Real estate in Calgary - another bubble?

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Gundo

I have absolutely no idea what might be driving it. I do know in our instance of the offers we received 5 were from out of province and 1 out of country. Of those 5 offers from outside Alberta 4 were unconditional.

We have even had 1 realtor reach out this morning asking if we had gone firm because their clients would like to table another offer this morning after sleeping on it.

If you're OK with sharing, could you tell us more about the property? Type, size, age, community, price point, etc...

[Gundo]

Originally Posted by you&me

If you're OK with sharing, could you tell us more about the property? Type, size, age, community, price point, etc...

Sure, house is 6 year old 2 storey detached double garage home in Chestermere on a cul-Dec-sac 2300sqft undeveloped basement. Listed for $699,900.

[GoinAllTheWay]

This is all beyond frustrating and really dissapointing. We'd love to finally move in to a house after doing work on our condo over the years. Condo market is much better than it was even a year ago but houses have just gotten nuts. I just don't think I could buy a house without having it inspected and I really have a hard time paying $50-$100k more for the same house we were considering a year ago.

Argh!!

[Calgary14]

Thanks for sharing. I know that's only one person's experience but based on that I would guess a good portion of the current demand is from out of province/country

[Calgary14]

I'd be curious to know people's desire to sell. Sure there will always be people moving due to family, personal situations, job moves etc but how many people are now just seeing dollar signs and rushing to list, only to find out they now have to buy in the same crazy market. FOMO I guess. Not saying you guys have FOMO but how many people listing now are thinking they'll get ahead selling but then have to overpay on whatever they buy in the same market

[GomerPile]

We are selling as we bought it as a rental with the dream of developing it as part of our retirement plans, which started last year with the rezoning exercise. It turned into a money pit the last 3 years and I can’t take the risk on to develop it right now. The market turning offered us an out so we took it.

That is why we sold.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

I'd be curious to know people's desire to sell. Sure there will always be people moving due to family, personal situations, job moves etc but how many people are now just seeing dollar signs and rushing to list, only to find out they now have to buy in the same crazy market. FOMO I guess. Not saying you guys have FOMO but how many people listing now are thinking they'll get ahead selling but then have to overpay on whatever they buy in the same market

Not all segments of the market are experiencing the same frenzy, so there seems to be an opportunity for some people moving upmarket. Under the right circumstances, a move-up could be at a lower delta than it had been a year ago, though that isn't the case for everyone and might be quite limited.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Gundo

Sure, house is 6 year old 2 storey detached double garage home in Chestermere on a cul-Dec-sac 2300sqft undeveloped basement. Listed for $699,900.

What prompted you to sell out of curiosity? I imagine the high of selling in this market would be tempered pretty quick if you then have to try and buy a new place to move into

[Gundo]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

What prompted you to sell out of curiosity? I imagine the high of selling in this market would be tempered pretty quick if you then have to try and buy a new place to move into

We signed to purchase and build a new home back in October of last year when some of the commodity pricing settled down and without fear of an any escalation clauses. Our original possession was January 2023 but we made ourselves available to our builder for any short notice and cancellation appointments and were fortunate enough to have our possession bumped up to mid-October of this year. It just so happened the sale market went absolutely batcrap crazy and we opted to capitalize before it cooled down.

With a July possession date of our existing home we planned on going to Europe to see family for 6 weeks in the summer and then move into my parents for 60-90 days before our new home is ready. I am thankful it all kind of just worked out.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by Gundo

With a July possession date of our existing home we planned on going to Europe to see family for 6 weeks in the summer and then move into my parents for 60-90 days before our new home is ready. I am thankful it all kind of just worked out.

I've never lived off a suitcase so I'm curious as to how people deal with home / mailing addresses for this kinda sequence of events.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by jwslam

I've never lived off a suitcase so I'm curious as to how people deal with home / mailing addresses for this kinda sequence of events.

You can have all your mail redirected by Canada Post for a fee

[red sky]

Buddy who lives in New Brighton said a house listed for $585k sold for $100k over list. Smaller place that backs onto green space but equates to $370/square foot. Just fascinating watching this unfold IMO.

[Calgary14]

Checking on Bode a condo in Bowness sold for 146% of list in February. Listed for $379k, sold for $555k. I think that's been the highest so far this year.

It is very interesting to watch this. Reminds me of 2006/07

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

I'd be curious to know people's desire to sell. Sure there will always be people moving due to family, personal situations, job moves etc but how many people are now just seeing dollar signs and rushing to list, only to find out they now have to buy in the same crazy market. FOMO I guess. Not saying you guys have FOMO but how many people listing now are thinking they'll get ahead selling but then have to overpay on whatever they buy in the same market

Not be facetious, but maybe it's driven by the boomers? The reason being, so many of them are empty nesters and perhaps after the pandemic, they realized they don't need a full house any more. These individuals are good candidates for the cheaper townhouses and condos.

