Thankfully, it’s not the potential for earthquakes! Actually, according to a recently released report, they are the number one ranked real-estate markets in Canada and the U.S., respectively. This comes from a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers report forecasting upcoming real estate trends. It has some very interesting things to say about what happened in 2013 and what’s going to happen in 2014.

CANADA’S NO. 1 REAL ESTATE MARKET

The report, which surveys a wide variety of real estate industry professionals across North America, once again unanimously voted Calgary the number 1 Canadian market. The city came out tops in three categories: investment, development and homebuilding. We were number 1 for investment and development last year too, but this year we took all three categories.

IN SPITE OF ADVERSITY…

That’s pretty incredible, especially when you factor in the terrible flooding in the summer and cold weather at year end. And Calgary is not the only Alberta city on the rise: the survey puts Edmonton in second place, nationwide.

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2014

Ok, so that’s the year in review, but what about looking forward? Are we likely to have a third year at the top? Well, the report projects suggests that while there might be some slowing down of the economy, it won’t effect the real estate market. It predicts economic growth at 3.4 in 2014. It also indicated that although employment growth is expected to slow it will remain good into the coming year. However, slower employment growth will result in slower population growth (2.1 percent in 2014 is the projection) and, according to the report, this will translate to a decline in housing starts. It also suggests that “as Calgary looks for more urbanization, look for condos to turn into rental stock,” and for this reason the view is that in 2014 Calgary will be a good place to buy rental investments.

BRAGGING RIGHTS

Looking back through our blog you’ll see that last year around this time we were writing about how the Calgary real estate market was leading the nation. We’re happy to see that those bragging rights are ours again this year!