Calgary home sales slowed in July but still reached a record high

The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) says home sales slowed last month but still amounted to the best July on record.

Theboard says sales for the month totalled 2,319, up from 1,835 last July but down from 2,915 in June.

The number of new listings in the market reached 3,296 in July, up from 3,021 at the same time last year and down from 4,135 in June.

The average price of a home was $488,501, up from $466,266 last July and down from $494,111 in June.

"Even if we look outside the city in our surrounding communities, there hasn't been much supply there either and their prices have even been increasing at a higher rate of what we're seeing in Calgary,"said CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie.

Realtor Daniel Weiner says in his 10 years in the business, he's never seen sales stay so consistently high for so long.

"People have been at home for so long, so I think they know what they want in a house now, and they want more yard they want an office, sometimes two offices," he said.

"So people are moving from townhomes and condos into houses and people in houses are upgrading."

The board says an easing in sales growth and a slowdown in the pace of new listings has prevented monthly gains in inventory levels.

While supply remained higher than last July, CREB says apartment and row homes accounted for most of the available properties.