With 2,847 residential units sold last month, Edmonton’s real estate market had an 11.4 per cent slowdown from May.
In its monthly report released Thursday, the Realtors Association of Edmonton (RAE) reported a cooling of the Edmonton real estate market from May.
While the market showed a more than 11 per cent slowdown, RAE said in its report that it’s still not all bad news because even with the decrease, it’s still 10 per cent higher than June 2023.
The number of new listings also declined, according to the report. At 3,712 in June, new residential listings are down 12.2 per cent from the month before, but year-to-date listings are up 2.3 per cent.
In tandem with sales, the prices of Edmonton single detached homes fell slightly in June. In May, the average price of a detached Edmonton home was $539,000, but the average decreased by one per cent to $495,000 in June.
As the prices for homes came down slightly, apartments and condos increased.
“Apartment condominium average prices hit $211,583, increasing 2.3 per cent over last month and coming in 8.5 per cent higher than the previous year,” the report said.
The report also indicated that rents are on the rise, too. RAE said in May the average price in Edmonton for a one-bedroom rental was $1,357, which rose nine per cent to $1,480. Two-bedroom rents increased by 14 per cent — from an average of $1,480 in May to $1,688 in June.
It wouldn’t be uncommon for the market to slow down in the summer months. As the summer sets in, the market often cools off. A June 2023 RAE report said the market activity was down 2.1 per cent compared to 2022, and 4.6 per cent from May 2023.
Wendy Theberge, a RE/MAX Elite realtor, said she’s noticed a different trend on the front lines of Edmonton’s market that RAE’s numbers indicate.
“Typically, I would have planned a holiday in August, three weeks, and I am not going anywhere because things are just rocking and rolling yet again,” Theberge said.
The “fits and starts” were fairly common for this time of year, but Theberge said there is no “typical” ever since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past two weeks, Theberge said she’s noticed a ramp-up in the market, though it’s not to the extent that it was a month ago when she said it was common to have multiple offers. She even had one property sell for more than $20,000 over the listing price.
“It looks like we are still in a very intense seller’s market.”
Theberge’s research indicated Edmonton had 1.8 months of inventory for single-family homes.
She explained what the inventory meant: “If we don’t get any more listings tomorrow, it’ll take 1.8 months to clear out the inventory in Edmonton.”
Theberge said a balanced market usually has four to six months of inventory, putting Edmonton in a squeeze.
“At the end of the day, what’s happening right now is I am very busy.”
Thankfully, the market will get more listings, but the decreased stock could push prices higher as the tighter supply competes with higher demand.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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