CALGARY -- Calgary recorded its highest number of real estate sales for February since 2014, months before the worldwide crash in oil prices.
The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) said the surge is the result of a number of factors, including pent-up demand, but historic low mortgage rates are getting many back into the market.
Angie Woodhead just listed her home in Shawnessy last Thursday. She says she thought she knew what to expect.
"I think I knew things would move pretty quickly based on what was happening," Woodhead says. "But I think the time from when the listing went live and the first request for a viewing was seven minutes."
Her realtor says the market is starting to gain back some of the losses of recent years.
"Specifically under the $600,000 range in the detached and semi-detached market are starting to sell faster, and even sometimes to competing offers and that is creating an upward pressure on the pricing," says Rachel Clark of KNAG Real Estate and Property Management.
Prices are up about four per cent over this time last year, but the gains haven't been even. Southeast Calgary homes are up around nine per cent -- while homes in the city centre are up less than two per cent.
Condos and townhouses improved, but there is still a lot of choice for would-be buyers.
"For more demand growth we need to see more sustainable recovery, in terms of our employment levels and getting migration again once the borders open," says CREB economist Ann-Marie Lurie.
Lurie says low interest rates take most of the credit, but so does a sense of confidence that the pandemic may be drawing to a close.
"Most of this demand is driven from pent-up demand, for more demand growth we need to see more sustainable recovery, in terms of our employment levels and getting migration again once the borders open," Lurie says.
