What happened this month
Calgary’s total residential benchmark price came in at $569,800 for August 2026, up $600 from July’s $569,200. That is a flat month in every practical sense. Year over year the benchmark is down 1.08 per cent against $576,000 in August 2025, and that annual gap has narrowed from the 2.05 per cent I reported last month.
Last month’s headline was the first monthly price decline since January. One month on, that reads as a wobble rather than a turn. The number gave back a little in July and took a little back in August, and the twelve-month picture is a market that has moved sideways since spring within a band of about $3,000. If you were told in early August that Calgary prices had started falling, August’s data does not support carrying that forward.
The volume figures fell hard. Sales of 1,660 were down 16.4 per cent year over year and 12.7 per cent from July, which puts year-to-date sales 11.1 per cent behind 2025. New listings of 3,141 were down 9.7 per cent on the year and 5.5 per cent on the month. Homes took 41 days to sell against 38 a year earlier, and the citywide sale-to-list ratio eased to 97.53 per cent from 97.83.
Months of supply rose to 3.92 from 3.35 a year ago. Months of supply is inventory divided by sales, and both halves fell in August. Inventory finished at 6,509, which is down 2.25 per cent on the year and down 1.8 per cent on the month. So supply did not build. The ratio rose because sales fell about seven times faster than inventory did. This is the same pattern as July, one month deeper. A rising months-of-supply figure usually means homes are piling up. In Calgary right now it means buyers and sellers are both stepping back, roughly together, with buyers stepping back harder.
The split is by property type, and it is severe enough that the citywide number is close to useless on its own. Semi-detached is the only type in the city up year over year, at $690,500 and plus 0.98 per cent. Detached is essentially flat at $744,300, down 1.09 per cent. Row homes are down 5.44 per cent at $415,200. Apartments are down 8.18 per cent at $295,400, the third consecutive month that benchmark has sat below $300,000 and the lowest it has been in this cycle. CREB puts the segment’s peak at $341,300 in August 2024, which leaves it about 13 per cent below.
Supply tells the same story. Apartments carry 5.68 months of supply against 3.39 for detached and 3.30 for semi-detached. Apartments are taking 52 days to sell against 35 for detached, and apartment sales fell 25.8 per cent on the year, the steepest of any type. CREB attributes this to rental supply weighing on ownership demand from both first-time buyers and investors. This is not distressed selling: apartment inventory actually fell 4.45 per cent on the year. Fewer people are choosing to buy, rather than more people being forced to sell.
One detail underneath the citywide flatness is worth pulling out. CREB reports that homes priced over $1,000,000 recorded sales gains over last year, driven mostly by detached and semi-detached, and that this is also where supply growth has been concentrated. Chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie put it this way: “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. 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.” So the pullback is not uniform across price bands, and the upper end is doing the opposite of what a soft-market narrative would predict.
The detached district detail carries the same two exceptions it carried in July. West district detached and City Centre detached are still the only two detached markets in Calgary up year over year, the West at $992,500 and plus 2.78 per cent, City Centre at $995,700 and plus 2.24 per cent. Both improved their annual position from July. The West still carries the tightest detached supply in the city at 2.34 months. Everywhere else is negative on the year: North East down 6.44 per cent with 5.36 months of supply, North down 3.89 per cent at 4.10 months, East down 3.11 per cent, South East down 1.70 per cent, South down 1.69 per cent, and North West down 1.30 per cent. On the month, the North West was the strongest detached district in the city at plus 1.41 per cent.
Two honest qualifiers on the West. Its detached benchmark fell 1.13 per cent month over month, the steepest monthly decline among the eight districts in August. And its supply loosened meaningfully, from 1.96 months in July to 2.34 in August. The annual number is still the best in the city and 2.34 months is still a seller’s market by any normal reading. But a West seller pricing off the year-over-year headline alone would be working from the friendlier half of the data.
Detached was also the only property type whose inventory rose month over month, from 2,938 to 2,969. CREB calls that a modest monthly gain and it is, about one per cent. It is the first sign in a while of detached supply moving the other way, and it is worth watching over the autumn rather than reading anything into a single month.
