Calgary Housing Market Update: April 2023
Supply down to five weeks, homes selling in 24 days, and new listings a third below last year — the shortage was now the whole story.
In April 2023, Calgary’s benchmark home price was $545,100 — up 1.9% from March and 0.1% above April 2022, fully recovering the correction. Sales rose 10.8% on the month to 2,686 while new listings fell 31.7% year-over-year to 3,132. Inventory held at 3,234 homes, 33.6% below last April, taking supply to just 1.2 months. A typical home sold in 24 days. Row homes were at 1.0 months of supply; apartment condos at $284,500, up 4.7%.
April 2023 at a glance
April confirmed it: Calgary was back in a seller’s market and the correction had been fully erased. The benchmark reached $545,100, up 1.9% on the month and marginally above April 2022. Homes sold in 24 days. But the striking number was new listings — 3,132, down 31.7% from a year earlier. Inventory sat a third below last April at 3,234 homes, and supply fell to 1.2 months. Demand was still well short of 2022, and it no longer mattered.
Calgary prices over time
| Year | Benchmark price | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | $459,500 | — |
| 2015 | $448,800 | ▼ -2.3% |
| 2016 | $434,100 | ▼ -3.3% |
| 2017 | $433,200 | ▼ -0.2% |
| 2018 | $424,600 | ▼ -2% |
| 2019 | $415,900 | ▼ -2% |
| 2020 | $421,300 | ▲ +1.3% |
| 2021 | $463,900 | ▲ +10.1% |
| 2022 | $518,800 | ▲ +11.8% |
| 2023 (to April) | $545,100 | ▲ +5.1% |
Sales, listings and inventory
| Month | Sales | New listings | Inventory | Days on market | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | 3,063 | 4,297 | 5,214 | 25 | $546,000 |
| June 2022 | 2,839 | 4,055 | 5,404 | 27 | $543,900 |
| July 2022 | 2,249 | 3,178 | 5,343 | 31 | $539,900 |
| August 2022 | 2,133 | 2,718 | 4,783 | 35 | $531,800 |
| September 2022 | 1,894 | 2,626 | 4,461 | 39 | $527,400 |
| October 2022 | 1,857 | 2,174 | 3,889 | 40 | $523,900 |
| November 2022 | 1,642 | 1,611 | 3,116 | 40 | $520,200 |
| December 2022 | 1,201 | 1,032 | 2,222 | 46 | $518,800 |
| January 2023 | 1,198 | 1,852 | 2,451 | 42 | $516,300 |
| February 2023 | 1,737 | 2,386 | 2,747 | 33 | $526,500 |
| March 2023 | 2,424 | 3,314 | 3,235 | 27 | $535,100 |
| April 2023 | 2,686 | 3,132 | 3,234 | 24 | $545,100 |
The headline numbers
| Metric | April 2023 | vs prev month | vs last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark price | $545,100 | ▲ +1.9% | ▲ +0.1% |
| Sales | 2,686 | ▲ +10.8% | ▼ -21% |
| New listings | 3,132 | ▼ -5.5% | ▼ -31.7% |
| Inventory | 3,234 | — 0% | ▼ -33.6% |
| Days on market | 24 | ▼ -3 days | ▲ +2 days |
A look by property type
| Property type | Benchmark | vs last year | Sales | Days on mkt | Months of supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | $662,500 | ▲ +2.5% | 1,303 | 22 | 1.1 |
| Semi-detached | $590,200 | ▲ +1.8% | 233 | 25 | 1.2 |
| Row / townhouse | $379,200 | ▲ +5.2% | 416 | 22 | 1.0 |
| Apartment condo | $284,500 | ▲ +4.7% | 734 | 27 | 1.5 |
A seller’s market without a buying boom
Sales of 2,686 were 21% below April 2022 and well under the 3,205 recorded in April 2021. By historical standards this was an ordinary month for transactions.
Yet supply was 1.2 months — tighter than at any point during the 2021 boom except the peak weeks. That is the clearest possible demonstration that Calgary’s market had become a supply story. You can have a fierce seller’s market with unremarkable demand, if there is almost nothing listed.
The lock-in effect in numbers
New listings had now fallen year-over-year for eleven consecutive months, and April’s 31.7% drop was among the steepest. The mechanism was straightforward: a homeowner with a mortgage arranged in 2020 or 2021 faced a materially higher rate on any replacement loan.
The effect compounds. Fewer listings means harder buying, which means more owners decide not to sell, which means fewer listings again. Once that loop establishes itself it takes either a substantial fall in rates or a significant rise in new construction to break it.
Prices were rising everywhere now
Detached homes reached $662,500, up 2.5% year-over-year and — importantly — back above their May 2022 peak of $648,500. Row homes were $379,200, up 5.2%. Apartment condos $284,500, up 4.7%.
The segment that had actually corrected in 2022, detached housing, had recovered fully within eleven months. For buyers who had waited specifically for detached prices to fall further, the opportunity had closed.
What this meant if you were buying
April 2023 was a difficult market to enter, and the honest framing was to accept that rather than fight it. At 24 days and 1.2 months of supply, you were competing, and the competition was for a smaller pool of homes than in any recent spring.
The one genuine advantage available was preparation. A buyer with a complete, underwritten approval could write an offer with a short financing condition — or none at all, knowingly — while a buyer with an online estimate could not. That difference decided a lot of transactions that spring.
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Source: CREB, April 2023 (City of Calgary geography). Prices shown are benchmark (HPI) values. Month-over-month compares to the prior month; year-over-year to the same month last year. The board may revise past months as late sales are recorded. Prepared by Mortgages for Less.
