Amidst the “Olympic Eclipse” which seems to have overshadowed even the European debt crisis over the last couple of weeks, Calgary housing industry experts were quick to respond to a Scotiabank prediction earlier this week of a 10% decline in national home values. Can Calgary’s slow, steady recovery in recent years continue in spite of the broader, national trend towards a slowing of price growth and sales activity?
We note that the atypical strength which Toronto and Vancouver have displayed over the last couple of years may have skewed the national results to the positive and are obviously expected to have the same effect going the other way. Conversely, Calgary actually lagged the national housing market recovery that began in 2009 and has been comparatively slow in its recovery to date. At the same time, our regional economic engine has stimulated a return to positive in-migration (since 2011) that is not expected to abate anytime soon and is certainly not characteristic of the country as a whole.
The result is a comparatively stable to moderate growth outlook for Calgary’s residential market based on the combination of slower recovery of the last 2 years and higher demand growth for the foreseeable future. This is an important distinction between Canada’s national market outlook and Calgary’s specific outlook, and the cornerstone of our strategic investment focus on the Calgary urban residential marketplace.
Our Mission Road redevelopment partnership is evolving steadily now.
