Good morning Calgary,

This week’s market is giving us a very Calgary kind of split screen: buyers are still moving, sellers are still adjusting, and City Hall is still trying to figure out what growth should look like after the zoning rollback.

Let’s get into it.

- Nathaniel and Graham

What This Means: Calgary’s market looked busier this week, but let’s not overcook the narrative. Some of that lift is a bounce-back from the slower May long weekend, when buyers, sellers, and probably half the city mentally checked out for the holiday. Sales and under-contract activity moved up, but this reads more like buyers returning to the market after a bank holiday weekend than a sudden wave of fresh demand.

The seller side is still where the nuance lives. Active listings are rising, vacant listings now make up 44% of supply, and price reductions climbed 22.5%. That is the market quietly saying: demand is present, but it is not forgiving. The homes that are clean, well-positioned, and priced with the current inventory in mind are still getting action. The ones priced like it is 2022 are becoming weekly reduction candidates.

Calgary did not end the housing debate when council moved to roll back blanket rezoning. It just moved the argument to a more expensive question: if established neighbourhoods become harder places to add homes, where does the next wave of growth go?

That is the part worth watching now.

A recent Canada’s National Observer story warned that making middle housing harder in established areas could push more demand toward outward growth. The article noted that, once the repeal takes effect, many residential lots will again be limited to single-detached or semi-detached homes unless builders go through a separate approval process. In plain English: more uncertainty, more waiting, and fewer easy paths for small-scale housing in built-out communities.

At the same time, Calgary is trying to build the replacement playbook. The City released its May 2026 Calgary Plan update, which is meant to guide land use, development, transportation, and infrastructure decisions over the long term. Council is also looking at speeding up local area plans, with a recent motion proposing three additional plans and up to $400,000 in funding to move that work along.

That sounds technical because, well, it is City Hall. But the impact is not technical at all.

Where Calgary puts new homes shapes almost everything else: tax pressure, utility costs, commute times, transit viability, school demand, resale values, and whether first-time buyers can find ground-oriented homes without needing a Ring Road survival kit.

The honest take? Calgary needs both infill and new communities. Pretending it is one or the other is how we end up yelling at public hearings until everyone needs a snack. But if infill becomes slower, riskier, or more political, the market will not politely pause while the planning system catches up. Demand moves somewhere. Usually, that means farther out.

For homeowners, this is about neighbourhood change. For buyers, it is about choice and affordability. For taxpayers, it is about whether growth pays for itself or quietly shows up later in roads, pipes, taxes, and commute costs.

So no, the zoning debate is not over. It has entered its sequel phase. And like most sequels, the budget may be bigger.

This Greenview townhome at 106 Grier Terrace NE #4 is a sub-$300K option with a useful mix of affordability, location, and actual outdoor space. You get 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 929 sq. ft., low monthly condo fees of $299, upper-floor laundry, a fenced front yard, and quick access to the Nose Creek Pathway.

For first-time buyers, the appeal is pretty straightforward: it offers more of a townhome feel without jumping into the price bands where many entry-level buyers are getting squeezed. For investors, the draw is the location triangle: quick access to downtown, the airport, Nose Hill Park, and pathway connections, plus a product type that can stand out from a sea of apartment-style condos. Under $300K is getting harder to make interesting. This one has a little more to work with.

🏛️ Calgary property tax bills are officially in the mail. The City says roughly 600,000 bills have been mailed, with payments due June 30. One detail worth noting: about 42 cents of every residential property tax dollar goes to the Province, while 58 cents stays with the City for municipal services. Ownership costs are not just a mortgage-rate story.

🏘️ Canada and Alberta are putting $323M toward affordable housing. The funding is expected to support more than 3,600 units across 41 Alberta projects, including several Calgary office conversions, affordable housing builds, seniors projects, and townhouse developments. Calgary’s supply story is not only private builders and resale inventory anymore.

🧭 The May 2026 Calgary Plan update is out. This is the long-range planning document that will help guide where housing, jobs, transportation, and infrastructure go over the next 30 years. Not exactly beach reading, but very much “this could affect your neighbourhood” reading.

🏗️ Alberta housing starts cooled in April. The province recorded 3,192 housing starts in April, down 39.7% from April 2025. That matters because today’s starts become tomorrow’s inventory relief. If construction slows too much, buyers may feel it later.

If someone in your group chat is still arguing about zoning, taxes, or whether “close to downtown” means the same thing in every listing description, forward this their way.

Talk soon,

Nathaniel and Graham | YYC Housing Pulse Team

Terryberry Real Estate Group