Alberta Home listings surge nearly 43 per cent, published in " Calgary Business" the 03/01/08

Average price increases despite slide in sales.

MLS sales in Alberta plunged 24.8 per cent in January compared with a year ago but new listings soared by a staggering 42.9 per cent, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Friday.
Dollar volumewas also down by 17.9 per cent, but the average sale price increased by 9.2 per cent.
The association's report said new national MLS residential listings surged to a record in January, making the resale housing market more balanced than at any point in the past seven years.
Across the country, new listings were up 8.5 per cent from a year ago in January and sales dropped by 8.6 per cent. But the average price increased by 9.6 per cent _ the smallest year-over-year price increase since April last year.
In January, the average sale price of a home in Alberta was $357.574 while in Canada the average was $309.448.
"The overall increase in new listings stemmed mainly from a jump in listings in Western Canada", said Gregory Klump, chief econmist for the real estate association.
Association president Ann Bosley said weather also had an impact on Markets in January and pointed to a different housing picture in the US.
"The Mls residential sales report for January again shows the differences between the Canadian and US markets," she said.
"In january, there was an 8.9 per cent drop in the year-over-year housing price index in the United States. That was the largest decline in 20 years, while the average residential MLS price in Canada rose just over nine per cent on an annual basis."
In Alberta, the dollar volume of sales for January was $1.4 Billion, sales were 4.021 units and new listings were 11.567.
Nationally, total dollar volume of sales for January, up 0.1 per cent from a year ago. Sales were 27.465 units and new listings were 72.749.
Also on Friday, a report by TD Canada Trust said individual women homeowners in Calgary and Edmonton are more driven to get a foothold in the real estate market than in any other major city in Canada.
Two-thirds of women in the Alberta cities cite wanting to get into the housing market as a reason for buying their fisrt home, compared with an average 54 per cent of women respondents across Canada, says the Women and Home Ownership Poll. More than half of Calgary and Edmonton women (54 per cent) say they wanted to buy a home while it was still affordable compared with an average of 36 per cent across country.
Nationally, more women chose condos (42 per cent) over houses (34 per cent) for their purchase. Other choices were townhouses ( 13 per cent) and duplexes, triplexes and fourplaxes ( six per cent).
But in Calgary and Edmonton, the condo-house choice was more closely split, with 31 per cent opting for condos and 33 per cent for houses. Other options for individual Calgary and Edmonton women buyers were townhouses (23 per cent) and duplexes, triplexes and fourplaxes (10 per cent).
The poll was conducted by Ipsos Reid.