August 2013 Alberta Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Billionaire Warren Buffet reveals $500 million stake in Suncor




Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a stake in Suncor Energy Inc. and added to a holding in General Motors Co. as billionaire Chairman Warren Buffett and his deputies spent the most on stocks in a quarter since 2011.




Buffett`s firm owned 17.8 million Suncor shares on June 30, a stake valued at more than $500 million in the Calgary-based heavy-oil producer, Berkshire said Thursday in a regulatory filing. The company also added to its holdings in U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. The filing omitted some data that was reported confidentially to regulators.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Calgary the top commercial real estate performer




CALGARY ` Calgary is the top commercial real estate performer in the country when it comes to annual returns, according to a new report.




The The REALpac/IPD Canada Annual Property Index showed that the annual return ` combining income growth and capital growth ` for Calgary was 16.7 per cent for the year ending June 30.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Alberta house prices: What $1 million will buy






Average house prices in Calgary had the highest increase across major markets in Canada, according to a report by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).




Calgary saw a nearly 7 per cent increase in July when compared to prices a year ago, while Toronto saw a 3.4 per cent rise and Vancouver prices declined about 2.3 per cent.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Alberta government drops plan for mandatory flood warnings on land titles




EDMONTON ` The Alberta government is backing away from a plan to put warnings on land titles for properties in flood-risk zones.




Associate Minister Rick Fraser says the government will instead work with the real estate industry to ensure home buyers get the information they need before buying property at risk of flooding.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Alberta has potential to be Canada's biggest biofuel producer




Alberta could lead the country toward replacing about half its necessary transportation fuel with non-petroleum products, says a global expert on biofuels, bioenergy and bioproducts.




`We now have ethanol from grain and biodiesel from oilseeds, and we can also have ethanol from poplar which is not used in many forestry management areas and we can grow dedicated energy crops,` said Bradley Saville, a professor of chemical engineering from the University of Toronto.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Natural gas readying for a rebound?




EDMONTON - Early this year, the hefty discounts on Alberta crude had politicians and energy executives wringing their hands in frustration.




Raw bitumen sold for just $45 a barrel in January, and Alberta`s benchmark grade ` Western Canada Select (WCS), a blend of bitumen and heavy oil ` fetched around $55 a barrel.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Move over Keystone: Enbridge's pipeline may be the first to get Alberta oil to the gulf




While the fate of TransCanada`s embattled Keystone XL remains uncertain 70-odd months into its quest to link Alberta`s oilsands with the Gulf of Mexico, another Canadian company`s lesser-known, less-scrutinized pipeline project is on track to make it there first.




And the Alberta government is weighing whether it wants in.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

An out-of-this-world transportation plan lands in Edmonton




EDMONTON - Meet George Jetson.




Actually, his name is Dan Corns. He lives in Edmonton, not Orbit City.




But the 34-year-old is the founder of a company that holds patents, and very high hopes indeed, for magnetic levitation technology that would propel real-world transportation into the animated realm of the cartoon character Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy and Jane, his wife, circa 2062.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Calgary luxury home market sets sales record for August




CALGARY ` Calgary`s luxury home market continues to boom.




According to Mike Fotiou, associate broker for First Place Realty in Calgary, luxury home sales in the city have already broke the August record previously set in 2007.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Oilsands tour changes opinions of U.S. naysayers




Fort McMurray is creating some believers of the oilsands.





Fifteen legislators from the United States got the chance to tour the region today and see first hand Alberta's oilsands.





Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, Ray Merrick says any doubts surrounding industry development have been eliminated after the tour.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

TransCanada's eastern path hits a snag in Ontario




The Ontario government wants assurances that the province will benefit economically from TransCanada Corp.`s pipeline project to ship crude from Alberta to refineries and export terminals in eastern Canada.




`There is a lot of concern that the majority of the oil ` will be for export, and that Ontario will only be a conduit to facilitate oil from tar sands to go to foreign markets,` Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said in an interview Wednesday.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Grande Prairie economy, vacancy rate play roles in thriving housing market




The summer months are usually beautiful because of the warm weather but real estate agents in the Peace Country got to add one more reason to the list of why they should love summer.




Grande Prairie and its surrounding areas saw a record high number of home sales, totalling 316 units. According to the Grande Prairie and Area Association of Realtors, they`ve seen an increase of 30% increase from July of last year.




President of the association, and broker and owner of Better Home and Gardens Realty, Brian DeWeese said economy and wages play a part in the newly recorded record.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Calgary commercial real estate witnesses development boom




CALGARY ` Is downtown Calgary finally destined for an overbuild?




Although Cresa in Calgary has posed that question in a recent report, it believes the city`s commercial real estate market can handle the wave of office development hitting the downtown core in the near future.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Calgary MLS sales in August on pace for 2nd highest ever




CALGARY ` Calgary home sales are on pace for the highest August total since 2005 and the second highest on record for the month, says a Calgary realtor.




Mike Fotiou, associate broker of First Place Realty, said month-to-date between August 1-21 there have been 1,462 MLS sales in the city, up 32.4 per cent from last year.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Labour crisis hits Rocky Mountain House




Human resources experts have long warned about a looming labour shortage in Alberta. For many Rocky Mountain House employers, the crisis has already arrived.




Last month, Statistics Canada calculated the unemployment rate for the Banff-Rocky Mountain House-Jasper region at 3.7 per cent ` well below the Red Deer rate of 5.5 per cent and the province`s seasonally adjusted average of 4.5 per cent. Such a scarcity of human capital can have a devastating effect on a business, said Michelle Andrishak, small business adviser at the Rural Alberta Business Centre in Rocky.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Survey finds most Alberta workers bullish on their companies






CALGARY - Alberta`s workforce is optimistic about hiring intentions and job security, according to the third annual BMO Labour Day Survey released Monday.




The study, conducted by Pollara, found that 58 per cent of Albertans, the highest in the country, think that the company they work for is growing and will be hiring more employees.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Edmonton housing starts on upward trend



July`s housing starts trend continued to grow in the Edmonton CMA going up to 16,804 from 16,354 units in June.





`The trend in total housing starts continued to rise in July, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous month,` CMHC Senior Market Analyst Christina Butchart said. `A decline in the inventory of multi-family homes and a low vacancy rate has prompted builders to increase production in recent months, particularly in the apartment segment.`





Read the full article here.