Calgary Housing Market's Blog: All Categories

The last time Canadians have seen a bank rate of 1.50% was actually July of 1955 but in August, 1958 the bank rate was 1.51% so that was pretty close.  The bank rate is now lower than it was during the 1930's when it sat at 2.5% for 10 years. (Source: Bank of Canada, Department of Monetary and Financial Analysis)

The Bank of Canada has now admitted a recession and all eyes are on stabilizing the economy rather than target inflation rates.  Policy over rate cuts has drastically changed since the Great Depression and hopefully we have learned from past mistakes but these are unprecedented times so drastic action is what is demanded.   Canada now sits and waits to see what will happen come January 26 when parliament reconvenes and the budget is presented. …

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Yes I am a real estate blogger but I thought it important to mention the attacks that have happened in Mumbai, India.  My concern is for the people who have lost loved ones, been injured or have witnessed others being killed.  I think that when terrorists strike in such random attacks we should all be traumatized. 

Is this something that we are going to begin to witness more and more of?   When we look back in time we see that great recessions have typically ended with war.   Yes there are already wars happening but will they escalate?  Will people need someone to blame?  

My hope is that we will learn from past mistakes.  We have seen unprecedented global cooperation so far in attempting to deal with the global credit crisis.  Is this a start?   I am…

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Since my latest blog about Alberta's economy it has been announced that the Albera government will rollback the royalty increases in Albert to stimulate projects in our energy sector.  I thought that I would post this article from The Toronto Star to explain this announcement.  In my previous post I looked at Calgary's economy and had suggested that with dwindling oil prices we have yet to see the fall out of the economic crisis.  I also mentioned that Alberta is in a strong position to stimulate our economy operating with a 2 billion dollar surplus and an opportunity to change the royalty increase announced this year that delayed some large oil projects.  Current oil prices are roughly equivalent to prices of January 2007 (January 26, 2007 oil closed at…

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I am sure that we have all been watching the markets in the recent weeks.  With massive bailout packages being announced by all of the world's largest economies and banks declaring bankruptcy it is something unlike any of us have ever seen.  The roller-coaster that is the stock market right now has somewhat taken our eyes off of the current state of the real estate market.

  When looking at the Calgary Real Estate market we see for the first time in over a year a declining inventory.  While we still remain in a strong buyer's market we at least are seeing some relief in the number of new listings being added to the inventory.  We are also seeing a decrease in sales this year from last as well as this month from last month.  Partly attributed to the… Read Full Post