Happy Thursday, Calgary.

Here is what October just told us.

Let's get into it.

- Nathaniel and Graham

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What This Means: Sales edged up 3.2% to 290 and the average sale price rose 4.5%, which is the kind of week that gets called a turnaround before anyone reads the fine print. The fine print: 46 days on market, 599 price reductions, and only 14.8% of sales at or above list.

The genuinely good news is that collapsed deals fell 20.9% to 53, which says agreed prices are holding. For sellers, this market rewards accurate pricing, not optimism. For buyers, selection is real, but the well-priced homes still move.

If you only remember one number from October, make it this one: the citywide benchmark price was $564,200, down 0.35% from last year. It is technically accurate and almost useless on its own, because it averages a market that has stopped behaving like one market.

Start with the number everyone will quote. Sales fell 15.27% to 1,592, and year-to-date sales are down nearly 11%. That sounds like demand packed up and left. Then look at what sold, and what it cost.

Detached homes carried the volume with 847 sales, down 16%, and the benchmark barely flinched at $735,100, down 0.7%. With 3.34 months of supply, 56% of new listings turned into a sale. Semi-detached did something rare and actually improved: 184 sales, a benchmark up 0.8% to $685,200, and 3.0 months of supply.

Now the other Calgary. Row homes posted 241 sales, 1,069 units in inventory, 4.44 months of supply and a benchmark of $407,500, down 5.1%. Apartments were the real story: 320 sales, down 22%, 1,691 units available, 5.28 months of supply, and a benchmark of $288,800. That is 7.9% below last year and roughly 15% below the peak set in August 2024. Five months of supply is a polite way of saying buyers can take their time, and they know it.

CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said supply choice across the new, rental and resale markets has taken pressure off prices, with most of the downward pressure in the oversupplied higher-density segments.

Here is where it gets interesting. Demand did not disappear. A Century 21 Canada study conducted by Ipsos, released Nov 3, found 79% of Canadians still say homeownership matters and 23% say they are likely to buy within a year, up from 19% in the spring. Of those likely buyers, 55% would be first-timers, and their expected purchase price is $655,725, down $21,000 from the spring. Nearly half said falling prices made them more optimistic. Another 41% are waiting to see if prices fall further.

Read that against the sales data and the story changes. Buyers moved their expectations down a price tier. Much of the resale market has not moved its asking price at all. That gap is what 5.28 months of apartment supply looks like on a spreadsheet, and what a stale listing looks like from the sidewalk.

For buyers, the leverage is concentrated in apartments and rows, and weakest in detached and semi-detached. For sellers in the higher-density segments, the comparable sale that matters is the last three that closed, not last spring. For investors, 39% of this year's starts are rental, unabsorbed completions are up 42%, and rents are easing. Underwrite flat rents and rising carrying costs, or the spreadsheet is fiction.

Calgary is not crashing. It is repricing the bottom half of the market while the top half shrugs. Those are two different jobs, and they need two different strategies.

If the Ipsos study had a showhome, it might look like this. A 1978 half duplex in Dalhousie, 750 square feet above grade plus a finished basement, three bedrooms, two baths, and a $489,000 price that lands well under the citywide benchmark of $564,200. The compromises are exactly the ones buyers told researchers they would make: smaller than a detached, older than new, no garage.

The trade is a good one. No condo fee, a newer roof, R-C2 zoning, and a walk to Dalhousie Station with U of C, Foothills and SAIT a short ride away.

Nathaniel Terryberry and Graham Terryberry, Terryberry Real Estate Group, REAL Broker.

💧 Calgary's water bill is heading for $207 a month. Council voted 9 to 6 on Oct 27 to endorse the 2027 to 2030 utility direction, with average annual increases of 19.9% for drinking water, 15.2% for wastewater and 5.8% for stormwater. A typical household bill moves from $119.21 a month to $206.94 by 2030. Final rates still need ratification in the budget talks starting Nov 23. This is the line item buyers forget and owners cannot.

🚓 Police want $132M more, and council has to find it. The Calgary Police Service is asking for $132.2 million more in operating cash across 2027 to 2030, up 19%, plus $191 million in capital and 309 net new officers. Mayor Farkas called the request reasonable and acknowledged it will take "some level of spending or a tax increase." Public safety is not optional, and neither is the arithmetic behind it.

🚌 North Calgary gets buses, not a train. Councillors pushed the city toward the $511 million curbside MAX Green BRT option instead of a $2.087 billion dedicated transitway, with one councillor saying plainly that Green Line north is "dead." No funding was approved and administration reports back by Q3 2027. Transit access is a property value variable, and the north side just got a decade of clarity.

🏗️ The new-build boom just changed shape. CMHC's September numbers show 2,535 Calgary starts, up 12% year over year, but all of the gain came from multi-family, which jumped 57% to 1,758 units. Detached starts fell nearly 40%, semi-detached 44% and row 8%, and year-to-date starts are down 16%. Rental now accounts for 39% of starts, and completed but unabsorbed units are up 42% from a year ago. More rentals on the way is good news for tenants and a headwind for anyone selling a condo.

The read: The West and City Centre are still printing gains while the East and North East absorb declines north of 6%. If you own in the East or North East, your competition is not the city average. It is the house two doors down with the same floor plan and a more honest number. Price against your district, not the headline.

Want this for your street? Get a free monthly report with real sales, real addresses, and no citywide guesswork.

The city average says the market cooled. Your district, your property type and your price point may say something completely different, and that is the number worth acting on.

Know someone still pricing their condo from a spring 2026 memory? Forward them this issue before the next price reduction does the talking.

Ask the YYC Housing Pulse team a market question →

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Talk soon,

Nathaniel and Graham

Terryberry Real Estate Group, REAL Broker

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