A year that added 10% to Calgary home prices ended with the thinnest inventory in memory — 2,608 homes, and detached supply under a single month.
Calgary closed 2021 with a benchmark home price of $463,900 — up 0.6% from November and 10.1% over the year. December sales were 1,737, up 44.9% from December 2020, while inventory fell 33.7% on the month to just 2,608 homes, 29% below a year earlier. That left 1.5 months of supply city-wide and 0.9 months for detached homes. Detached ended the year at $547,300, up 11.9%; apartment condos at $252,000 rose just 2.9%.
December 2021 at a glance
Calgary finished 2021 with the benchmark price at $463,900 — a 10.1% gain over twelve months, the city’s strongest year since well before the oil downturn. But the number that defined the year-end was inventory: 2,608 homes, down 33.7% in a single month and 29% from December 2020. Detached supply fell to 0.9 months. Calgary went into 2022 with less housing stock available than at almost any point in its recent history, and demand running 45% above the prior year.
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% |
Sales, listings and inventory
| Month | Sales | New listings | Inventory | Days on market | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2021 | 1,207 | 2,250 | 4,038 | 57 | $422,900 |
| February 2021 | 1,831 | 2,850 | 4,521 | 45 | $430,100 |
| March 2021 | 2,903 | 4,440 | 5,422 | 35 | $440,900 |
| April 2021 | 3,205 | 4,675 | 6,077 | 33 | $450,400 |
| May 2021 | 2,981 | 4,562 | 6,789 | 32 | $454,800 |
| June 2021 | 2,914 | 4,134 | 6,920 | 34 | $457,900 |
| July 2021 | 2,314 | 3,298 | 6,682 | 40 | $459,700 |
| August 2021 | 2,146 | 2,823 | 6,065 | 42 | $459,200 |
| September 2021 | 2,156 | 2,906 | 5,619 | 44 | $457,900 |
| October 2021 | 2,184 | 2,501 | 4,875 | 43 | $460,100 |
| November 2021 | 2,108 | 1,999 | 3,932 | 47 | $461,000 |
| December 2021 | 1,737 | 1,230 | 2,608 | 47 | $463,900 |
The headline numbers
| Metric | December 2021 | vs prev month | vs last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark price | $463,900 | ▲ +0.6% | ▲ +10.1% |
| Sales | 1,737 | ▼ -17.6% | ▲ +44.9% |
| New listings | 1,230 | ▼ -38.5% | ▲ +4.9% |
| Inventory | 2,608 | ▼ -33.7% | ▼ -29% |
| Days on market | 47 | — 0 days | ▼ -12 days |
A look by property type
| Property type | Benchmark | vs last year | Sales | Days on mkt | Months of supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | $547,300 | ▲ +11.9% | 1,007 | 39 | 0.9 |
| Semi-detached | $432,400 | ▲ +9.9% | 135 | 50 | 1.6 |
| Row / townhouse | $300,100 | ▲ +7.4% | 288 | 52 | 1.5 |
| Apartment condo | $252,000 | ▲ +2.9% | 307 | 67 | 3.4 |
How the year actually unfolded
2021 had three distinct phases. January through April was the acceleration: sales more than doubled off a quiet winter, days on market fell from 57 to 33, and prices rose 6.5% in four months. May through September was the plateau, with the benchmark moving less than 1% across five months while everyone assumed the market had topped.
October through December was the squeeze. Inventory fell in each of those months — by 13%, 19% and 34% — while sales held. Prices had barely responded by year end, which is precisely why the start of 2022 was so abrupt.
Detached supply under one month
At 0.9 months, the detached market had less than four weeks of inventory. There is no meaningful sense in which a buyer had choice at that level: you bought what was available, when it became available, on the seller’s terms.
The full-year detached gain was 11.9%, taking the benchmark from $492,000 in January to $547,300 in December — about $55,000 on a typical house over twelve months.
The condo market sat the year out
Apartment condos finished 2021 at $252,000, up 2.9% on the year and just $6,800 above where they started in January. While detached homes added $55,000, condos added less than seven thousand.
The one thing that did change was supply, which fell from 7.1 months in January to 3.4 in December. The overhang that had held condo prices down for years was finally clearing. Prices hadn’t moved yet — but the condition that kept them flat had.
What this meant going into the new year
Two forces were pointing in opposite directions. Inventory at record lows and strong demand argued for further price increases. Against that, borrowing costs had spent the whole year near historic lows and were widely expected to rise, which would reduce what buyers could qualify for.
For anyone buying, that made the qualifying number the thing to nail down rather than the price forecast. A pre-approval with a rate hold protects you against increases during the hold period, and in a market with this little supply, being ready to act mattered more than predicting the direction.
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Source: CREB, December 2021 (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.
