pricing for new homes mirror, but with a lag, trends in the resale market. When resale housing selection is limited, and/or prices are increasing sharply, buyers are more likely to consider a new home purchase…

…The divergence in new and resale home prices is seen in most markets across the country, but to varying degrees. The biggest gap has opened up in British Columbia, where the lack of developable land in its largest city is a major contributor to its record high home prices.

On the other hand, new home prices have largely tracked resale prices in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where a massive influx of population attracted to the region’s booming economy, and the inherent lag in adding sufficient new housing stock, fuelled across-the-board appreciation.

You can read the report in its entirety here

CLICK TO ENLARGE. Source: Scotia Capital

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