As mentioned in some previous postings on this site, the recession is over in Calgary inner city property (if we even really had a recession I didn't actually identify it).  While it can be hard to sell some properties in some segments, the buying end is very tight.

I often wonder who is actually doing the buying.  Is it people looking to store excess cash in property with seriously negative monthly cash flow (I'm actually doing this twice over right now and it isn't particularly gratifying), or people with such a long time horizon that they don't need to make logical purchases?  Obviously the builders are stocking up on R2 and multi family sites, but I don't know if this explains the lack of current supply.

Market psychology plays a role, it seems like any time values are rising, potential sellers decide not to sell as they'd prefer to wait and see further gains.  Yet when values are dropping, you see lots of new supply as sellers try and exit property on the way down.  If people were rational actors, they'd sell into strength and buy into weakness as the market cycles.  I have found the last couple purchases I have made were basically from people who needed or wanted to sell, and the market cycle didn't play a role.

I was browsing the Globe and Mail and came across a chart of foreign buyer interest.  There appears to have been a huge spike in interest in investing in Calgary from Chinese buyers after the Vancouver tax was brought in last summer.  Relative to Vancouver and Toronto, quality property in any part of Calgary is a comparative bargain.  If we see more Chinese investor activity in Calgary then expect land values to stray further from what the fundamentals would indicate are fair value.