calgary real estate board
The Calgary Real Estate Board is a non-profit, voluntary membership organization with more than 5,500 licensed brokers and associates. . Their primary function is the maintenance of the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). The MLS is an important tool used in the buying and selling of real estate.
Orignating in the early 1920s, The Calgary Real Estate Board was registered in March 1929 in accordance to the Statutes of Alberta. Throughout the 1930’s and until the early 1940’s the group was fairly dormant, when Mr. Kennett Lyle sought to revive the board in hopes of better serving its members and to further promote the real estate business. At the time there was no other professional organization representing the needs of realtors in the Calgary area. At the first reorganization meeting, Mr. Clair J. Cote, Sr. was elected chairman and Kennett Lyle became secretary. The board also put together 5 committee members to rewrite the organization’s constitution. The Board at that time charged a fee of to active members and to associates.
In addition to the MLS, The Calgary Real Estate Board provides the public with information on buying and selling their property. One venue they use is their weekly publication, Real Estate News. This magazine combined with their monthly ‘Home to Home’ publication provides the general public with an extensive overview of the real estate market along with many in-depth and educational articles.
The Calgary Real Estate Board lists on their MLS more than 90% of the properties available in the Calgary and surrounding areas. The nature of this advanced technology gives the sellers more potential buyers and the buyers more options in property selection and price. By representing more than 260 member offices, the Calgary Real Estate Board is able to quickly put buyers and sellers together.
The Calgary Real Estate Board also keeps an eye on trends and related economic concerns for its members. Recently, the Calgary Real Estate Board forecasts that prices for single family homes would see a drop this year as price trends have stabilized. The board has indicated that this recent trend will cause a drop of as much as ,000 on an average selling price. This could ignite the market that has remained slightly stagnant the past 6 months. However, the Calgary Real Estate Board does not expect this drop to last too long. Their predictions for a 10% increase in home prices are expected to occur in early 2010.