Year in review

Well since Entertainment Tonight, TSN, and a bunch of other people are doing a year in review, I have decided that I will do one myself. Of course I will not have the final number of houses sold in Vulcan and the average sale price until next month, but I can give some insight as to how the market went. The residential market in real estate had another slow year. We had a few highlight weeks where we were writing one or two offers each week for a month or so, but that was not the norm. The inventory numbers are down somewhat, but from what I have seen the slight decrease is due to owners taking their properties off of the market and either renting them out, or just leaving them vacant, ready to try again in the new year. New home sales are at a stand still. There is just not the market for builders to come in and build and hope to make a profit right now. There is no demand for it. I mean there have been a couple places built, or in the process of being built right now, but there is certainly no line up for people trying to get in to these places. We have several residential lots for sale, but not getting any bites from people or builders ready to make a move. There are no new jobs in Vulcan or the surrounding area to bring in people. In order for Vulcan to grow without new jobs, the market in the larger centres, such as in Calgary, needs to take off. The prices there need to be sky high so that people will look at smaller centres to live and work from home, or commute when need be. Vulcan is about 12 to 18 months behind the Calgary real estate market. With the Calgary market starting to show some growth, I think that we will see a better market here in 2013. How much more growth will we see? That I am not sure of. Calgary prices did not go crazy like the last boom. Prices seem to be moving gradually. This is good for the market. Consistency is good. Much more sustainable in the long run. Vulcan is a nice little community. We have a hospital, major highway access between two large centres (Calgary and Lethbridge), an 18 hole golf course, and affordably priced housing. Last year the average house price that sold was around the $171,000 mark. I am quite confident that the average house price for 2012 will be more than that once all of the tabulations are complete, but that is still quite affordable. We as a town, just need to get out there and promote ourselves to the world and get people to come and see what all we have to offer. With our centennial year coming up in 2013, maybe that just might happen! I am looking positive on the upcoming year and I expect great things coming to the marketplace, and a great year putting buyers and sellers together to help them reach their goals! Happy 2013!

Events lined up for New Year’s Eve | Local | News | Vulcan Advocate

Events lined up for New Year’s Eve | Local | News | Vulcan Advocate