We finally saw the levee break as far as sales activity is concerned with 12 completed transactions in August making it the busiest month to date in 2020 and the highest total since last October’s 18 sales. It has been a bit of a rough ride this year in Dalhousie with no other month posting double digit sales and year-to-date just 52 total transactions compared to 74 through the first 8 months of 2019.
Of the 12 sales, 8 were detached single family homes ranging from $380K on the low end to $670K on the upper end, 1 was a residential semi-detached/duplex sale at $356K and the remaining 3 were condominium apartments in the Phoenician and Fortress complexes ranging from $148K-$316K.
The overall actual Days On Market (DOM) numbers dropped slightly from 94.5 days last month to 89.2 this month, the DOM for detached single family homes was 90.9, the lone duplex spent 102 days on the market and the apartment condominium category came in lower at 80.3 days. The current number of active listings also fell noticeably from 40 to 29 while the months of available inventory also slipped from a rather high 7.5 months to a much more respectable 4.3 months based on the rolling sales average from the past half year.
Switching to the overall Calgary market we continued to see post-COVID lockdown resiliency with 1,573 total sales down just 7 transactions from August 2019 which is quite positive considering the challenges 2020 has presented.
Looking forward, it will be very interesting to see what the Fall and Winter markets look like after the remainder of the pent up COVID-shutdown demand subsides and the longer-term effects and trends begin to emerge. Speaking to this, the Financial Post published an article recently regarding mortgage payment deferrals indicating banks believe there is not be a looming ‘Deferral Cliff’, contrary to what other media reports have suggested.
“We’re not looking at seeing a big spike in foreclosures,” Bolger (RBC CFO Ryan Bolger) said at the Barclays conference. “We expect that these mortgages, as they come off the deferral programs, to remain the homes of our clients.”
This echoes sentiments we have had about the deferral period with Canadians’ historically steadfast commitment to hold on to their homes at all costs. Hopefully, this is the case as a large spike in defaults and foreclosures is never a good thing, for the real estate market, the overall economy or the individual homeowners themselves.
We are always here for all our clients and contacts and are more than happy to answer any real estate questions so please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.