Inventory and Interest Rates UP

I think we are in for a challenging summer as Sellers and Listers in this volatile market. Interest rates did go up a bit today, and hopefully, some buyers will rush around to purchase in the next month so that they can lock into the lower rate. The new statistics have been released by CREB, here is a quote from the front page, "The number of single family homes sold in May 2010 in the city of Calgary was down 20 per cent from the same time a year ago, and condominium sales saw a decrease of 21 per cent from the same time a year ago." Although average and median sale prices have gone up - I believe there were more sales of higher end properties - the inventory is WAY up. As a matter of fact, the last time we saw this amount of inventory (12,989) was in July 2008! Yikes!

The next month is going to be paramount in getting the most we can for any property in the city. Inventory will most probably increase over the next couple of months, driving prices down. Some economists are expecting drops of up to 10%, I would hope closer to 5% (or less.)