CALGARY -- Social distancing and other restrictions brought on by the coronavirus has taken a huge bite out of Calgary's housing market, a new report indicates.
The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) released its report on April 2020 home sales, the first full month that Albertans were told to follow the rules set out by Alberta Health in order to lessen the spread of COVID-19.
However, the huge drop shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, said Anne-Marie Lurie, chief economist for CREB.
"The combined impact of COVID-19 and the situation in the energy sector is causing housing demand to fall," she said in a release. "Demand is also falling faster than supply. This is keeping the market in buyers' territory and weighing on prices."
While the slower sales plagued all of the price ranges, the steepest plunge was in homes priced over $600,000.
It's also translating to lower prices, with the average price of a detached home in Calgary now sitting at $422,655. In April 2019, the average price of a home was $460,953.
Home sales were also very slow in a number of communities surrounding Calgary, CREB says. Only 60 homes were sold in Airdrie and 29 changed hands in Cochrane.
The slowest sales in the region, according to the report, were in Okotoks, where only 17 homes were sold and 44 units were listed throughout April 2020.
