‘A good place to be in’: CREB’s 2026 forecast looking up for homebuyers and sellers

Calgary's real estate market is settling down after a few wild years. The city is still a top pick for people to find affordable housing.

Calgary’s real estate market is settling down after a few wild years.

According to the forecast for 2026, home prices aren’t dropping or rising dramatically, and neither are home sales.

Calgary is still a top pick for people from outside Alberta to find affordable housing.

Imogen Priestly specifically chose Calgary to move to from Northern England.

“Either we stay in England and buy, or we move somewhere we really want to move to, and then we rent for a little bit and then buy,” she said.

Since arriving late last year, Priestly has been house hunting in full force.

“We are honestly online every night looking,” she said.

According to the chief economist for the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), the forecast for 2026 will have conditions that are good for both buyers and sellers.

“Stability is a good place to be in,” said Ann-Marie Lurie.

Calgary continued to see rapid population growth from overseas and within Canada, but interprovincial migration has slowed down.

“Interprovincial migrants tend to have more of an impact in terms of housing demand. International, they tend to be renters first. So, we see that impact on the rental market, and I think that’s something weighing into why our conditions are shifting a bit,” said Lurie.

Concerns about a global trade war since last spring have also not harmed the economy as much as experts feared.

However, inflation is still hurting Calgary households.

“The No. 1 issue in Canada is still cost of living. People are going to be looking for cheaper places to live, (and) Alberta is that place, relative to B.C. and Ontario. The key thing to watch, though, is jobs,” said Mark Parsons, ATB Financial chief economist.

Real estate agents say the sense of calm heading into the new year is a good thing.

“I think we are just in a period of transition, getting back to a sense of normal. 2022 to 2024 were absolutely insane, and that’s just not sustainable,” said Jenna Bole with Royal LePage Benchmark.

Agents also say a balanced market is still busy—just less busy than the peak.

“It took us a couple months to compete against these investors and buyers that were so conditioned to a competitive market, but I will tell you this: I am seeing an underlying trend that the phones are ringing more,” said Graham Kennelly, AlbertaRE partner.

Calgary led the country for housing starts in 2024, but that slowed into last year, and the pace is not expected to climb back up.

Still, the CREB says there are 26,000 units under construction that might be completed this year.

In terms of price, experts forecast a slight tick up of one per cent for the year ahead.

The benchmark price for a single detached house is $750,000.