Cranbrook unit sales up 55% in the first quarter of 2014

Realtor Jason Wheeldon of Royal LePage East Kootenay Realty tells us that year-to-date Cranbrook has seen 45 single family home sales within City limits compared to only 29 sales in the first quarter of 2013.  
He reminds us that 2013 had a particularly dismal starts in his history as a REALTOR® in Cranbrook. There were a lot of economic factors playing a role including the conversion back to GST (which some buyers thought would bring house prices down), media forecasts of an impending market correction in Canada, and new rules regarding Mortgage Qualifications taking effect from their initial implementation in the previous summer. 

Average sale price Cranbrook in the first quarter was $284,254 with average days to sell of 91 days. This is up marginally from the 2013 average sale price of $282,518 and an average of 97 days to sell. Average sale prices are not always a clear indicator of market increases due to the smaller sampling of sales in the first quarter and buyer patterns on price ranges. There has been a dramatic improvement and a larger demand in the $200,000 to $300,000 price sectors.

While the 2014 market is definitely off to a stronger start there are also some good market fundamentals with the supply of available listings. Real estate prices are always subject to supply and demand. Demand of course is expected to be stable this year in the local markets however supply has seen a continual downward trend over the past four years. Currently, Cranbrook has 111 single family dwellings offered for sale within City limits.

Moving forward in 2014, we anticipate demand to be at average levels typical to that seen over a 20 year average. We estimate single family sales for the year to hover between 225 and 240 home sales. If the 2014 market predictions hold true it would reflect the average of 20 years of demand within Cranbrook. Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation has forecasts of a 15% increase in demand in the local market over the 2013 numbers.

Also some interesting trends are happening on the commercial real estate side as well in Cranbrook, so far the value of commercial building permits is at $21.2 million, which exceeds all of last year, which was $19.6 million for the entire year. This of course is due in large part to the construction of the new Sports Chek and Dollar Tree stores.

Total new construction of single family dwellings is at $2.0 million for seven projects in the first quarter and all of 2013 saw 32 projects valued at $10.3 million.