Community spotlight
The table below summarizes trailing twelve-month activity for ten SW and West Calgary communities: median sold price, average days on market, and sale-to-list ratio. These are all-property-type medians, so they include detached, semi-detached, row and apartment sales in whatever proportion each community’s housing stock dictates. The median price shows where a typical transaction landed over the past year, while days on market and sale-to-list describe how balanced conditions have been.
| Community | Median sold price | Avg days on market | Sale-to-list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altadore | $1,150,000 | 33 | -1.8% |
| North Glenmore Park | $1,092,000 | 42 | +0.5% |
| Discovery Ridge | $941,250 | 35 | -1.6% |
| Lakeview | $900,500 | 32 | -0.1% |
| Aspen Woods | $895,000 | 35 | -1.8% |
| Killarney-Glengarry | $833,250 | 35 | -1.5% |
| West Springs | $821,250 | 34 | -1.4% |
| Christie Park | $782,500 | 29 | -1.4% |
| Signal Hill | $638,067 | 31 | -1.7% |
| Glamorgan | $438,500 | 37 | -2.4% |
Source: Pillar9 sold-comp data, City of Calgary residential, sales closing between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026 inclusive (n = 1,319 across the ten communities). Sale-to-list compares the sold price to the list price the home carried at close, so it measures the gap from the final ask rather than the total discount from an original asking price.
Two things in this table run against the citywide picture. Lakeview and North Glenmore Park are the two communities here closest to list on the average sale, at -0.1 and +0.5 per cent, and only North Glenmore Park finished above it. Both are the most detached-heavy communities in the set at about 81 per cent. That is the West-district detached story showing up at street level. The caveat from last month still applies and still matters: in both communities the median sale closed below list, at -1.4 per cent in Lakeview and -1.8 per cent in North Glenmore Park. A handful of over-list sales pull the average up. These are not bidding-war markets. They are the two markets in this set where a meaningful number of homes still clear asking.
The second is timing. Lakeview’s median sale took 14 days while its average was 32, and North Glenmore Park’s median was 23 days against an average of 42. The typical well-priced home in these communities is moving in two to three weeks. The average is being carried by the homes that sat, and the ones that sit usually started too high. Christie Park remains the fastest community here on the average at 29 days, on the smallest sample at 34 sales, so read it as a description of a thin market rather than a precise benchmark.
Glamorgan sits at the other end on price, the weakest sale-to-list in the set at -2.4 per cent, and it is the most apartment-and-row weighted community in the set at 30 per cent detached. The citywide type split is visible inside this table, not just above it. Each community carries a different mix of stock, which shapes how its median moves, so read the individual community guides for what actually trades there.
12-month benchmark trend
The chart below traces Calgary’s total residential benchmark price from September 2025 through August 2026. The decline through autumn 2025 was steady rather than steep, a floor formed near $554K in December and January, prices recovered for five consecutive months into June, and the two months since have moved sideways within about $3,000.
| Month | Benchmark price |
|---|---|
| 2025-09 | $571K |
| 2025-10 | $566K |
| 2025-11 | $559K |
| 2025-12 | $555K |
| 2026-01 | $554K |
| 2026-02 | $561K |
| 2026-03 | $566K |
| 2026-04 | $569K |
| 2026-05 | $571K |
| 2026-06 | $573K |
| 2026-07 | $569K |
| 2026-08 | $570K |
What this means for buyers
The best thing about August for a buyer is not the price, it is the competition. Sales are down 16.4 per cent on the year and 12.7 per cent on the month, so there are meaningfully fewer people in the room than there were in the spring. Prices have not moved to reward you for that yet, but the negotiating position has.
If you are shopping detached in the West or the South West, conditions loosened without changing character. West detached supply moved from 1.96 months to 2.34 and the benchmark eased 1.13 per cent on the month, a second consecutive monthly decline after July fell 2.07 per cent. It is still the tightest detached market in the city and still up 2.78 per cent on the year, so this is more room to negotiate rather than a market that has turned. Being pre-approved and able to move inside a few days is still worth what it was.
Elsewhere in detached you have genuine leverage. The North East sits at 5.36 months of supply with prices down 6.44 per cent on the year, and the North at 4.10 months and down 3.89 per cent. Those are buyer’s-market conditions in a property type that spent the first half of the year in seller’s territory.
If your target is an apartment, the leverage is substantial and the arithmetic is worth stating plainly. Apartment supply is 5.68 months, the benchmark is down 8.18 per cent on the year and 13.4 per cent from its 2024 peak, and apartments are taking 52 days to sell against 35 for detached. You have room to ask for an inspection, a possession date that suits you, and a price below list. The one thing to be careful about is the same thing that makes this a buyer’s market: rental supply is competing directly with entry-level ownership right now, so run the rent-versus-buy numbers on the specific unit rather than on the principle.
The citywide 41-day average hides a 17-day gap between the fastest and slowest property types. Ask for days on market for your type and your district, not the headline.
