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Canmore Housing Crisis: New Solutions for 2024/2025

Background

Over the past decade, Canmore has struggled with an increasingly severe affordable housing shortage. To address this crisis, the town created a livability task force (a diversity of Canmore citizens) in 2023 to recommend new housing policies.

Under the headline “Housing Action”, three measurements were identified, and the task force’s recommendations were accepted by council in January and August 2024.

“Every door in this community has a responsibility to contribute to helping solve our housing crisis … We will see how this rolls out in the coming years, but I’m happy to put my hand in the air to take a step forward in finding new resources to help fund and support our housing crisis,”

Councillor Joanna McCallum

 

 

The Three Key Initiatives

1.      Limit the Growth of Tourist Homes

Limit the Growth of Tourist Homes through a tax program (Tourist Home Program) and tightened business licence regulations (Regulation of Short-Term rentals)

 

2. ...

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Are Canmore Real Estate Prices still increasing at the beginning of 2024?

Are Canmore Real Estate Prices still increasing? Let’s take a look at the first Quarter of 2024!

There is a lot of uncertainty in the real estate market these days. Uncertainty is less than ideal for any market. On March 6th of this year, the Bank of Canada announced that their inflation target rate of 2% has not been met yet and they kept their rate at 5%. Now there is anticipation building up for a rate drop this June or July.

There are a lot of factors speaking for this. The core inflation eased to 3.5%. Unemployment rates in the country increased and many businesses are freezing hiring. Arrears are increasing. In 2024/2025 there will be over 2 million mortgage renewals coming up, adding stress to household budgets.


However, inflation in the U.S increased to 3.5% in March (from 3.2%), propelled by surging gas and mortgage prices, which could delay rate cuts in the US. And experts doubt that Canada would reduce its rates earlier than the US due to impacts that this would...

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Interest Rates and Real Estate

How is the Canmore Real Estate Market as we are moving into 2024?


Are you a potential buyer and wondering if this is the right time to buy in Canmore? Or are you a potential seller, wondering if you should list your property? Take a look at how the Canmore market has been developing since the Bank of Canada raised the interest rates!


On March 2nd 2022, after leaving its overnight lending rate at 0.25% for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bank of Canada raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 0.50 percent.

In an effort to curb soaring inflation after the pandemic, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate from 0.25 to 4.25 per cent in 2022. Two more rate hikes followed in 2023 until on July 12, 2023 another 25-basis-point hike (3rd increase in 2023) brought the bank’s overnight lending rate to the current five per cent.

Current projections from economists indicate that interest rates might begin to decrease some time during...

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Living With Wildlife in Canmore 

 

It happened a few years ago – we had just cut down our crab-apple tree as part of the “Removing Wildlife Attractants” program. It was a beautiful tree but in order not to attract bears into the neighbourhood we had to remove the fruit every year as it began to ripen and dispose of it in special bear proof food waste bins. It became too much to handle, so, unfortunately, the tree had to go. As a personal reconciliation I spent $300 on a nice maple tree and several shrubs which I planted in our backyard.

Thomas Krause bear in backyard

 

Our house is built on a slope and adjacent to a public walkway. Our neighbours, Roger and Jacquie, had their house next to ours but on the other side. There is a corridor between our properties which also serves as a shared access path to our backyards. Our backyards are completely private but we don’t have it fenced in.

That day, our neighbour, Roger, came over and warned us about an aggressive elk in the area....

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Dieter Kuhn: A Canmore Original

Dieter Kuhn: A Canmore Original 

I first met Dieter when he walked into our RE/MAX Alpine Real Estate office on Main Street in the summer of 2015.


Dieter’s house had just blown up and Dieter was looking for a place to rent.


The explosion that registered a 1.1 on the closest Richter scale approximately 80 kilometres south of Calgary, occurred in June 2015 in Canmore during the expansion project of the Bow River Seniors Home when a sub-contractor worker hit an ATCO gas line. Dieter’s house was completely demolished and a dozen others in the neighbourhood were affected. And it was really just good luck that Dieter was safe in his car on the way back home from Calgary.




Dieter came to Canmore in 1975.


Originally from Trier, a small historical city in the mid-west of Germany, he had been a chef in Switzerland and together with his German fiancé had the idea to come to Canada for a year to travel the country and then return. He never went back.


Dieter remembers how things...

