Market Insight
Calgary Sales Fell 16 Per Cent In August. Homes Over $1 Million Did Not.
Every headline this month will say the market slowed. It did. What almost nobody will say is where. The pullback is concentrated at the entry point, and the reason is not what most people assume.
Here is the number that will be repeated everywhere this week. Calgary sales in August were 1,660 units, down about 16 per cent from last August. New listings fell close to 10 per cent, to 3,141.
Read on its own, that looks like a market losing interest in itself.
It is not, and the proof is sitting in the same release. Homes priced over $1,000,000 recorded gains over last year. The slowdown is real, it is just not evenly distributed, and the part of the market that pulled back hardest is the part most people assume is always busy.
City Of Calgary, August 2026
One month, four property types, four different conversations.
| Property Type | Benchmark | vs. Aug 2025 | Months Of Supply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | $744,300 | down 1% | 3.39 |
| Semi detached | $690,500 | up 1% | 3.30 |
| Row | $415,200 | down 5% | 3.85 |
| Apartment condominium | $295,400 | down 8% | 5.68 |
| All residential | $569,800 | down 1% | 3.92 |
Source: CREB® August 2026 monthly statistics, City of Calgary. Benchmark prices describe a typical home in each category, not any individual property.
The Slowdown Is At The Bottom, Not The Top.
CREB® is explicit about this. The pullback in sales did not happen across all price ranges. Homes priced over $1,000,000 posted gains over last year, and those gains came mostly from detached and semi detached homes, which is also where most of the new supply has landed.
Ann-Marie Lurie, Chief Economist at CREB®, put the two halves side by side: “While sales growth in the upper end of the market was possible thanks to improved supply choice, it also reflects longer-term confidence in our market, as some buyers are not shying away from taking advantage of the available supply.” And then the other half: “Meanwhile, we have not seen the same pickup in activity in the lower price ranges, as favourable rental conditions are slowing the transition to ownership.”
Read that second sentence twice, because it is the whole story of this month.
Renting in Calgary got easier and cheaper. When that happens, the buyer who steps back first is the one who was renting a two bedroom and thinking about buying a condo. That buyer is not priced out. That buyer is comfortable, and waiting.
Which Is Why The Averages Are Useless Right Now.
The city wide figure says 3.92 months of supply, which is a balanced market by any normal reading.
Split it by type and that balance disappears. Detached sits at 3.39 months. Semi detached at 3.30. Apartment condominiums sit at 5.68 months, nearly six months of supply, which is a buyer’s market by any normal reading.
So the same city, in the same month, is running a tight detached market and an oversupplied condo market at once. A single number that averages those two together describes neither of them.
Prices follow the same split. Apartment benchmark is $295,400, down eight per cent on the year and now roughly 13 per cent below the 2024 peak. Row is $415,200, down five per cent. Detached is $744,300, down one per cent. Semi detached actually rose one per cent.
When somebody tells you the Calgary market is down 16 per cent, the only useful reply is a question. Down where, and in what.
Two Districts Went Up. One Fell Six Times The City Average.
Location splits the market as sharply as property type does. Total residential benchmark prices by Calgary district in August:
- West, $719,200, up 1.6 per cent on the year
- City Centre, $580,000, up 1.1 per cent
- North West, $627,400, down 0.9 per cent
- South, $573,500, down 1.2 per cent
- South East, $556,700, down 1.9 per cent
- East, $398,600, down 3.5 per cent
- North, $526,600, down 3.9 per cent
- North East, $464,200, down 6.5 per cent
That is a spread of more than eight percentage points between the strongest district and the weakest, inside one city, in one month. The districts holding value are the ones with the least new higher density supply. The districts giving it back are carrying the most.
Airdrie, And The Towns Around Us.
Airdrie. The total residential benchmark was $508,800 in August, down one per cent from July and over four per cent from last August. Sales were 137, leaving the year to date total down 13 per cent. Months of supply held at 3.77, still under four, helped by a seven per cent pullback in new listings year to date. Detached specifically sits at $596,200, down 5.4 per cent on the year. The steeper declines in Airdrie are happening in apartment style homes, same as in Calgary.
Cochrane was the outlier and the good news story. Sales rose over 34 per cent in August, driven largely by semi detached activity, pushing the year to date gain past five per cent. The benchmark still eased to $570,200, down two per cent on the year, but months of supply dropped back to just over three.
Okotoks stayed the tightest market in the region at 2.42 months of supply, with a sales to new listings ratio of 81 per cent. Benchmark $608,400, down nearly two per cent. The constraint there is listings, not buyers.
Chestermere is the opposite end. Its sales to new listings ratio dropped below 30 per cent and months of supply reached 8.72, the loosest in the region. Benchmark $697,400, down 1.6 per cent. If you own in Chestermere, that supply number matters more to your pricing than anything happening in Calgary.
A Note On Where This Comes From
Tara Molina is a REALTOR® CCS®, a Certified Condominium Specialist. In a month where the condo segment is carrying nearly six months of supply while detached carries three, that difference is not academic. Reserve fund studies, estoppel certificates, board minutes and fee history decide which units in an oversupplied segment still sell, and which ones sit.
What This Means For You.
If you are selling a detached home. You are in the healthiest part of this market and the numbers back that up: three and a half months of supply, a benchmark down only one per cent, and fewer competing listings than last year. That is not permission to overprice. It is permission to stop panicking about headlines that were written about a different property type.
If you are selling a condo or a row home. Price to the market that exists on day one, and expect a longer timeline than a detached seller down the street. With this much supply, a unit priced against 2024 does not wait quietly for the market to come back. It goes stale, gets skipped, and takes the reduction anyway from a weaker position.
If you are a first time buyer who is still renting. The rental market is the reason you have leverage right now, and it is also the reason to think carefully. Renting is genuinely comfortable this year. But buyers stepping back is exactly what created nearly six months of condo supply, and that supply is negotiating room that will not sit there forever. Run both numbers properly before you decide, including fees and reserve fund health, not just the payment.
If you are moving up out of a condo or row home. Be honest with yourself about the arithmetic, because it is not in your favour this month. Eight per cent off a $295,400 condo is roughly $23,600 given up. One per cent off a $744,300 detached home is roughly $7,400 saved. The gap between the two got slightly wider this year, not narrower. What did improve is choice and competition on the buying side, and how long a well priced detached listing takes to find. If you are making this move, the argument for it is timing and selection, not a bargain on the spread.
If you are shopping over $1,000,000. You now have competition again, which you did not have this time last year. That segment is where sales actually grew. Improved supply choice cuts both ways.
Which Of These Markets Is Your House Actually In?
Property type, district and price band are pulling in three different directions this month. A city wide benchmark cannot tell you where your home sits inside that. A conversation can.
The comfortable version of this post says balance, choice, opportunity for everyone, and tells nobody anything.
The useful version says the top of this market grew while the bottom stalled, that renting is currently winning the argument against a starter condo, and that the district you live in moved your value by as much as eight percentage points in either direction. All three of those are in the same CREB® release. Only one of them will make the headlines.
— Tara Molina
REALTOR® CCS®, Tara Molina Real Estate Group, brokered by Royal LePage Benchmark. Proudly serving Calgary, Airdrie & Surrounding Area.
All figures are from the CREB® August 2026 monthly statistics package and the CREB® Regional Market Facts release, published September 1, 2026, and were accurate at the time of writing. Market data changes monthly and should be independently verified. This post is general information, not financial, legal or investment advice.