October 2023 Newsletter- A Gorgeous Fall Leads To An Expected Steady Market

With the leaves changing colour and falling we are welcoming the fall market. We have seen some amazing weather and with the return on snow on the mountain peaks fall has arrived and ski season will soon follow.

While the number of sales in July, August and September look very strong they also include 80 sales combined of preconstruction hotel condo units.  If we remove those sales 2023 looks quite consistent with an average number of sales per month at 34 and a low in January of 22 and a high in July at 45.

You will hear us speaking of comparing our current market to pre-covid numbers and currently we are very close to 2018 numbers but about 20% lower than sales in 2019.  We both feel a large part of this reduction is lack of choice for buyers.  The total number of active listings on the market is dramatically less with a 54% less active listings on the market in 2023 compared to 2019.  With less choice more buyers are being forced to be patient.

Looking at the Quarterly numbers we continue to see stability in the number of sales with prices increasing over the last few years with the pandemic and increased activity.  As we expected last year, the market is starting to see some consistency again with the lack of inventory being the major factor in holding back the number of sales.  We do expect that to continue this year while it would make sense to see a balancing of the active listings to move us closer to a balanced market (although we would have quite a way to go to get there)

We are still getting the question on interest rates and still feel that rising interest rates affect a smaller part of the Canmore market than elsewhere but higher interest rates will slow the 1st time buyer and move up local buyer market back down to the long term sales trend line.

Please read through the rest of our newsletter to get the added information on both the Underused Housing Tax Act along with the resent decision by the courts on the future of the Three Sisters Development.

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