Summer has come and gone in the Bow Valley. The mountain tops are white, the toques are starting to appear, and talk of ski season is starting. Not so quick though, we still have two months of warmer weather and some fantastic biking, hiking, fishing and climbing to do. With the kids back in school, we are starting to see our fall adult tourist season start to pick up. This is the time of year where we traditionally see the Real Estate Market pick up after the summer lull, as people get back into their regular routines. People in the tourism industry have a chance to catch their breath and think about moving and the visitors this time of year have more time to think about buying and look at properties. Enjoy you fall and feel free to contact us if you have any question about the market in Canmore & Banff or would like to know what is going on in the Bow Valley.
September already has 26 firm or conditional sales for the Bow Valley; less than half way through the month we are about to surpass August sales number. We are seeing the traditional fall market pick up with a variety of properties selling. August of 2010 was a slow month for Real Estate sales in the Bow Valley. With 27 sales this past month, we are on average with the slower months of the year. Single family homes outsold condominiums this past month which is a rarity with 16 single family home / duplexes selling and only eight apartment / townhouse units selling. Normally, we see about 50% more condominiums than single family homes selling. The sales this past August were down 35% from 2009, however much of that is due to the strong sales in 2009 as pent-up demand started to flow. Active listings have dropped from July, with well over 400 active listings still on market; this corresponds to about 16 months of inventory available in Canmore and area. Average days on market statistically have dropped, however cumulative days on market still remain very high. Many of the properties that have sold, have been on market before and have been relisted, and as such are showing a much lower average DOM than actual time on market.
The recreational market has two projects recently out of receivership come to market; Solara Resort and Innoka (formerly Big Horn Resort) in the Kananaskis Way district are selling units again. This along with other developer’s units will significantly increase the amount of Recreational Properties on market. The statistics that we use are from our Canmore Brokers Group database and do not reflect the developer’s units that are for sale. We expect to see some aggressive pricing and incentives as the marketing and sales of new units come into full swing. This can be taken as a positive sign that there are lenders and investors who have faith in the Canmore Real Estate Market and are willing to invest in, finish, and sell these projects. With the huge amount of inventory that we have, competition remains very tight to the buyer’s dollar.
The commercially zoned Hotel Condos continue to be the slowest segment of the market with only one sale in July. We can expect more inventory of this type of property to be coming to market soon and developers have recently completed some projects and new owners have taken over others. Average days on market on median sale price have risen again. Much of this can be explained by the limited amount of data and statistics can be skewed by one high sale or a property that has been on market for 400 plus days.
Canmore is continuing to see some foreclosures in the market. The majority of these properties are high-end homes and condominiums; either bought as speculative investments or rarely used second homes. Unlike America, Canadian Banks still expect to receive fair market value for their foreclosures. However, the majority are taking far less than what the home was originally listed for and trying to simply recoup any mortgage monies.
Looking forward to late spring and early summer, we see sales staying steady and prices remaining stable. Without an unforeseen jump in interest rates, it is unlikely we will see a sudden rush of buyers. Active listing will continue to sit around 400 as people who have previously taken their listings off the market, see the market stabilizing and decide to sell again.
