2019 Looks to Continue to be Very Active!
As we look forward to 2019, the Canmore market is staying very active with continued high demand from buyers looking for the right property, and listing inventory staying below 200. Starting the year, we have 4.46 months of inventory based on average sales from 2018. Going back, the last two years had a much lower inventory to start the year making the months of inventory at 2.96 and 2.64. Three years ago, we were above the 6 months of inventory threshold at 6.67 months. So, what does all this mean? We expect 2019 to stay quite strong with the resale market and expect a continued increase in listing inventory over the next few months. With the current supply of buyers that are ready to buy just waiting for the right product to come to market we feel it will lead to a strong first two quarters in 2019.
We enjoy looking at the annual statistics as it typically paints a much better and clearer image of the trends in the market as our small market size means that monthly and sometimes even quarterly numbers can easily get askew with the lack of data. The most significant change was in the recreational market (hotel condos) as we saw the average and median price increases at 8.18% and 17.78% respectively. Our condo market saw the average price go up a very small amount, but the median price go down slightly. For single family homes we saw the average go down 7.57% but the median price increase just under 2%. Duplexes has a slight increase in both average and median sales, and many saw a more significant increase as we saw many premier R2 lots come to market and sell in 2018. With the total sales in 2018 the dataset is still not huge with a total number of sales in all segments under 500.
2018 was the 6th highest number of sales since we started collecting data 20 years ago. The average number of sales per year since we started collecting the data is 432 per year very similarly the last 10 years has an average of 430. The last 5 years has seen the average go up significantly with the average being 503. This does show a slower than average year in 2018 and again much of that may have to do with sales of new product which is not accounted for in the statistics.
As we look forward to 2019, the Canmore market is staying very active with continued high demand from buyers looking for the right property, and listing inventory staying below 200. Starting the year, we have 4.46 months of inventory based on average sales from 2018. Going back, the last two years had a much lower inventory to start the year making the months of inventory at 2.96 and 2.64. Three years ago, we were above the 6 months of inventory threshold at 6.67 months. So, what does all this mean? We expect 2019 to stay quite strong with the resale market and expect a continued increase in listing inventory over the next few months. With the current supply of buyers that are ready to buy just waiting for the right product to come to market we feel it will lead to a strong first two quarters in 2019.
We enjoy looking at the annual statistics as it typically paints a much better and clearer image of the trends in the market as our small market size means that monthly and sometimes even quarterly numbers can easily get askew with the lack of data. The most significant change was in the recreational market (hotel condos) as we saw the average and median price increases at 8.18% and 17.78% respectively. Our condo market saw the average price go up a very small amount, but the median price go down slightly. For single family homes we saw the average go down 7.57% but the median price increase just under 2%. Duplexes has a slight increase in both average and median sales, and many saw a more significant increase as we saw many premier R2 lots come to market and sell in 2018. With the total sales in 2018 the dataset is still not huge with a total number of sales in all segments under 500.
2018 was the 6th highest number of sales since we started collecting data 20 years ago. The average number of sales per year since we started collecting the data is 432 per year very similarly the last 10 years has an average of 430. The last 5 years has seen the average go up significantly with the average being 503. This does show a slower than average year in 2018 and again much of that may have to do with sales of new product which is not accounted for in the statistics.
Sales for Recreational or hotel condos stayed very strong just off the all time high in 2017. This market continues to have high demand even with the continued challenge of financing.
We are excited for 2019 and it will be interesting to see how the activity level is through the year. Until last year the market was quite steady throughout the year but last year saw a decrease for the first and last quarter, but the second largest quarter ever recorded was Q2 in 2018. I think a lot of this had to do with an incredibly low inventory to start 2018 which is not the case this year. We are still starting the year with a seller’s market but an increase in inventory will give more choice and selection for the buyers looking through the first quarter.
We hope to see a stronger Alberta economy in 2019 and see a potential for more international buyers should the Canadian dollar stay at the current value against the American dollar.
We are excited for 2019 and it will be interesting to see how the activity level is through the year. Until last year the market was quite steady throughout the year but last year saw a decrease for the first and last quarter, but the second largest quarter ever recorded was Q2 in 2018. I think a lot of this had to do with an incredibly low inventory to start 2018 which is not the case this year. We are still starting the year with a seller’s market but an increase in inventory will give more choice and selection for the buyers looking through the first quarter.
We hope to see a stronger Alberta economy in 2019 and see a potential for more international buyers should the Canadian dollar stay at the current value against the American dollar.
