In the past 10 days, the real estate market has suddenly heated up in the Foothills region. Multiple offers are becoming common to the point where some sellers of hot properties are holding off for a couple days before responding to buyers offers which is allowed by the rules of engagement we are governed by. We are in a market situation we have not seen for many years. It is reminiscent of 2005/06/07. I believe we have a number of factors at play which have created the perfect storm; super low interest rates, the need for people to change up their space to accommodate home office(s) or home schooling, a certain percentage of people on the lower leg of the economic K curve that need to liquidate, and finally, investment organizations may be targeting our region due to our depressed market pricing which is the type of match that lights the fire and creates the type of market conditions we see ourselves in. How long this market will last is a very good question and requires some serious crystal ball gazing.
If you are thinking of selling, now is a great time to take advantage of the extremely limited supply of homes and acreages for sale. There are only 51 detached homes for sale right now in Okotoks and normally for this time of year we would have 125+. It looks like we should sell about 40 this month. That is double Jan 2020. Calgary only has 1,500 detached homes for sale. In the past 2 weeks, 572 have sold. That is more than double Jan 2020. We are tracking at 1.25 months of inventory to sales. A balanced market is 3-3.5 months of inventory to sales. Pricing hit a 7 year low in June 2020. Price gains have been made in the past 6 months. How high home prices will go will depends on supply and demand.