It's official: Calgary is more expensive than Toronto

[MacDougalbry]

CALGARY home prices, as of June 30:
- Average price: $367,033
- Median price: $334,500
- Source: CREB.com web site.

TORONTO, as of June 19:
- Average price: $358,648
- Median price: $303,000
- Source: http://www.torontorealestateboard.com

[sparky69]

damn that sucks... if your buying a house. thank good i bought mine in march

[Flames_Gimp]

sweet! keep goin up.....

[Eddie Bronze]

Interesting. Sucks for me. Being single, I'm out of the equation at this point.

They do say though, that prices have "flattened off" in the past month.

[Reaper]

I am sooooooo glad we bought our condo in August before things really started to get out of hand.

[arsenal]

I bought my place in march/feb. About a month later, a place sold in the same building, roughly the same size for $50,000 more than I paid for my place.
As far as I am concerned, prices can keep going up, or level off. Either way, it probably was the best thing I ever did.

[MacDougalbry]

The other story is that it looks like the sellers market is ending. The number of sales per month has been flat the last few months, but the number of new listings per month has been growing as has the total inventory of unsold homes. (The actual # of new listings last month was an all-time record.)

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Eddie Bronze

They do say though, that prices have "flattened off" in the past month.

True, but does that perhaps have more to do with the fact that everyone was waiting for the GST to drop to 6% than having no more buyers out there?

[looooob]

Originally Posted by MacDougalbry

The other story is that it looks like the sellers market is ending. The number of sales per month has been flat the last few months, but the number of new listings per month has been growing as has the total inventory of unsold homes. (The actual # of new listings last month was an all-time record.)

this wouldn't surprise me in the least...although does some of this fall into historical summer time trends?

my understanding is that its quite usual to see inventory up and prices flattish? in the summer?

I can' t imagine the previous insanity of the last 6 months could continue much longer...however as they said in the Herald today, if you are looking to buy, don't count on prices all of a sudden going down

[trew]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

True, but does that perhaps have more to do with the fact that everyone was waiting for the GST to drop to 6% than having no more buyers out there?

For new homes, perhaps, but I don't think the GST rate would have much of an effect on the resale market (no GST on a used house, right?).

[Cowperson]

It would be almost frightening to find out how much our acreage property has jumped in the eight years since we bought it . . . . .

Cowperson

[Sharpen 'Em]

Houses are more expensive here now but most other things are still priced higher in Toronto. Gasoline, Golf, tickets to an NHL game, pints of beer...you know...the important things in life.

[Log]

Originally Posted by Sharpen 'Em

Houses are more expensive here now but most other things are still priced higher in Toronto. Gasoline, Golf, tickets to an NHL game, pints of beer...you know...the important things in life.

Those things in Calgary may catch up to what they cost in Toronto... But it will take a few years.

I really wish I would have bought a house in Calgary and simply rented it out....

[RedMan12]

Vancouver is still first, I think. Last I heard out here, it was most expensive in Canada.

[photon]

Originally Posted by looooob

this wouldn't surprise me in the least...although does some of this fall into historical summer time trends?

my understanding is that its quite usual to see inventory up and prices flattish? in the summer?

I can' t imagine the previous insanity of the last 6 months could continue much longer...however as they said in the Herald today, if you are looking to buy, don't count on prices all of a sudden going down

I was talking to a realtor this morning and he said we're going into a traditionally slow time.. Some of that inventory coming on is people deciding to try and cash in on the market. In Chestermere there are quite a few fishers, people who are listing their house for crazy amounts not really wanting to sell but just seeing if someone is silly enough to buy it.

But yeah, we're finally getting to reasonable numbers (2200 listings), though 4-5000 used to be the norm I think.

[photon]

Originally Posted by RedMan12

Vancouver is still first, I think. Last I heard out here, it was most expensive in Canada.

Yeah, Vancouver is crazy.. and it's got the potential to have a correction there, prices aren't based on fundumentals there anymore, it's more speculation. In Alberta the average cost to buy a house is still only 32% of the average income.. in BC it's more like 65%! That's not sustainable.

[BlackEleven]

This reminds me of an aticle I read about a month ago (dated Jun 14)
http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/nat...4/housing.html

It shows all the average housing prices for Canada:

• Calgary: $358,214 (+43.6%)
• Edmonton: $242,936 (+22.9%)
• Halifax-Dartmouth: $210,225 (+7.6%)
• Montreal: $219,433 (+8.2%)
• Ottawa: $260,219 (+4.7%)
• Quebec City: $150,324 (+6.9%)
• Regina: $142,147 (+10.3%)
• Saint John, N.B.: $129,844 (+12.3%)
• Saskatoon: $162,279 (+11.5%)
• Nfld. & Lab.: $133,541 (-1.2%)
• Thunder Bay, Ont.: $118,804 (-9.0%)
• Toronto: $365,537 (+5.5%)
• Vancouver: $518,176 (+23.7%)
• Winnipeg: $159,801 (+12.5%)
• Canada: $303,836 (+12.9%)

In this article Calgary is still behind Toronto, but Vancouver is in front of everyone by a large margin.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

In this article Calgary is still behind Toronto, but Vancouver is in front of everyone by a large margin.

That's because Victoria isn't listed. It is right up there with Vancouver when it comes to housing prices.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah, Vancouver is crazy.. and it's got the potential to have a correction there, prices aren't based on fundumentals there anymore, it's more speculation. In Alberta the average cost to buy a house is still only 32% of the average income.. in BC it's more like 65%! That's not sustainable.

The high housing prices in Vancouver are only partially speculative. Vancouver has virtually no land left, so prices there will remain high even after the speculators leave.

[photon]

True, that's a good point. I probably wouldn't invest there though, let someone else take the top of the market. I'm more conservative.