What is the reason for the surge in houese for sale?

[DeniseHamilton]

Does anyone have any thoughts on why there are so many houses for sale in Calgary? If Calgary`s population is increasing, where are all those sellers going once their houses sell?

Denise Hamilton

 

[UTCVenturesLtd]

QUOTE (DeniseHamilton @ Apr 4 2008, 11:52 AM) Does anyone have any thoughts on why there are so many houses for sale in Calgary? If Calgary`s population is increasing, where are all those sellers going once their houses sell?

Denise Hamilton


I believe about 2,000 of them are people have moved to the bigger and nicer place but have not sold their prior homes as yet. According to one realtor, those houses sit vacant as well. I know that some of the listings over the last year are those who came here, made a fortune on their real estate and have headed east to buy a place and stick a good $100,000 in the bank to boot and own a house outright that they didn`t own before they moved here. If you were ready to retire and moved to Sask, you could have bought a similar house for about 20% of what it would sell for here and put a LOT of cash in the bank boosting your retirement funds! I think that a number of the homes also were bought by real estate flippers after the big price jump who are now panicking along with people who have also purchased since. Some might even have second thoughts after seeing what has been taking place in the U.S. housing market. We do have a good number of no money down deals or little money down deals here. Calgary has a stable housing market with a good economy, but the house price increase has a lot of people sitting in the stands hoping that prices will slide a bit further along with interest rates or their wages will go up a bit more so they can become homeowners. I am hoping to see a big surge in the Calgary market as we enter the prime time now (most people like to list their homes in the prime time too for selling) for the buyers to start picking and choosing for summer possessions and those listing numbers to go down. People change houses/neighbourhoods for a number of normal reasons too. Out grow their homes, want a change, upsize, downsize etc.

 

[MONEY]

QUOTE (UTCVenturesLtd @ Apr 5 2008, 12:20 AM) According to one realtor, those houses sit vacant as well.
43% of the properties for sale on the Multiple Listing Service are either vacant or occupied by tenants. This percentage is a really good indicator of people who don`t want to be investors anymore.
http://tinyurl.com/322qe4

 

[samwei]

QUOTE (DeniseHamilton @ Apr 4 2008, 11:52 AM) Does anyone have any thoughts on why there are so many houses for sale in Calgary? If Calgary`s population is increasing, where are all those sellers going once their houses sell?

Denise Hamilton

Hi Denise,

Check out these stats from Alberta Finance and Enterprise. http://www.finance.gov.ab.ca/aboutalberta/..._4thquarter.pdf

We had a huge surge of Inmigration into Alberta in 2006, culminating in the 2nd quarter of 2007, and those numbers have now dropped to the levels of 2002 and 2003. Our inmigration levels at the last quarter are now negative 880.

I suspect part of this surge in homes can be due to people signing up for building new homes 18 to 24 months ago..those new homes have now been completed, and the new home owners now have to sell their previous homes at this time. Some couldn`t sell their homes, so have rented them out to get cash flow. Some speculators have been caught holding the bag and can`t or won`t drop their prices fast enough to sell in a sliding market. Some investors are now hoping that they can sell at a good enough profit now so that they can re-position themselves to buy better properties at lower levels.

In Edmonton, one out of 10 available listings will sell. We now have 9500 unsold listings (homes, condos, duplexes etc) on MLS , another 4500 or so on Comfree, and the builders have about another 6000 or so homes unsold. Sales each month amount to about 1700 or thereabouts. Since the market is only as strong as the weakest seller, a domino effect is created when the first seller drops their price drastically to get it sold. We`re seeing condos downtown drop their prices by $60,000 or so from inflated highs in order to get it sold. Builders have dropped their prices anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 from inflated highs of last year to slash their inventory. Sellers are now seriously considering offers coming in at $50,000 or so under list price if they`ve been on the market for some time.

Time to buy.