As you can likely imagine, real estate continued to limp along last month mired in the economic slowdown and slump that is COVID-19. The sales numbers for April are in, which was the first ‘full month’ that physical distancing measures were in place, and across Calgary we saw a 63% drop from the same period last year with only 573 completed transactions.
Looking at Lake Bonavista specifically sales fared much better than average and were down just under 36% compared to April of last year as there were 9 completed transactions, 7 detached single-family homes and 2 apartment condominiums. The actual days on market numbers were higher however as they settled out at 76.1 for the month compared to just 38.5 last April.
Despite all the low sales numbers and gloomy details there is one very important statistic that has shown substantial improvement recently and that is the number of showings being booked by prospective buyers.
Looking at the chart you can see that this weekend marked the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that the showing activity has risen past the benchmark ‘first week of the year’ activity level. We feel this is a very important achievement that will hopefully mark the beginning of the real estate activity recovery and an upward trend that will continue moving into the phased re-opening of the Alberta economy, of course barring any major setback.
We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops and keep you updated, there are parallels to other slowdowns and recessions in recent history but nothing close to the scale and effect that COVID-19 has had so we are taking things as they come.
We are always here for you and all our clients and contacts as we navigate through this pandemic together, whether it’s real estate related information or otherwise so please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have.
Stay healthy, stay informed and stay grounded.