This summer, the hottest commodity in town isn’t the perfect pair of cowboy boots or a well-broken-in Stetson — it’s a detached home on a nice lot or a perfect downtown condo with a view.

As the curtain rises on the 10-day extravaganza that is the famed Calgary Stampede, homebuyers are also stampeding to snap up real estate in Alberta’s largest city.
“It started taking off around February, and it’s been like this all year,” said Calgary real estate agent Matt Halladay, who has been helping buyers navigate what has become Canada’s hottest real estate market in 2023.

That means homes selling often the day they’re listed, he said, for well over the asking price — and occasionally sight unseen, as sellers accept a bid before the scheduled viewings even start.

“It’s common to see anywhere from four to 17 offers (on one listing),” Halladay said.

“The most I’ve heard of, on one that we lost out on, was 26 offers.”

The frenzy in Calgary — the city set an all-time record for home sales in June, up 11 per cent year-over-year, with apartment sales alone up an eye-popping 48 per cent — flies in the face of what’s happening nationally.

The real estate story across the country for most of the year thus far has been a decrease in activity due to the impact of higher interest rates.

While home sales in major markets like Toronto and Vancouver started picking up steam again this spring, home sales nationwide in May — the most recent month for which national statistics are available — were up just 1.4 per cent year-over-year, compared with Calgary’s 11 per cent. 

And while prices have fallen nationwide — the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) aggregate composite home price index for the month of May sat 8.6 per cent below 2022 levels — they are sizzling in Calgary. 
The average selling price of a home in Calgary last month increased by almost seven per cent from a year earlier to $552,273, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board.

“I think we’ve been a bit surprised at how strong it’s been,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist for the Calgary Real Estate Board.