Is the Average Calgary Home Price $823,000 or $566,700?
Both numbers are real, and they measure different things. CREB®’s September 2026 detached benchmark — a typical, quality-adjusted home — was $739,400, down 0.8% year over year. The $823,000 figure in circulation is an average sale price, up 5.3%, which a handful of expensive sales can move on its own. Compare benchmarks, not averages.
The two numbers, side by side
If you have looked up what your home is worth in the last week, you have probably seen both of these and assumed one of them was wrong. Neither is. They answer different questions.
Look at the direction of travel. One says prices eased slightly. The other says they rose more than five per cent. Same city, same month, same source data.
What a benchmark actually is
A benchmark price is CREB®’s estimate of what a typical home in a given category would sell for — a consistent set of characteristics held steady month to month: size, age, bedroom count, lot, garage. Because the home being measured does not change, a movement in the benchmark means the market moved.
An average is just every sale added up and divided by the number of sales. It makes no attempt to hold anything steady. If three $2 million homes close in a quiet month, the average rises — even if every single home in the city is worth slightly less than it was.
Where the gap comes from
Calgary’s detached market runs from roughly $400,000 in the outer northeast to well past $3 million in the inner southwest. Averages are extremely sensitive to which end of that range was busy in a given month.
A neighbourhood like Springbank Hill shows the effect plainly: a small number of sales there, at prices several times the city benchmark, can lift a citywide average by thousands of dollars without a single homeowner in Martindale or Rundle being any better off.
That is the whole gap. $823,000 is not a richer version of $566,700. It is a different calculation, pulled upward by the top of the market.
September 2026 benchmarks, by property type
This is the table worth keeping. The citywide benchmark is almost useless on its own, because Calgary’s property types are not moving together.
| Property type | Benchmark price | Months of supply |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | $739,400 | just over 3 — balanced |
| Semi-detached | $685,200 | — |
| Row / townhouse | $412,400 | above 4 — first time in 2026 |
| Apartment | $291,400 | above 5 — favours buyers |
| All residential | $566,700 | 3.9 |
Citywide, September saw 1,650 sales, down about four per cent year over year, with 3,354 new listings and total inventory of 6,486 homes.
Which number should you use?
| If you are… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Asking whether prices went up or down | Benchmark | It holds the home constant, so the change is the market |
| Pricing your own home | Neither, on its own | You need comparable sales in your community and property type |
| Comparing one year to another | Benchmark | Averages are distorted by whichever price band was active |
| Reading a headline | Check which one it quotes | Most do not say, and the two tell opposite stories this month |
The short version
When someone quotes you a Calgary home price, ask one question: benchmark or average? If they cannot tell you, the number cannot be compared to anything. As of September 2026 the detached benchmark was $739,400 and easing slightly; the detached average was around $823,000 and rising. Both are accurate. Only one of them is about the market.
What is your home actually worth?
I will pull the recent comparable activity for your community and property type and send you a written comparative market analysis — the benchmark for your segment, the homes competing with yours, and a price range with the reasoning shown. No cost, no obligation, and it is yours to keep.