As soon as I saw that chart in October’s stat package, I wondered how long it would take until those figures were taken out of context. It only took until the weekend.
It looks as though Calgary’s real estate market is on the upswing.
Several communities had substantial price increases and sales from January to the end of October compared to the same period last year, says the Calgary Real Estate Board.
More than 61 per cent saw increases in the average number of sales, with Collingwood leading the way with a whopping 220 per cent increase.
When it came to price increases, the southwest neighbourhood of Shaganappi took centre stage with average price increases of 140 per cent compared to 2010.
Can you imagine a 139.58% price increase in today’s market? Let’s take a look at what really happened in Shaganappi.
Through January 1-October 31 last year Shaganappi had 30 sales with an average price of $186,350. Why so low? 25 of the 30 sold were condos with 23 of them selling below $200,000, many of them foreclosures. (Edit: the previous wording made it sound like all of them were foreclosures)
This year, until October 31 there were 23 sales of which only 7 were condos. This resulted in an average price of $446,461.
$186,350 to $446,461 = 139.82% increase.
Sorry Shaganappi homeowners – house prices didn’t double over the last year.
Sales, however, have shown a marked improvement. In Collingwood, sales did surge 220% from last year. From 10 sales to 32. Even more than the 27 recorded in 2009 and the 25 in 2008 during the same time period.
Anytime you read reports, whether positive or negative, dig a little deeper to find the truth behind the numbers so you can put it in perspective.
