Dear Santa,
I know you’re a pretty busy guy right about now, getting ready for your epic journey.
And you must receive millions of letters with people asking you for so many gifts. I can’t imagine how time-consuming it is for you, but if you have a chance, please read mine.
I could ask for things in my life like a new vehicle, a fine bottle of Scotch or grappa, a vacation to Italy, but my Christmas gift wish list is a little different this year.
I would really love to see the right conditions in place to buoy the real estate market in Calgary for another year.
Being an intense follower of the industry for the past 20 years, I know how much Calgarians are glued to real estate news and I’ve done my best to accommodate their passion by reporting on it on a regular basis.
So here is my Christmas wish list Santa. Can you somehow work your magic for 2023?
While it’s been a challenging year for real estate sales in 2022, particularly in the latter part of the year, we’re still going to set a record for the second year in a row for MLS transactions in Calgary.
Could we go for the trifecta and make it three in a row in 2023? This is where we’re going to need your help Santa. Our housing market is supported by a number of key factors – the economy, employment, population growth, immigration.
When it comes to the economy Santa, would you be able to keep us out of a recession? Please? That would likely trigger a decline in housing market sales in 2023 which is not good for Calgary overall as a strong economy fuels employment, population growth, immigration growth and consumer confidence. And they all fuel real estate sales in an industry that is an important economic driver in the city.
And while you’re at it Santa, could you please help bring some stability to the interest rate environment? Quite frankly, I don’t know how much more of this people can cope with these days. The rising cost of everything can put a damper on the vibrancy of the real estate market.
All the economic conditions lead to one big factor in the health of a real estate market – consumer confidence. Making a home purchase for the vast majority of people is the biggest financial decision they will make in their lives. To do that, people need to be confident in their personal economic situation as well as overall. If they’re not, they’ll sit on the sidelines and wait for better days to buy a home.
One last thing Santa that would give the real estate market locally, and nationally, a boost is supply. At the end of November, the months of supply in the city, which measures the amount of time it would take for all the homes listed for sale in the market to sell given the current demand, was a miniscule 1.89 months. A nudge by you Santa to get more people to list their homes for sale would help the market.
And also to help the housing supply shortage in the city, could you please create the conditions – from financial to the municipal approval process – to facilitate the building of more residential homes, in all housing categories, by developers.
I don’t think I’ve been naughty this year Santa, so if you can help create the conditions to make it another record-breaking year for MLS sales in the city in 2023 that would be a great Christmas gift for me – and for everyone related to the real estate industry.
Have a happy and safe journey December 24.
Mario
(Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and only Canadian)
