This is the post where I review specific predictions made last January. One of my personal favourites. My track record for 2017 was terrible, in 2018 my guesses were more on target.
1. City review of infill building guidelines will be difficult and controversial.
- inconclusive. The city didn't do that much here. It released a revised rcg set of rules but this was minor tweaking. Other changes that would apply to larger zones were delayed or not forthcoming to the public.
2. Killarney land prices will moderate or drop slightly in 2018.
- I was right up until the latter half of the year. Prices did moderate and then dropped tremendously, probably by $100k. A few motivated sellers got absolutely schooled by the market. It was interesting and painful to watch ignorant realtors and intransigent and greedy sellers chase the market down. Lots of lessons here about educating yourself on how to operate in a market.
3. The spring Market will be very busy
- the all important spring market was a dud. The weather was awful until May and then market conditions softened due to other factors. I was way off on this prediction.
4. Government meddling will negatively impact the market for Calgary real estate.
- did I even need to make this prediction? It is an unfortunate reality that every year the government causes a lot of harm. 2018 was the worst year I have ever seen for government policy, the lowlight being mortgage policy for Toronto being applied to hammer provincial markets barely recovering from the past recession. While my prediction was correct, this is one I wish was wrong. This year it seemed that every level of government was doing its best to harm small business, especially the key Alberta industries.