Even in a very slow housing market some communities buck the trend. Below is a table of the hottest 20 communities in Calgary in the last 6 months (in terms of MLS inventory turnover, aka Absorption Rate). Starting next month I will be including a similar table in my regular Monthly Report

Top 20 Hot Communities
as of December 1, 2008
Rank Community Average Absorption Rate
(last 6 months)
1 Scarboro 2.14
2 Midnapore 2.20
3 Douglasglen 2.25
4 Collingwood 2.27
5 Vista Heights 2.53
6

Macewan Glen

 2.60
7 Sundance 2.71
8 Lake Bonavista Downs 2.93
9 Lake Bonavista 2.95
10 Country Hills 2.96
11 Hidden Valley 2.98
12 Coventry Hills 3.08
13

Cougar Ridge

 3.09
14 St Andrew’s Heights 3.13
15 University Heights 3.15
16 East Mayland Heights 3.19
17 Riverbend 3.21
18 Evergreen 3.25
19 Fairview 3.27
20

Dalhousie

 3.32


What do all these communities have in common? Well, I think 2 things:

  1. They are NOT condo communties. The condo market is very slow (see my past market reports for the reasons why).
  2. Generally, these communities have reputations for being good value for their distance from downtown. In otherwords, for the most part these are affordable commuter communties (the exception, being Scarboro at #1, which has prices well above the city average).