Calgary home prices are expected to be even higher at the end of the year

Another day, another blow to those looking to enter the Calgary real estate market.

Prices are expected to rise again in the city at the end of 2024 Royal LePage updated forecast. This comes after aggregate Calgary home prices rose 9.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2024.

Cumulative home prices in Calgary are expected to rise by 8 per cent between September and December of this year, falling short of the 9 per cent nationally expected for the same period in Canada.

The combined price of a home in the city topped $676,000 in the first quarter of 2024, the highest first-quarter increase seen in all of Canada's major markets.

Corinne Lyall, owner and broker at Royal Lepage Benchmark, says it's all due to a lack of inventory, and it's not just a trend in the city of Calgary.

“Any of our bedroom communities, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, Strathmore, Okotoks, they're all going through the same thing,” he says.

“A low inventory market and buyers interested in moving in, but they're competing with 20 or 30 other people for that property.”

While many people who want to enter the real estate market are still being turned away, Lyall said the city will ease inventory in 2026, when most mortgages are renewed and too many homeowners are forced to downsize and list their homes.

“Builders are trying to catch up and our new homes are definitely up this year, which is good,” says Lyall. “It's probably still not enough to give people the ability to buy something.”

While real estate values ​​fell across the country last year, Calgary bucked the trend by seeing record price gains instead.

Market analysts believed Calgary would once again lead the nation in price gains this year, but that forecast has since changed as the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal are expected to outpace Alberta's largest city in terms of home price growth.