Calgary’s luxury home market continues to climb to new heights. At the time of writing, 74 homes have sold on MLS® for a million dollars or more month-to-date. That tally surpasses the previous June month-end record of 73 sales set last year – with over a week still remaining.
June luxury sales record broken
Of the 74 high-end sales, ten of them are condominiums which is the second highest total ever. March 2013 holds the luxury condo sales record with fifteen.
Month-to-date, the most expensive sale is a Britannia home that sold for $3,500,000. You can view pictures of the gorgeous home here.
The communities of Springbank Hill and Altadore/River Park have the most luxury sales so far this month with 5 apiece.
It was two years ago this July that the government implemented stricter mortgage rules including requiring a minimum 20% down payment for properties priced at $1 million and over.
Many analysts predicted that the change wouldn’t have a material impact on high-end sales. At that time, TD chief economist Craig Alexander said that according to his team’s estimation, “only 0.1 per cent of $1-million and above home sales have had mortgage insurance.”
Dan Eisner, the CEO and founder of True North Mortgage said, “the larger the purchase price, the more people tend to put down. Usually when people are buying $2-million properties they’re putting 50 per cent down, that’s the trend.”
True to their data & estimations, Calgary’s luxury market completely shrugged off the rule tightening and continued forward with unprecedented strength.
More rule changes are now looming. CMHC recently announced that effective July 31, 2014, they will no longer offer mortgage insurance for homes that cost $1 million or more, regardless of the down payment amount. Even though 20% down has been required for a couple years now, some lenders have still been buying mortgage insurance for these properties. However, this newest rule change isn’t expected to cause any significant change to sales levels according to CREB®.
