May 2013 Alberta Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Albertans: The big spenders of Canada





Alberta's retail sales continue to grow every year, and the province hit another record high in March of 2013. The first record was in February, where the province hit a total of $5.98 billion in retail sales. The second record was hit the following month in March, where total retail sales in the province amounted to $5.9 billion. These high numbers rank Alberta as having the highest growth in retail sales in all of Canada. According to Statistics Canada, a recent study reported that sales of $5.9 billion for the month of March in Alberta were up by 4.7% compared to the same time a year ago. Nationally, sales grew by 1.1%, reaching a total of $39.5 billion.







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[Ally]

Alberta's energy industry drives skyscraper development in downtown Calgary






Early last year, Barclays Capital published its Skyscraper Index, which the company said showed a correlation between the construction of record-breaking office towers and great financial crises. It said that the Empire State Building was built during the Great Depression and Dubai`s Burj Khalifa was built during the Great Recession. At first blush, construction of the Bow, Calgary`s tallest building at 58 stories, seems to follow Barclay`s trend. Construction on the 1.7-million-square-foot Bow occurred during the last economic downturn, between 2007 and 2011.





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[Ally]

Big city plans for Brenner




Strathcona County residents are calling for more amenities similar to other large cities to be included in the Bremner urban reserve area, said the project`s planning co-ordinators following recent public consultation.


Council received a second update on Tuesday, May 21 on the status of the Bremner Growth Management Strategy, the future 200,000-population development, from project co-ordinator Sarah Feldman.





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[Ally]

U.S. drought drives Alberta farm cash receipts to record level




CALGARY ` Farm cash receipts are set to smash new records this year, says a senior Alberta economist.




According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, farm cash receipts in Alberta hit $3.85 billion in the first quarter of this year ` a new all-time record high, writes Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial in Calgary, in a commentary on Friday.





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[Ally]

Alberta tops provinces for average weekly earnings




CALGARY ` Alberta topped all provinces for average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in March and had the second highest year-over-year growth rate in the country, according to Statistics Canada.




The federal agency reported Wednesday that average weekly earnings for the province reached $1,111.20 during the month, which was a 4.6 per cent hike from a year ago.





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[Ally]

Calgary and Edmonton buck national housing market trend of declining sales





CALGARY ` A soft landing is underway in the Canadian housing market and should continue but Calgary and Edmonton are bucking the trend with sales rising compared with a year ago, says a new report released Tuesday by BMO Capital Markets.




The report, by Sal Guatieri, senior economist for BMO, said the Canadian housing market is `calming not crashing.`




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[Ally]

Calgary homes sell quicker




It`s interesting to see how the age-old dynamic of supply and demand is playing itself out in today`s Calgary real estate market.




When supply is down and demand is up, that`s going to impact prices and it`s also going to impact the length of time it takes to sell a property.





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[Ally]

Calgary listed as one of the best places for job seekers




CALGARY ` Calgary is one of the best places for job seekers in Canada, according to search engine Adzuna.




But it`s not the best.





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[Ally]

House prices expected to grow in Calgary




CALGARY ` Short-term year-over-year price growth expectations for the Calgary resale housing market are between five and 6.9 per cent, according to the Conference Board of Canada.




In a report released Thursday, the board said the average sale price in Calgary was $423,917 in April, up 4.6 per cent from last year.





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[Ally]

Plenty of competition will greet Alberta's bitumen on U.S. Gulf Coast




EDMONTON - Alberta is counting on pushing out foreign suppliers of heavy oil when large amounts of oilsands crude start hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast, but it will face stiff competition and may not even be welcome at some upgrading refineries.




That`s the opinion of Robert Johnson, director of global energy for the Eurasia Group, who said Thursday that imported heavy oil is currently processed at facilities that have a capacity for 4.71 million barrels per day. One third of those refineries ` representing 1.44 million barrels per day of capacity ` have relationships with national oil companies from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil. And oil producers from those nations have few options outside the Gulf Coast.





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[Ally]

More Calgarians plan to buy condos in the next 5 years




CALGARY ` More Calgarians are planning to buy a condo in the next five years, says a new BMO Bank of Montreal report released on Thursday.




The survey, conducted by Pollara, found that in Calgary prospects for condos among homebuyers has risen eight points from the fall (33 per cent versus 25 per cent), while intent to buy a traditional home has dropped from 71 per cent in the fall to 58 per cent.





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[Ally]

Pipelines, LNG plants linked to higher job forecast




CALGARY ` Solving the oil and gas industry`s market access woes would add 20,000 extra direct jobs over the next 10 years, according to a report by an industry group.




The annual forecast by the Calgary-based Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada released Thursday estimates direct industry employment in 2012 was 195,200, up 10 per cent from 2009.





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[Ally]

Calgary has become a victim of success




What keeps me up at night is wondering whether Calgary has overshot the perfect wave and will struggle with it, falling back on itself. Let me explain.




The surfing analogy is this ` that there is a perfect point at which a surfer can ride the wave and is balanced between the momentum of the wave and the position of their board. It is apparently the equivalent of a Zen state for a surfer (I wouldn`t know, I always fall before that point). If they overshoot that perfect point, the wave falls in on itself and they end up going for a swim.





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[Ally]

Western Premiers renewing push for pipelines



With the British Columbia Liberals back in power ` thanks in part to the implosion of the opposition NDP over its hard line against heavy oil pipelines ` Canada`s three Western provinces are working on a renewed push to make the proposed Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain pipeline projects work.



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[stephdietz]

I like the way you visually wrote that!!!