Ok - Need to release - REAL ESTATE MARKET

[EdmBimmer]

So I just want to know if this is normal for other places in the world.....

I live in Alberta, and right now the real estate market is so hard to believe.

Back in late 2004, my wife purchased a condo flat for about $132k in Calgary. I moved down in the beginning of 2005 five and our wedding was that July.

Before we got married we considered building a house and found a great area in the northwest of Calgary (very sought after area). The price to build was $260k, and this was for a well appointed 1800sqft 2 storey w/ double garage. Since most of our money was already tied up in the wedding (25k), there was no money for a down payment. So that idea went to the way side.

For her wedding gift I got her a dog, and that prompted us to go looking for house again.

In the span of 3 months, the price to build the same house went up to $320k. After the wedding hit, we only had so much for a downpayment. We settled on buying a current house instead of building one, and found a garage-less house about 1400sqft for $226k. We sold our house for $170k and bought the $226k house. The equity from that paid for the remaining wedding bills and a trip to Mexico.

I lost my job in July of 2006, and we decided that a move back to Edmonton (we are both from Edmonton) was in store so that we could be close to family. At that time, Edmonton had no open lots to build. People were putting 25% down just to get there name on a list. The list only gave you the chance to bid on the lot.

That pissed us off, so we decided to buy a house on MLS. We found a nice townhouse condo for $290k, which was 1800sqft w/ attached double garage.

Here is were the fun starts. The house in Calgary was listed for $350k, and we sold it for $346k. We ended up with ~$120k in the bank. We paid off all our debt and still ended up with money to burn. I ended up investing $40k at a rate of 11%, with moderate risk. I also put some money away to renovate the condo in Edmonton. We painted the walls and installed hardwood, and the place looks modern now.

For shits and giggles my wife and I went to look at some showhomes. Found out there were some good lots in Riverbend (nice part of the city), and found out the price to build a good size house would be ~$450k. I had the bank look at the current value of the condo and they just got back to me.

$380k......and we bought it 6 months ago for $290k......

Just waiting to sign the paper work, but it is pretty much a done deal. And who knows what the condo will sell for in 11 months. The homebuilder is quoting 10-11 months, so we'll still be making more equity before we go to sell.

Is there anywhere else going through the same increases? The supply is still less than the demand, and they are predicting it to be like this for a few more years.