Home sales in Calgary dropped by 32.37% last month (September 2015) compared to a year ago, according to the latest numbers from the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB). The average price of a home in Calgary also dipped from $486,678 last year to $457,642 this year — or by -5.97%.
Meanwhile the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) reported that new housing starts for the Calgary region also showed a significant drop of 15% (single & multi-family) from 2014 levels. Total new starts for the region for September was 1299! Province wide housing starts are down 21.5% versus September 2014.
Should you be experiencing negative changes in the payment behavior of your customers CASE can help! As a collection agency with offices in Edmonton and Calgary we can apply our best professional efforts in order to make your past due accounts receivable a top priority.
Some pundits are pointing to the new housing construction numbers, although down, as evidence of the continuing resiliency in the Alberta housing market. However, once considering the ongoing uncertainty of oil prices, slowing economy, reduced rates of interprovincial in-migration and little to get excited about on the horizon over the next 12 months, from our point of view we suspect that any of those who may be preaching resiliency are most likely looking to unload real estate assets via the “greater fool theory”.
DISCLAIMER: If you find the above somewhat pessimistic, cut us some slack. Remember, we are debt collectors. Nonetheless, we have always looked upon the trends within both our commercial and consumer debt portfolios as simply a small non-scientific microcosm of the economy at large. And although we concur, there are far smarter heads and prognosticators out there than us all we can rely on is the experience that comes from actually being out there mucking it up every day.