Calgary's Real Estate Market and Alberta's Surplus
Posted Nov 18, 2008 @ 6:41 pm, Viewed by 722 Visitors, Read 752 Times.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 normal cycle and time of year it can also be due to customer fear of declining markets.
I wanted to dig a bit deeper into Calgary's market and take a good look at some other market indicators for Calgary for instance the unemployment rate as well as the availability of new jobs. This is what I found;
Calgary's unemployment rate is 3.8% which is up 0.8% from the same time last year and up 0.1% in October 2008 from September 2008. That being said the participation rate in the labour force also increased by 2% increasing the total employment rate to 75% up 1.3% from the same time last year. Canada's national average for unemployment is 6.2% in October of 2008.
Overall we see a strong employment rate in Calgary with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
Calgary's population has grown by 1,600 people from September 2008 to October 2008. With the influx of people to Calgary what is our current job market like?
I signed on to Monster.ca to take a look at the number of full time jobs available in Calgary and found a total of 2,134. When I narrowed my search to include only jobs with a professional status my search narrowed to 1,160 results which is still a decent number of jobs available when we compare that number to the number of people moving to Calgary.
It still appears that Calgary's economy is strong at this point in time. However, we have yet to feel the effects of dwindling oil prices and projects that have been put 'on hold'. The combination of these two things will no doubt have an effect on our employment rates as well as the numbers of jobs available.
Alberta still does have some option though. Today it was announced that the 2008 projected surplus of 8.5 billion dollars has been scaled back by a staggering 6.5 billion to 2 billion dollars. While it is a drastic decrease in funds let us not forget that we are still operating at a surplus a wonderful situation to be in when you look at the major world economies all entering into deficits to offset the credit crisis. One of Alberta's tactics might be to revisit the Royalty increase set to begin in 2009 to promote projects that may otherwise be shelved.
As we all know the Real Estate market is very localized and while Calgary’s current market has taken a big hit we are in a position for the market to stabilize. These next few months will determine the future of Calgary’s economy as well as the global economy. While many people are pulling back now waiting to see what is going to occur the general reasons for home buying remain the same and those include changing life circumstances such as job, marriage, divorce, kids, death and so on.
Resources: www.statcan.ca
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Lina Horner, RE/MAX House of Real Estate
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Real Estate is my passion being a Realtor is my career and helping people is my goal. Read More
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