For the fourth month in a row the Calgary market has seen inventory levels dropping. This is the result of less new inventory coming on, and sales rising, which is beginning to create more balanced markets. There has been a year over year decrease of the absorption rate in every type of market across the city. The apartment style sector remains to be one of the more challenging markets, as it has been for quite some time, and even that market has showed an increase in sales which is helping to lower the absorption rate by over 13% year over year to 8.4 months.
Communities continue to vary in sales activity across the city, with many areas continuing to show losses in the year over year benchmark price. However, reviewing the community numbers, there are more communities transitioning to show balanced prices, and others showing an increase in their benchmark prices. If we continue to see further stabilization we should see this trend continue through Spring which historically is when we see our greatest gains.
While the Provinces economy continues to rest on a knifes edge, there are growing signs of improvement. With cautious optimism we look forward to better markets ahead.