Alberta real estate boom continues
The red-hot Calgary real estate market experienced the highest year-over-year increases in the country last month, according to the latest figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The average home resale in Calgary was $358,214 in May, up 43.6 per cent from the same month a year ago.
In Edmonton the average sale price hit $242,936, an increase of 22.9 per cent from May 2005.
Nationally, the average sale price of an existing home in 25 of Canada's major markets topped $300,000 in May for the first time ever.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) figures show that the average home sold for a record $303,836, up 12.9 per cent from May 2005. It was the biggest yearly increase recorded in two years.
"Recent price increases are resulting in a growing shortage of lower-priced resale home listings in a number of markets," CREA chief economist Gregory Klump noted in a statement.
"This is crimping sales in lower-price ranges and pushing up the average price for MLS home sales."
Overall, sales in the country's major markets rose 4.4 per cent to a record 37,460 units in May. On a year-to-date basis, sales activity broke records in 12 cities across the country.
Here is a sampling of average MLS home prices in May (with year-over-year changes in brackets):
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