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Real eState
Record-breaking February sets up strong spring real estate market – Edmonton Journal
Out-of-province investors may help keep inventory tight while many local buyers looking for a place to call home in coming months.
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It’s official. This past February was a month for the record books for Edmonton’s real estate market.
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Realtors of Association of Edmonton figures from last month show 2,258 sales took place in the Greater Edmonton Area. A new record was set for single-family detached home prices, recent numbers from the association reveal.
“The single-family home average sale price of $493,000 was something that really stood out,” says Tom Shearer, broker/owner of Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate.
“The board didn’t shoot off any confetti or things like that, but we hit a new high mark definitely in February,” adds the former chair of RAE.
The average price has increased almost 13 per cent from the same month last year, and almost 11 per cent from January.
The average price for all homes reached $411,464, which RAE states is the highest price dating back to 2005 — likely also a record for the city. The price grew about nine per cent, month over month and year over year, RAE statistics show.
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What makes the data all the more remarkable is February is typically a slow period for the market, as opposed to March, April and May when sales activity is usually strongest in any given year.
“Normally, we see 1,075 transactions in February, so what we saw is more than double that last month,” Shearer says.
Supply also grew last month with 2,962 new listings. Despite the largest rise in supply in recent years, the sales-to-new-listings ratio, indicating whether conditions favour buyers or sellers, increased to 76 per cent from 61 per cent in February last year. (A ratio exceeding 60 per cent is generally deemed to indicate market conditions favouring sellers.)
“February numbers show exactly what agents and buyers are feeling,” says Bev Hasinoff, realtor with Liv Real Estate in Edmonton.
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Sales and prices, especially for single-family detached homes, have surged due to a lack supply, she says. Even with the rise in new listings, she notes the supply of single-family homes is less than one month.
“You go to viewings of new listings assuming that, if you like it and want to write an offer, you will be competing for it,” she says.
What’s more, sellers either need to buy their next home before listing, “or sell first and risk not having somewhere to go.”
Consequently, the heated conditions are giving some would-be sellers pause, she says.
Shearer concurs homes are selling very quickly. He points to the average home remaining 40 days on the market. That’s down from a peak of 60 days in April 2020.
Yet some communities are particularly seeing strong demand. Shearer points to Sherwood Park listed homes staying on the market for an average of 17 days.
Heading into spring, supply is likely to remain tight as demand builds, driven not just by local buyers looking for a place to call home, but also by investors from out of province, he says.
“I also think we’re going to see more migration driving the market with a recovering economy,” Shearer adds. “So we are likely to see a really busy March and April.”
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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.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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