As Calgary's housing prices climb, what does $1 million buy you in 2024? – Calgary Herald

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Million-dollar homes in Calgary aren’t the symbols of luxury they used to be, a new report says — though homebuyers with that budget are still getting more bang for their buck than in other Canadian cities.

It’s a show of Calgary’s decreasing but still-relative affordability compared to cities like Vancouver, where $1 million nets the average buyer about 900 square feet of space.

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Rapidly escalating prices in the Calgary housing market over the past few years have increased the number of homes going for more than $1 million, according to a new report by Royal LePage, due in large part to the unprecedented influx of out-of-province Canadians to Alberta.

A large number of Calgary homebuyers in the $1-million segment are scaling up from their previous digs, the report added.

“We’re definitely seeing the effects of what has been a few years of continuing price appreciation with our low inventory,” said Doug Cabral, a Calgary-based sales representative for Royal LePage Benchmark.

Overall, homes in that price range make up a small but growing piece of the pie.

Homes selling for more than $1 million last year made up about five per cent of all sales, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) — and around nine per cent of all detached sales.

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Over the past decade, they’ve made up about three per cent of all sales and five per cent of detached-home sales.

“It still is a small segment based off our total sales activity,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist at CREB. But she added there’s been outsized inventory increases in the $700,000 to $1-million range.

Last year, that range made up 28 per cent of all sales — a rapid expansion from the 21 per cent posted in 2022.

“It wasn’t that long ago most of your homes were kind of in that $500,000 to $600,000 range,” Lurie said, adding the leap was partly due to large supply increases in the $700,000 to $1-million segment.

“We’re just not seeing supply in the lower price ranges anymore.”

The benchmark home price in Calgary rose 5.8 per cent to $556,975, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board. The price of a detached home swung nearly eight per cent to $675,783, while the semi-detached market saw near-equivalent increases to $604,933.

Detached, semi-detached homes ‘still king in Calgary’

Despite increasing prices, most Albertans believe $1 million is enough to meet their housing needs — something that can’t be said for the majority of British Columbians and Ontarians.

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Calgary homebuyers in the $950,000 to $1,050,000 range are, on average, getting over 400 more square feet than in the rest of Canada: In Calgary, the average home in that range was 2,179 square feet, well above the national average of 1,760 square feet.

Unlike metros such as Toronto and Vancouver, condos in Calgary aren’t yet reaching into seven digits, Cabral said, meaning most homes in the million-dollar range are single-detached or, in the inner-city, townhomes.

“If you own a piece of dirt here, whether it’s an attached property or detached property, you own a lot,” he said. “That is still king in Calgary.”

Cabral added there’s “absolutely” a market for million-dollar condominiums, and many upscale buildings are now under construction due to increased confidence in the city’s real estate market. But they still make up a tiny piece of the market: Just 55 condos in Calgary last year sold for more than $1 million, according to CREB.

Vancouverites are getting the least bang for their buck. Homes with a $1-million price tag provided only 900 square feet, 1.8 bedrooms and 1.6 bathrooms. It was the only major city to provide less than two bedrooms at that benchmark.

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Toronto, also considered one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets, on average provides 1,218 square feet of space, with 2.8 bedrooms and 1.9 bathrooms.

“I’ve got people that are selling out of townhomes in the (Greater Toronto Area) for $1.4 million, and they’re coming in, buying a detached home here (that’s) renovated for $900,000 to $1 million, and they’re overjoyed about it,” Cabral said.

That matched up with low confidence among British Columbians and Ontarians that $1 million is enough to meet their housing needs: Only 18 per cent of British Columbians and 30 per cent of Ontarians believe that budget is enough.

Fifty-six per cent of Albertans, meanwhile, still feel a $1-million budget would satisfy their needs.

“We’ll call it the Alberta Advantage right now — you’re able to get a lot more dirt attached to it in that million-dollar price point,” Cabral said.

mscace@postmedia.com
X: @mattscace67

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