Calgary’s Hottest Neighbourhoods of 2025 – Understanding the Price Growth Story

Calgary’s real estate landscape in 2025 tells a story that’s far more nuanced than citywide averages suggest. While headline numbers might indicate a cooling market, the reality on the ground reveals a tale of two cities; one where certain neighbourhoods and property types have maintained remarkable stability, and another where adjustments have been more pronounced.

A Market Divided by Housing Type

By September 2025, Calgary’s overall benchmark price sat at $572,800, representing a 4% year-over-year decline. However, this composite figure masks the dramatic differences playing out across property categories and neighbourhoods throughout the city.

According to analysis from Canadian Real Estate Wealth by Joanna Gerber, the performance gap between housing types has been striking. Detached homes experienced only a modest 1% decline to $749,900, while semi-detached properties actually posted gains of 1% to reach $684,800, making them the star performers of Calgary’s 2025 market. Meanwhile, row homes dropped 5% to $437,100, and apartments saw the steepest corrections at 6% down to $322,900.

These property-type dynamics have fundamentally shaped which neighbourhoods thrived and which struggled through the year.

The North West: Calgary’s Stability Champion

The North West district emerged as Calgary’s most resilient area, with a total residential benchmark of $633,200, down just 2.1% year-over-year, roughly half the citywide decline. This stability stems from the district’s fundamental composition: it’s predominantly built around family-oriented, low-rise housing rather than condo towers.

Communities like Varsity, Brentwood, Dalhousie, Edgemont, Hamptons, Citadel, Tuscany, Royal Oak, and Rocky Ridge all benefited from having housing stock concentrated in the city’s strongest-performing categories. Combined with established amenities like quality schools, LRT access, and mature retail corridors, these neighbourhoods attracted steady buyer interest that helped them weather rising inventory levels with minimal price impact.

West Calgary: Where Scarcity Drives Value

West Calgary delivered impressive performance with a benchmark of $707,300, driven by a unique combination of buyer demographics and limited supply. Neighbourhoods such as Aspen Woods, Springbank Hill, West Springs, Signal Hill, Strathcona Park, Patterson, and Cougar Ridge cater to move-up buyers who are typically equity-rich and highly selective about location.

These purchasers are drawn by specific schools, convenient commutes, and established amenities. Critically, there are relatively few comparable alternatives west of Sarcee Trail, which kept competition firm even as citywide listings expanded. This scarcity factor helped western communities avoid the oversupply challenges that created steeper declines in other parts of the city.

City Centre: The Infill Duplex Story

The City Centre presents perhaps the most interesting dynamic in Calgary’s 2025 market. While the September benchmark of $576,800 showed a 4.4% year-over-year decline, the district actually led the city in year-to-date growth with gains exceeding 4% compared to the same period in 2024.

This apparent contradiction is explained by the surging demand for semi-detached infill homes. Neighbourhoods like Altadore, Killarney/Glengarry, South Calgary, Richmond, Hillhurst/West Hillhurst, Mount Pleasant, Capitol Hill, Renfrew, and Bridgeland/Riverside have seen strong appetite for duplex-style properties, even as nearby condo developments softened considerably.

The infill market’s strength reflects broader buyer preferences in 2025, where low-rise options with urban convenience have commanded premium interest while apartment inventory has climbed to its highest levels since 2021.

South and Southeast: A Mixed Picture

The southern districts delivered varied results depending on neighbourhood composition. Detached-heavy communities such as Lake Bonavista, Haysboro, Canyon Meadows, Oakridge, McKenzie Towne, Cranston, Douglasdale/Glen, Mahogany, and Auburn Bay generally tracked the modest citywide detached trend with only shallow price adjustments.

However, areas built around newer condo developments followed the apartment segment’s trajectory, experiencing greater supply growth, slower sales absorption, and more significant price corrections.

Where Cooling Was Most Evident

The North East recorded Calgary’s sharpest decline at 7.9% year-over-year, with a benchmark of $485,000, while the East followed with a 6.5% drop to $409,000. Both districts added substantial inventory through late summer and lean heavily toward apartment units, which faced approximately five months of supply, the softest conditions in the city.

The North East’s condo market proved particularly challenging, posting a 10% year-over-year decline as supply outpaced demand throughout the district.

What This Means for Buyers and Sellers

Understanding Calgary’s 2025 market requires looking beyond citywide statistics to the specific dynamics shaping individual neighbourhoods and property types.

For sellers in strong low-rise areas, the data supports measured pricing strategies that reflect local market conditions rather than assuming citywide trends apply uniformly. Properties in these pockets can command firmer pricing because their reality aligns more closely with the detached and semi-detached segments than with the composite benchmark.

Conversely, sellers in areas dominated by apartments and newer row homes face a softer environment where competitive pricing and clean transaction terms often matter more than trying to achieve last year’s values.

Buyers and investors face corresponding opportunities and considerations. In established communities with predominantly low-rise housing and strong amenities, bargain hunting may prove limited, with decisions often coming down to paying fair market value for stable assets in proven micro-markets. In locations with heavier multi-family exposure, wider gaps between listing and sale prices can emerge, though these come with different considerations around future absorption and potential for further adjustments.

The Bottom Line

Calgary’s “hot” neighbourhoods in 2025 weren’t defined by dramatic price increases but rather by their ability to retain value in a normalizing market. Housing type, established amenities, supply dynamics, and buyer preferences all played crucial roles in determining which areas held firm and which adjusted.

The key insight from the Canadian Real Estate Wealth analysis is clear: Calgary’s market must be understood at the neighbourhood and property-type level rather than through citywide averages. Success in this environment, whether buying, selling, or investing, depends on recognizing these local patterns and adapting strategy accordingly.

As we move toward 2026, these fundamental dynamics are likely to continue shaping Calgary’s real estate landscape, making local expertise and data-driven decision-making more valuable than ever.