With all the volatility in the stock market, people are forgetting another investment vehicle -- real estate, says the president of the Calgary Real Estate Board.

Ed Jensen said Monday that appreciation values in Calgary's housing market have risen dramatically since 1990 when single-family home MLS sales averaged $136,842 and condominiums averaged $98,142.

"A residential home is the greatest long-term investment vehicle. The cost of land, materials and labour are not going down over the long term . . . The Calgary real estate market has weathered the current economic slowdown well. We've been working towards a normalized market since the first of the year. And slowly our inventory has been coming down and our market sales remain steady from January forward. I believe we'll continue to do so and we're perfectly positioned for long-term investment opportunities right now in this market if someone's looking to buy," said Jensen.

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Font:****According to realtor Mike Fotiou, of First Place Realty, so far this month up to Oct. 26 the average MLS sale price for a single-family home was $446,698 while for a condo it was $291,458. Both are slightly up from the sale price average in September.

However, the month-to-date sale prices are down from last year, when they were $452,254 for single-family homes and $331,617 for condos.

Fotiou's website also shows single-family home sales so far this month were 675 (1,152 for September) and 329 for condos (465 in September). For all of October 2007, there were 1,113 single-family home sales and 501 condo sales.

The average MLS sale price for single-family homes peaked at $505,920 in July 2007 while for condos it peaked at $332,237 in May 2007.

Jensen agreed that some potential homebuyers might be fence-sitting waiting to see where prices are going in the local real estate market, but he added there is a selection of property for sale today which allows a potential buyer the ability to negotiate the price.

"We may be in for some continued slower times for this quarter, but I believe this is the kind of market where real estate bargain hunters can find those great deals, but if you're not out there looking you can't find the best deal. And it's hard to negotiate the best deal when the market has turned the corner and everybody's buying," said Jensen. "I believe there are people out there just trying to time the market like the stock market."

There is definitely some fence-sitting taking place now in Calgary's real estate market, said Lai Sing Louie, senior market analyst in Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

"Once you're in buyer's market conditions when there's some price weakness it tends to affect people's confidence. So, similar to a stock market where people were buying at a certain price and then prices start falling, they don't know if they should sell or when they want to come back into the market . . . at some point they will. But usually as prices stabilize and tend to start to drift up, people get the sense that we're in balanced conditions again," he said.

Two major things have happened in October, but it's uncertain how that has impacted MLS sales in the Calgary market, said Louie.

Mortgage changes took effect Oct. 15, which include the requirement for buyers to put down at least five per cent for a down payment. The federal government also implemented a reduction of government-backed mortgages from maximum amortization periods of 40 years to 35 years.

Another factor in the current MLS sales is the "tremendous erosion" in equity values on the stock market. So people who were saving for a down payment will likely have to wait for those equities to rebound, said Louie.