The housing boom in Alberta is taking a major part of the blame for the increased levels of household debt. The inflated prices during that time caused many people wanting to own homes to borrow more than they really could afford. Roughly 38 percent of Alberta’s households, considered in the high debt burden category, are responsible for about 79 percent of the province’s household debt.

The Calgary Real Estate Board, or CREB, is expecting 2012 to be a good year for the market. They are predicting an increased demand for housing, and according to that group’s president, Sano Stante, the time to see the result of all the positive economic indicators is now. Those indicators include strong employment availability throughout the city and province, increased migration and an increasingly strong economic growth.

Re/Max put out their Housing Market Outlook 2012 report this past Tuesday, citing that Calgary is looking for at a higher demand for residential real estate in the coming year. In fact, the firm noted that Calgary will be the leader in the Canadian real estate market as far as MLS sales are concerned.

Calgary’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood is a bit of old fashioned urbanity in the midst of one of Alberta’s most populous cities. It is filled with bungalows dating back to the 1930s standing on large lots, near century old schools and churches and offering a bit of peaceful tranquility.

Calgary home prices have increased roughly 126 percent in the decade between 2000 and 2010. A report by Re/Max, released last Monday, noted that the housing market has seen a boost from the resurgence of the oil and gas industry, bringing in more people to the area, all needing a place to live. Renovation and new construction have also helped push up the home values.

The world’s economy, whether it is the currency market, commodities of equities, is in a financial dither. But within this insanity is one location where the economy, and subsequently its real estate market, is doing well.

Residential real estate in Calgary appears to be catching up with the already hot job market. This past October, home sales increased 14.6 percent over the same month in 2010, as noted by the Calgary Real Estate Board.

The Bank of Canada, noting a slightly weakened outlook for Canada’s economy, decided to leave its key lending rate sitting at one percent. That key rate has been one percent for over a year. At the same time the prime rate, used for computations on variable mortgages, will also stay at the three percent mark.