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Canmore Real Estate Market Comparison

Last Quarter 2022 vs. First Quarter 2023


A Look at the First Quarter of 2023:


Let me start with a disclaimer: As Canmore is a small town with few sales and listings in general, the amount of data, even for the first three months of this year, is limited. Statistically, the larger my data pool the more reliable the results. The numbers here reflect a certain trend, but should be taken with a grain of salt.


I am comparing January to March of 2023 with October to December of 2022.


Sales numbers dropped from 92 sales to 88 sales. Apartments, half-duplex and tourist home zoned properties gained slightly, but hotel condos (properties that can be rented out short-term via Air B&B etc.), single family homes and townhouses lost in sales numbers.



The biggest drop was for single family homes. We only had 9 sales in the first quarter of this year as compared to 22 in the last quarter of last year.


So how about listings and how did prices develop?


The number...

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Could Canmore one day become Canada’s Aspen?

Could Canmore one day become Canada’s Aspen?


I get asked this question a lot: Yes, we love Canmore as a town and for its lifestyle but is buying property in Canmore also a good investment?


Some investors are suggesting that Canmore could one day become the Aspen of Canada. They are comparing Canmore in Alberta, Canada with Aspen, Colorado, USA. And indeed, the two mountain towns have a lot in common. Both are beautiful ski resorts and destinations for outdoor recreation, both are in the Rocky Mountains. And while the Bow River goes through Canmore, Aspen is on the Fork River.


Both towns have a mining history that goes back to the mid 19 th Century. Aspen related to silver; Canmore related to coal. Aspen had a population of 7,000 in 2020. Canmore’s population was around 15,000 at that time.


Founded as a mining camp during the Colorado Silver Boom Aspen boomed during the 1880s, its first decade. The boom ended when the Panic of 1893 led to a collapse of...

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Kananaskis Way is the Perfect Area for Those Looking for Hotel Condos, Airbnb Properties and Investment Condos

Located right off Highway 1, the Kananaskis Way area is easy to access by taking the second exit into Canmore. Once you are on Bow Valley Trail (off of the highway) it is a short drive until you see “Stoneridge”, a large hotel complex. This is one of the most distinguished complexes and a visual marker that you have arrived at this popular area in Canmore.



Four streets delineate this little piece of paradise for investors and condo owners: Lincoln Park, Bow Valley Trail, Kananaskis Way and Montane Road. With over 1,100 short-term rental units located in this area, this is Canmore’s hub for vacation rentals in Canmore. 


The majority are 2-bedroom apartment style properties featuring a full kitchen, bathroom and deck located within a hotel complex. Studios and 3-bedroom units are also available. Examples of these types of properties are “Stoneridge”,...

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This blog was first published in CanmoreAlberta.com. Thank you for the feature!


Canmore, My Town: A Realtor's Homage to Canmore 


When I hitchhiked the USA and Canada as a teenager in the 1980's a dream was born. I would one day live in Canada. Thirty years later - I was married with two young kids and working in Shanghai, China - I was ready to make the move.

In 2011 while still working in China my wife and I came to Canada for 8 weeks with the sole purpose to find a place to call home.



It was clear that it would be somewhere in the west. As a student I had visited Jasper and Banff and I loved Vancouver. In 2005 I had taken my wife on a longer RV-tour through BC and Alberta to find out if she could agree.

Coming from Germany, some of those personality traits kicked in when it was time to make a choice. The qualification list included items like weather/climate, job situation, schools and education, real estate, medical care, and a decent connection to an airport.

After having driven...

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Real Estate is one of the Hottest Topics in Canada These Days

Read the full blog for a 2022 Canmore real estate market review and a quick look at 2023

 

2021 was an incredible year in Real Estate with the markets running hot. After taking a deep plunge during the pandemic, the Canadian economy bounced back in 2021/2022 with strong growth and record-low unemployment.


This exuberance in the economy along with global pressures, led to arguably the most pressing economic issue of the year: decades-high inflation.


The Bank of Canada responded to rapidly rising prices with one of the fastest monetary policy tightening cycles in its history, setting the stage for a rockier year.


Since March 2022, the central bank has raised its key interest rate seven consecutive times, from 0.25 per cent to 4.25 per cent. That's the highest it's been since January 2008.


Canadians and businesses facing higher borrowing costs are expected to pull back on spending more noticeably in 2023. Economists expect that...

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