The other position of supply sadly might literally be deaths. If there was indeed an increase in deaths in typically healthy individuals in any other year due to the pandemic and their surviving family does not need as big of a house, those homes might be the ones on the market as well.

Additionally, many young families realized they cannot survive in a smaller unit if WFH and kids, so are rushing out to acquire bigger properties based on a combination of frustration with their current set up/situations, FOMO etc.?

Originally Posted by Gundo

We signed to purchase and build a new home back in October of last year when some of the commodity pricing settled down and without fear of an any escalation clauses. Our original possession was January 2023 but we made ourselves available to our builder for any short notice and cancellation appointments and were fortunate enough to have our possession bumped up to mid-October of this year. It just so happened the sale market went absolutely batcrap crazy and we opted to capitalize before it cooled down.

With a July possession date of our existing home we planned on going to Europe to see family for 6 weeks in the summer and then move into my parents for 60-90 days before our new home is ready. I am thankful it all kind of just worked out.

I know of a few people (pre-pandemic) who sold their place, putt their stuff in storage for a few months, traveled for a few months then lived in a furnished rental (ie: Executive Suites) till they could move into their new place. If the timing kinda gets a little odd, I guess you could still sell and use this type of temporary rental idea as a back up plan so that you can sell without concerns?



On a side note... if you are selling your properties (or sold in 2021), make sure to compile your ACB and sales documentation and other relevant documentation for tax purposes. It's so much easier to compile that at the same time rather than panic chase dozens of individual documents a few weeks before the filing deadline.

And if calculating the ACB figure out what is allowed in the ACB before wasting hours of your time on calculating a completely incorrect amount.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by jwslam

I've never lived off a suitcase so I'm curious as to how people deal with home / mailing addresses for this kinda sequence of events.

Temporary mail forwarding for a fee (Around $30-60 a month depending on how many names need to be forwarded) to a temporary location, work address or to a friend's place. This until you update everyone to have the right addresses (don't forget very periodic stuff like government/taxes, insurance, quarterly investments, vehicle registrations, banking, utilities etc. that aren't necessarily monthly or are digital only).

Sometimes, for the cost of a gift, you can approach the new owners and ask them to put aside your mail for a month or two so that you can change the addresses and deal with minor ones that fell through the cracks. As a new owner, I marked the old owner stuff as "Moved, return to sender" and threw them back into the mail slot.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

This is all beyond frustrating and really dissapointing. We'd love to finally move in to a house after doing work on our condo over the years. Condo market is much better than it was even a year ago but houses have just gotten nuts. I just don't think I could buy a house without having it inspected and I really have a hard time paying $50-$100k more for the same house we were considering a year ago.

Argh!!

I showed a house to clients this past weekend here in Vancouver (Richmond to be precise).
Turns out they had actually already looked at it before as it was on market just over a year ago and the current sellers bought it then.
My clients didn't make an offer or buy anything for that matter, they waited things out thinking the market would slow down (strongly advised them against this but their choice).

The current sellers bought it last January for $1,840,000.
They resold it this week for $2,680,000.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

I showed a house to clients this past weekend here in Vancouver (Richmond to be precise).
Turns out they had actually already looked at it before as it was on market just over a year ago and the current sellers bought it then.
My clients didn't make an offer or buy anything for that matter, they waited things out thinking the market would slow down (strongly advised them against this but their choice).

The current sellers bought it last January for $1,840,000.
They resold it this week for $2,680,000.

apples to oranges comparison.
This is a Calgary thread everyone knows the craziness in Van and TO.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by Gundo

We signed to purchase and build a new home back in October of last year when some of the commodity pricing settled down and without fear of an any escalation clauses. Our original possession was January 2023 but we made ourselves available to our builder for any short notice and cancellation appointments and were fortunate enough to have our possession bumped up to mid-October of this year. It just so happened the sale market went absolutely batcrap crazy and we opted to capitalize before it cooled down.

With a July possession date of our existing home we planned on going to Europe to see family for 6 weeks in the summer and then move into my parents for 60-90 days before our new home is ready. I am thankful it all kind of just worked out.

That was our plan, then Covid happened, and 60-90 days turned into 1.5 years. by the end of it, a good portion of my leisure time was spent playing peacemaker between my wife and mom.

It all worked out, gave us a chance to save a lot of money after taking a cruel beating on our townhouse and we're able to sit on the sidelines until the market became more favourable to sellers.

Realtors try and seduce you with "selling is hard, buying is fun!" it's not, it's all a bleak hell-scape.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Yoho

apples to oranges comparison.
This is a Calgary thread everyone knows the craziness in Van and TO.

Not making a comparison, just sharing a story.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Not making a comparison, just sharing a story.

I think it is relevant. I was going to list my rental house in October for 429,000 got cold feet and decided to move into it with my family. It is now worth over 500,000 and can be refinanced to access more equity than what was available from selling.