By the numbers

Calgary's housing market has remained relatively unchanged this spring. With reoccurring year-over-year sales declines and benchmark price reductions receiving most of the attention, CREB®Now takes a closer look at some of the overlooked numbers to come out of the city's real estate market.

46
According to CREB®'s latest housing numbers, the average time a listing spent on the market before finding a new owner stood at 46 days in April. That's up from 43 days in March and 40 days in April 2015. With 3,127 homes in Calgary's inventory, the city currently has 2.76 months of supply, with a sales-to-new-listings ratio of 62 per cent.

Real estate industry has undergone monumental shift, says CREB®'s longest-tenured past president

When Roy Wilson describes the early days in the 1950s in which he got his start in real estate, it quickly becomes clear just how much Calgary and the real estate industry has changed in one lifetime.

"I've seen lots of ups and downs," said Wilson, who headed up CREB®'s board of directors in 1961, officially making him the organization's longest-tenured past president.

In fact, he describes today's market as "taking a kick in the teeth" but, adds confidently, "it's going to turn around."

Open to the public this weekend

The folks behind the Harmony development in Springbank lifted the veil Thursday to its new 3,700-square-foot Discovery Centre, providing new details on the much-anticipated lake community just west of Calgary, including a first look at the Phil-Mickelson designed 18-hole golf course.

The centre is intended to introduce curious homebuyers and Springbank neighbours with new details of Harmony, which will eventually be home to approximately 10,000 people. Included are interactive exhibits that provide visitors with a massive projection model of the community, detailed displays and videos on the community vision and a tribe to the Copithorne family, which originally ranched the area.

"Given current market conditions, buyers are more cautious about making a purchasing decision and want to be more informed," says Maribeth Janikowski, communications manager for Qualico Communities, with is developing the community with Bordeaux Developments.

Commercial vacancy rates near all-time highs, according to reports

A new report is summarizing Calgary's downtown office market in one word: scary.

CBRE Ltd. first-quarter results released earlier this month show that the vacancy rate in Calgary's core ballooned to 20.2 per cent during the first quarter of 2016. That's up from 11.8 per cent the same time last year, and 17.6 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2015.

Greg Kwong, who heads up the commercial real estate firm CBRE Ltd's office in the heart of the oilpatch, expects the worse is still to come for Calgary's office market as the local economy sputters in response to depressed oil prices.

Calgary to look at popular alternative to street parking

Nobody likes paying for street parking, but imagine if the money collected went directly into improvements for the community where you parked.

That's the idea behind Parking Benefit Districts (PBD), a concept gaining traction in a number of U.S. cities and may be on its way to Calgary.

"Parking Benefit Districts provide a solution to that political problem (of charging for street parking) as it creates a mechanism where the revenue generated stays in that local area," explains Greg Morrow, who sits on the CalgaryPlanning Commission and holds the Parker Professorship in Metropolitan Growth and Change with the faculty of environmental design and Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. "You can direct parking revenue into local improvements like sidewalks, or installing new themed street lights."

City's new pedestrian strategy heads for city council

With Calgary's push to increase the number of cyclists on city pathways and roadways garnering media attention, City Hall has now turned its attention toward those that get around on two feet rather than two wheels.

Set to go before council on May 2, the City's new pedestrian strategy is aimed at making Calgary a "safer, more enjoyable, and easier" for pedestrians, and could see major changes to the way all Calgarians get around the city.

"We have a very strong program around transit (and) vehicles. Then we had a cycling strategy. So a similar approach is now being levelled toward pedestrians," said project manager Andrew King. "So now we have a pedestrian strategy which really is going to focus on bringing improvements to make walking better and making conditions better for pedestrians."

BMO study says generation is still willing to wait

Canadian housing prices continue to rise, but prospective millennial first-time homebuyers are in no rush to enter the market.

According to a report released by the Bank of Montreal, while 60 per cent of millennials surveyed are tired of paying rent, 70 per cent would rather delay homeownership until they can get what they really want in a home.

This comes at a time when millennials are expecting to pay more for their first homes than previous years, exceeding $350,000 on average nationally. That figure rises to more than $465,000 and $525,000 for Toronto and Vancouver respectively.

Seeking to standardize, increase allowances and simplify applications

City council on May 2 is set to debate amendments to the land use bylaw that would alter the requirements for secondary suites and backyard suites in low-density residential districts.

The amendments aim to standardize parcel width, depth and area requirements, and increase the maximum floor area for both secondary and backyard suites. These changes would simplify the application process for applicants in districts where secondary suites can be legally developed.

The proposed amendments would delete the minimum parcel depth and minimum parcel area requirements for accessory suites. The area and depth of a parcel would otherwise regulate for single detached dwellings in all the districts where these deletions are proposed.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram helping real estate businesses build their brands

When Sarah Johnston began using social media, she didn't do it to promote her real estate business.

"My entire life is dedicated to this 'job,' and I needed an outlet," she said.

Instead, Johnston took a relaxed approach, using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share about her life and interests — including her real estate adventures — and just be herself.

But she quickly discovered the power of the medium as she began amassing followers and having conversations online. Johnston connected easily with her target market (young professionals) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as other real estate professionals on LinkedIn.

How social media is bringing Calgarians together

When the Green Line is complete, it will add 40 kilometres of track to the city's 59-kilometre LRT system and link North Pointe and Seton to downtown. Eventually, it will serve 41 million passengers annually and link Calgary's neighbourhoods like never before.

As with any large development project, the City of Calgary has been consulting with the community during the design process. And to that end, they've been relying heavily on social media to get the word out.

"We've been using a number of social media channels, primarily Facebook and Twitter," said Julie Yepishina-Geller, Green Line communications co-ordinator for the City.