Million-dollar home sales on the rise in Calgary
Courtesy Astoria Custom Homes The kitchen in Astoria Custom Homes’ new show home in Watermark at Bearspaw. In the Calgary area, 173 homes were sold in three months, for at least $1 million.
More million dollar single-family homes changed hands in Calgary over the first three months of 2014 than the same time a year ago, says the Calgary Real Estate Board.
From Jan. 1 to the end of March, 173 homes were sold in the Calgary area for at least $1 million.
This is a 17 per cent climb over the 149 sales from the same time in 2013.
Most of the sales came in the $1 million to $1,249,999 range — where there were 81 transactions, up from 71 a year ago. The upswing in interest for buying high-end houses extended to the new home market in the first quarter of 2014, says Astoria Custom Homes vice-president Lisa Stinson.
She calls the luxury market “very strong.”
Astoria builds in the award-winning luxury communities Artesia at Heritage Pointe south of the city and Watermark at Bearspaw to the west.
Stinson says optimism in the local economy has given buyers the confidence in purchase big-ticket homes.
“With the optimism ... good worldwide news for the most part, people are ready to move up into the luxury market,” says Stinson.
“Everyone’s home is their greatest investment and with the market now taking an uptick — all the market forecasts I’ve been to show we’re going to have a favourable economy for 2014, 2015 and in the future in 2016.
“People are reading the same kinds of economic outlooks and it’s really uplifting.”
An indication of interest from buyers is the number of people visiting show homes. In recent months, traffic at both Astoria’s show homes in Watermark and Artesia has gone up, says Stinson.
“On weekends easily we are seeing between roughly 100 to 125 groups of people through our show homes for a Saturday and Sunday,” she adds.
“Some people are just coming and getting ideas but there are definitely a lot of people asking for information.”
jskapin@calgaryherald.com
Twitter.com/CalHeraldHomes
Facebook.com/CalHeraldHomes
From Jan. 1 to the end of March, 173 homes were sold in the Calgary area for at least $1 million.
This is a 17 per cent climb over the 149 sales from the same time in 2013.
Most of the sales came in the $1 million to $1,249,999 range — where there were 81 transactions, up from 71 a year ago. The upswing in interest for buying high-end houses extended to the new home market in the first quarter of 2014, says Astoria Custom Homes vice-president Lisa Stinson.
She calls the luxury market “very strong.”
Astoria builds in the award-winning luxury communities Artesia at Heritage Pointe south of the city and Watermark at Bearspaw to the west.
Stinson says optimism in the local economy has given buyers the confidence in purchase big-ticket homes.
“With the optimism ... good worldwide news for the most part, people are ready to move up into the luxury market,” says Stinson.
“Everyone’s home is their greatest investment and with the market now taking an uptick — all the market forecasts I’ve been to show we’re going to have a favourable economy for 2014, 2015 and in the future in 2016.
“People are reading the same kinds of economic outlooks and it’s really uplifting.”
An indication of interest from buyers is the number of people visiting show homes. In recent months, traffic at both Astoria’s show homes in Watermark and Artesia has gone up, says Stinson.
“On weekends easily we are seeing between roughly 100 to 125 groups of people through our show homes for a Saturday and Sunday,” she adds.
“Some people are just coming and getting ideas but there are definitely a lot of people asking for information.”
jskapin@calgaryherald.com
Twitter.com/CalHeraldHomes
Facebook.com/CalHeraldHomes
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