Posts Tagged ‘Properties in Canmore’

Canmore real estate for August was yet another month of consistent sales throughout town with a total of 26 properties selling this month.  Read the rest of this entry »

Another month is in the books for Canmore real estate and again we had a consistent month of sales in town even with what I perceived to be a quieter month for showing activity. Read the rest of this entry »

Summertime in Canmore

The 2010 Canmore real estate market is officially six months old, or six months complete for the year, so I thought for my post this month I’ll outline the stats for the month of June and then tally up the results for the 6 months ending June 30th to show how our market has performed so far this year.

Canmore real estate sales in June started at a steady pace and seemed to dwindle as the month went on, the same can be said for real estate activity and showings.  At the end of the month we had 30 sales in total and the breakdown was as follows:

Apartments: 3

Half Duplexes: 2

Recreational: 4

Single family: 9

Town Homes: 11

Triplex: 1

The average square foot selling price for a property in Canmore in June was $376 a square foot and the average selling price in Canmore for property was $604,000.  The range of properties sold in Canmore this month was incredibly varied from $100,000 recreational property all the way to a $2,250,000 estate home and everything in-between.

As a reminder of previous months I’ve listed each month and the number of sales that were made for the month in the Canmore real estate market: (to see full reports on each month click on Canmore real estate and scroll through to find the month)

January: 26

February: 25

March: 37

April: 32

May: 27

June: 30

As you can see the numbers show a fair amount of consistency in the number of sales month over month and I think it’s fair to say that level in the Canmore real estate market is the new up when it comes to sales this year.  So the big questions everyone is asking still relates to sales prices.  How have prices changed when compared with 2009 and have we finished correcting as a market yet?  Below I’ve outlined the average selling price per housing category for 2009 and compared it with the average selling price for the first 6 months of 2010:

2009                          2010

Apartments:    $387,000                    $370,000

Fourplex:         $578,000                     $572,000

Half Duplex:   $744,000                      $783,000

Town Home:  $509,000                      $502,000

Single Family: $758,000                     $827,000

Land:               $699,000                       $419,000

Recreational:  $242,000                       $212,000

(All figures rounded to nearest ’000)

Canmore real estate in 2009 had an overall average selling price of $569,705 and we sold 314 properties for the year. In 2010 the overall average selling price of property in Canmore for the first 6 months is $586,251 and we’ve sold 173 properties year to date – almost one home a day.  If we compare the first 6 months of 2009 to the first 6 months of 2010 we see a very comparable picture.  The first quarter of 2009 was an incredibly tough few months for real estate in Canmore, nothing was moving, but in the second quarter we started to see the market slowly revive and by the end of June 2009 we had 117 sales on the books at an overall average selling price of $582,190.

So, apples to apples the first 6 months of 2010 were busier for sales and activity in Canmore but the average selling price of property remains consistent with that of the first 6 months of 2009.  Going forward I see July as being a quiet month for sales and activity, the number of Canmore home showings that are being booked by Realtors has fallen dramatically over the past couple of weeks – a sign that summer has arrived and people are turning their attention to family vacations rather than property purchases.

I believe we are still correcting as a market, the properties that are being priced aggressively are winning the battle to find Buyer’s willing to purchase them and price is the driving factor for a Buyer’s decision making process.  As long as our inventory continues to climb, as it has the past two months Buyer’s are subject to great choice and the Sellers that are showing value for money to the Buyer’s will continue to sell their homes.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the Canmore real estate market, as always you can leave your comments below.

Boxes, Boxes and more Boxes

Over the last few years I’ve helped numerous clients sell and purchase homes in Canmore.  Throughout the sales process I help them organize their affairs that relate to the transaction such as property inspections, condominium document reviews, marketing the property on-line, showing the home and numerous other services.

When I was in the hotel business I’d organize my departments to run efficiently and effectively.  To ensure the hotel stayed ahead of it’s competition I’d go to other hotel’s and restaurants to experience for myself the services and quality of product they offered.  By immersing myself in new experiences I found I became a better manager and leader and the hotel became a better property.

Why do I bring up my previous career? well, I’m currently experiencing a side of the real estate business that all my clients go through, that I’ve never really thought of before – packing and the actual move itself.

I’ve lived in the same home in Canmore for the past 7 years and when we moved in to our current home the Hotel chain I was working for at the time paid for the moving company to pack and move all our personal property, so I haven’t experienced ‘the move’ in a good 10 years.

When I help clients sell or purchase a property I rarely, if ever, think of the stress that the actual move brings.  I understand the stress of the transaction – negotiating a price, working through the conditions, finding financing and the nail-biting tension of a Seller when waiting to see if a Buyer will remove the conditions.  I see that stress and work through it with clients daily.  I don’t necessarily see the stress that comes with packing boxes, organizing moving vans, calling all the utility companies, ensuring you have the right insurance, finding boxes large enough to fit your possessions in (this is big one for us!) and living with the mounds of boxes in the house while preparing to move.

Well, all that is currently changing, last week we sold our home and bought a new one.  A few days after all the deals had gone unconditional my wife took the boys on a 10 day vacation to see her family in Ontario – a vacation that was planned a long time in advance of us even thinking about selling or purchasing a home.  When my wife returns from vacation we have exactly 5 days before we move, so most of the packing and all the above list has fallen on my shoulders, much to my wife’s discomfort. My wife has always been the better organizer in the family and is more than a little worried that nothing will be done when she returns from vacation.

Experiencing how stressful the actual move can be for people is something I think as Realtor’s we tend to forget, we all know that purchasing a property is a stressful experience because it tends to be the largest financial purchase we make in our lifetime, but we hear little about how stressful the organization and execution of the actual move is on a person, couple or family.

I have 11 days of packing and organization left before we move in to our new home, which in the long run is going to decrease our stress as a family as we have twice the room we have now, which is good for everyone. But, for the next 11 days I’ll try and remember all the experiences I go through so I can keep them fresh in my mind so when my clients are going through the same stressful situation I can better relate to them and help them further through a very tough few weeks.

Moving house is so much more than the transaction of purchasing or selling a property and just as I sought out experiences to help me become a better manager and leader in the hotel business this experience is certainly going to make me a better and more compassionate Realtor.

The View from Silver Creek Lodge

Canmore real estate sales in April were slower than March and the real estate market in May continued the trend of slowing down.  In April we sold 33 properties in Canmore and in May we ended the month with 26 sales.  The first week of May was a strong week of activity, mostly carried over from April and as the month progressed activity in the Canmore real estate market slowed significantly.  The breakdown of property that sold in Canmore in May is as follows:

Apartments sold: 4 at an average square foot price of $350

Four Plex sold: 2 at an average square foot price of $343

Town Homes: 5 sold at an average square foot price of $370

Half Duplex: 1 sold at an average square foot price of $348

Single Family Homes: 11 sold at an average square foot price of $423

Recreational Condos: 3 sold at an average square foot price of $326

Our active listings on the Canmore real estate market increased significantly this past month too and we are now back up to 385 active listings as of June 1st.  Pricing is still the key strategy for Seller’s, if the property is perceived to be priced correctly in the market by Buyer’s the property receives attention, if the property is perceived by Buyer’s as too high showings are typically slower.

As we move into June in Canmore we are hoping for two scenario’s to change.  First we need the weather to improve so that more people want to spend time in the mountains and secondly, if the weather improves we are hoping it brings our Canmore real estate market activity back up to the levels we saw in March and April.  We currently have 12 conditional sales as we move into June which is another strong start to a month.