Economic Outlook
We have recently forged a partership with the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) to publish a proprietary economic outlook for the Calgary real estate market, including Bragg Creek.
Understanding that buying and selling a home is one of the most important decisions a family can make, CREB recently hired its own senior economist, Ann-Marie Lurie, to help Calgary and area residents make more informed real estate decisions by identifying and reporting leading economic indicators for the Calgary real estate market.
Lurie’s findings substantiate that job creation is the primary driver for the real estate market. New jobs attract people to the region, and once the newly-arrived employees feel secure in their jobs, purchasing a home naturally becomes the next main priority. As net migration to the Calgary region continues to grow, sales volume will rise accordingly, and if this trend is sustained over an extended period, the average price of homes in the market will increase. The executive summary as it appears in Bragg - About the Creek magazine as well as the complete CREB report can be found in PDF format below.
The below excerpt from the Royal Bank of Canada’s senior economist for Alberta confirms that economists in general are forecasting a very bright future indeed for Alberta as a whole. With Calgary’s role as the energy hub of Canada, strength in the energy sector will continue to stimulate brisk growth in the greater Calgary real estate market, including Bragg Creek, for the foreseeable future.
Dwayne Zaba
Excerpt from the Annual Provincial Outlook for Alberta from the Royal Bank of Canada’s Senior Economist
“Amid the heightened economic uncertainty spreading globally in the past several months, Alberta’s steady progress toward full recovery from the recession is refreshing.
The provincial economy is now displaying the things that made it a growth powerhouse a little more than a half-decade ago. Impressed by the performance to date, we upgraded our call for Alberta’s real GDP growth to 4.0 per cent this year, which is a pace that we believe will be largely sustained in both 2012 and 2013, at 3.9 and 3.8 per cent respectively.
With the oil industry buzzing like it was in 2006 and serving as a catalyst for activity in other sectors, Alberta’s job market is booming. In the first 11 months of this year, there have been 98,000 net new jobs created in the province, representing the best tally since 2006. This gain could well cross the 100,000 mark when all is said and done for 2011, which would set a new record for Alberta.
What is most impressive about this supercharged job market is that the gains are broadly based across a range of industries, with the energy sector directly responsible for only a small portion of these gains, with small to moderate advances being registered in the vast majority of industries.
Moreover, the boom entirely emanates from the private sector, which is the source of an astounding 116,000 new jobs this year. Such strength easily made up for declines in the public sector and among the self-employed.
Generally, the outlook for the Alberta economy remains very bright ñ notwithstanding the higher risks that face virtually all global economies. Meanwhile, work on several oilsands megaprojects is proceeding, which will continue to generate tremendous economic activity in the province.
There is an inventory of $120 billion worth of oilsands projects currently at various stages of development and, given the strong commitment by all stakeholders to build this resource, it will remain a boon to Alberta’s economy for years to come.”
Robert Hogue, Senior Economist, RBC
File attachments:
Bragg Creek Newsletter
