September 2022 Canmore Real Estate Market News
The ongoing shift in the Canmore real estate market seems to have started tapering with the decline in sales beginning to level off month over month and inventory levels coming to a plateau. August is typically a slower month for real estate in the Bow Valley and this year was no exception as both buyers and sellers seemed to take a pause. Residential sales month over month only declined by one sale from 28 sales in July to 27 and August; short term rental sales also saw a decline month of a month going from 16 sales in July to 10 in August. When we look back at pre-Covid more normal markets, August 2019 saw 48 sales in total compared to 37 this month while there were 280 active listings at that time. Currently there are 117 residential listings down month over month and 59 short term rental listings also down month over month. Year over year, August sales were down from2021 when there were 45 for residential properties and 21 for short term sales; year over year residential listings are up by 12 listings from 105 last September. When looking at the graphs, you will note a significant declined in the short term rental average and median sale prices. This is because there were only 10 sales last month, five of which were fractional ownership units bringing down both the median and average sale price. September is shipping up to what we would traditionally expect of a seasonal market with 19 firm sales so far this month and 21 sales showing as pending. It appears after a summer of enjoying the beautiful weather, traveling, and getting outside buyers are back looking for homes in the mountains.
There has been some softening of prices in certain segments of the market. However, when looking at both average and median sale prices, there has been significant price increases since our pre-Covid fall market of 2019. Townhomes for example had a three month average sale price in August of 2019 of $689,000 and a three month average sale price in 2022 of $1,104,000. Even with some softening of prices overall values are well above those of our pre-Covid market. Moving into our seasonal fall market, we would traditionally see an increase in active listings through to December. However, with the fall market picking up, well priced good quality product is quickly being absorbed by the market. On the residential side, active listings are still well below our long term averages. The continued rise in interest rates may see some pullback in the short term rental market as many buyers are using non traditional lenders with higher rates. Revenues for these types of properties have also picked up this year with the return of international tourism.
