Luxury apartment condo sale kicks Canmore’s 2011 real estate scene off on a ‘positive’ note

By By Hamish MacLean Canmore Leader

Posted 1 year ago

Last week the Canmore real estate market received some good news, with the highest priced luxury apartment condo sale in Canmore for two years.

Chezlene Kocian of MaxWell Mountain Realty on Friday, Jan. 14, sold a penthouse, 2,100 square foot, two-bedroom and den apartment in Spring Creek for roughly $935,000 — the first sale above $900,000 of its kind since July of 2008.

"I would say, certainly, it's hopefully setting the trend for more positives to grow from this," Kocian said. "But it is isolated in the fact that there hasn't been a bunch of these types of property sales out there.

"I think that it's positive that people are stepping in and investing large portions of money in real estate in Canmore.

"Nobody has a crystal ball to know exactly how this year is going to unfold, but I think that we're off to a good start."

Kocian said that as the buyers of this property are at a retirement age, they won't be spending 365 days a year in town, but she said that the buyers were local. Typically condo buyers at this point are recreational users of a sort.

There is somewhat of a shortage in the market for well-priced ($650,000 and below) single-family homes, but the condo market has really changed over the last little couple of years, sales have slowed and there is a lot of inventory on the market, she said.

Most of the condo activity in the Canmore market recently has been sales of below $400,000, with isolated sales above.

According to Drew Betts of Royal LePage the median prices of condos in Canmore from 2007 through 2009 saw a slide and then an increase going into 2010.

Single-family homes have stayed closest to their peak prices in Canmore. Median sale prices peaked in 2007 in town at roughly $750,000 and they are currently about $60,000 below that level after 2010.

Their stability, Betts said, is due to full-time residents moving the market.

The market for recreational properties — for second-, third-, fourth-homeowners — is starting to move he said, but it's slower going.

In 2010, Canmore had 17 recreational unit sales.

"It's still a low number, but there are some that are moving," Betts said. "But they have to be priced very well."

The 17 units sold, Betts pointed out, are only those that are zoned such that residents cannot reside in them full-time.

There is, he said, no "black and white" on recreational sales in that respect.

And while he said it's too early to claim a recovery in the real estate market in Canmore, this year over last builds on that promise.

"Even though there was a very small growth, year over year, from 2010 to 2009, we're definitely starting to see more stability," Betts said. In 2008, there were only 250 total sales, and Canmore bumped up to 323 in 2009, and now 330 in 2010.

"The sense is that a lot more buyers are feeling comfortable again, which is great."

Overall inventory levels are down currently, from a yearly perspective. Canmore's gone from 397 listings on the market in January 2009, to 322 listings to begin the year in 2010 to 306 to start the year in 2011. (In 2008, there were only 204 listings on the market at this time of year.)

"We're knocking it down slowly," Betts said.

Canmore is moving back towards a balanced market, though Betts noted that typically Canmore does not remain a balanced market for long. While it's still a buyer's market in town, it has been historically a seller's market.

"We're starting to see that the sellers are a lot more aware of what the market has done, or is doing" he said.

He said that if trends continue, it will be "interesting to see" when Canmore switches back to being a seller's market, though he said, that's unlikely to happen in 2011.

In 2011, he said he would like to see, "continued smart investing in Canmore": those buyers who come to the market looking to benefit as residents.

"We're seeing a lot more buyers who are truly inspired and who want to live in and invest in Canmore.

"They're looking at the investment as more of a personal investment than (merely) a financial investment."

hamish@canmoreleader.com