Among the crucial stressors include weak job and new mortgage growth, along with rising rates
The latest numbers from the Calgary Real Estate Board illustrated the impact of significant pressure from multiple factors, including less-than-ideal job growth rates, the upward trend in interest rates, and fewer new mortgages due to the tightened stress tests.
“Job growth in this city remains a concern, as unemployment levels remain well above levels expected for this year. Rising costs of ownership also continue to weigh on housing demand,” CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said earlier in November.
An anticipated market rebound all but failed to materialize, and the Board argued that the confluence of these factors played a large part.
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“[The recovery] was supposed to be driven by economic improvements, which we just didn’t have,” Lurie told Global News. “In fact, we just had more troubles happening in the latter part of the year.”
Total home sales last year fell by 14.5% compared to 2017. The decline was largely fuelled by a 21% annual drop in December.
Benchmark prices shrunk by 1.5% in 2018, and 3.4% year-over-year in December.