What this means for sellers
The message for August is narrower than it was in July: price against August, and expect to wait longer than you would have in May.
Detached and semi-detached sellers are in a reasonable position. Both are near flat on the year, both sit around 3.3 to 3.4 months of supply, and correctly priced detached homes are still selling in 35 days. What changed is patience, not price. Sales volumes are down sharply, so fewer buyers will see your home in the first two weeks than would have in the spring, and the cost of testing a high number has gone up accordingly. The community table above makes this concrete: the median sale in Lakeview took 14 days and the average took 32. The distance between those two figures is almost entirely made up of homes that started too high and spent a month catching down to the market.
West district detached sellers still have the strongest position in Calgary, and should still price off recent comparables rather than the annual figure. The district posted the steepest month-over-month decline in the city in August and its supply loosened by nearly four tenths of a month. Neither is alarming on its own. Both mean a May comparable is no longer the right anchor.
Semi-detached sellers should note one genuinely new thing: months of supply in that segment crossed three months for the first time since January, at 3.30. It is still balanced and the benchmark is still up 0.98 per cent on the year, which is the best annual result of any type in the city. It is simply less tight than it was, and worth knowing before you set a number.
For apartment and row sellers, nothing has improved and pricing sharply on day one still beats testing high and adjusting later. Apartment supply is near six months and 52 days is the average rather than the worst case. Condition and presentation carry more weight when a buyer can walk to the next building and find something similar. And be clear-eyed about waiting: apartments have been falling for two years, so holding out has cost sellers rather than saved them. Price it to go in the first three weeks.
FAQ
Did Calgary house prices fall in August 2026?
No. The total residential benchmark price was $569,800 in August, up $600 from July’s $569,200, and the year-over-year decline narrowed to 1.08 per cent from 2.05 per cent the month before. July’s decline was the first since January and it did not continue. What did fall in August was activity: sales were down 16.4 per cent year over year and new listings down 9.7 per cent. It is also worth checking your own segment, because the citywide number is averaging very different markets. Semi-detached is up 0.98 per cent on the year, detached is down 1.09 per cent, and apartments are down 8.18 per cent.
Why did months of supply rise to 3.92 if inventory fell?
Because months of supply is inventory divided by sales, and both of those fell in August. Inventory came in at 6,509, down 2.25 per cent year over year and down 1.8 per cent from July, while sales of 1,660 were down 16.4 per cent. Sales fell roughly seven times faster than inventory did, so the ratio rose to 3.92 months from 3.35 a year earlier. This matters because a rising months-of-supply figure is usually read as homes piling up on the market unsold. That is not what happened. New listings were down 9.7 per cent, which means fewer sellers came to market, not more.
Is now a bad time to sell a house in Calgary?
It depends far more on what you own than on the month. Detached and semi-detached prices are close to flat on the year, both segments sit around 3.3 to 3.4 months of supply, and a correctly priced detached home is selling in about 35 days. That is a functioning market. Apartments are a different situation entirely, with 5.68 months of supply, a benchmark down 8.18 per cent on the year and 13.4 per cent below its 2024 peak, and 52 days to sell. The honest general answer is that August is a slower market than the spring rather than a worse-priced one, so the main adjustment is expecting a longer sale rather than a lower number.
Why have Calgary apartment prices fallen so much?
Supply, and competition from rentals. The apartment benchmark is $295,400, down 8.18 per cent year over year and 13.4 per cent from its August 2024 peak of $341,300. Apartment inventory represents 5.68 months of supply against 3.39 for detached, and apartment sales fell 25.8 per cent year over year, the steepest decline of any property type. CREB’s read is that additional rental supply is weighing on ownership demand from both first-time buyers and investors, which is slowing sales while supply stays elevated. Note what this is not: it is not distressed selling. Apartment inventory actually fell 4.45 per cent year over year. Fewer people are choosing to buy, rather than more people being forced to sell.
Which parts of Calgary are still gaining value?
On detached, two districts are up year over year and they are the same two that were up in July: the West at $992,500 and plus 2.78 per cent, and the City Centre at $995,700 and plus 2.24 per cent. Both improved their annual position in August. The West also carries the tightest detached supply in the city at 2.34 months. On semi-detached, the City Centre, North West and West districts are all up on the year, which is what carries that property type to a citywide gain. CREB also reports that homes priced above $1,000,000 saw sales gains over last year, mostly detached and semi-detached. The weakest areas are the North East, where detached is down 6.44 per cent and row homes 12.22 per cent, and the East.