St. Albert’s housing market picked up a bit last month despite sales being lower than they were in May 2018.
Sales for single-family homes in the city were 96 last month, up by 28 from April, with an average price of around $460,900. This is slightly down from May last year, where the number of sales for single-family homes was around 106 with an average price of $456,034. Condo sales also saw a small drop from 34 in May last year to 20 this year. The average price for a condo was $278,685, up more than $24,100 from this time last year.
Michael Brodrick, chair of Realtors Association of Edmonton, said the big takeaway from these housing statistics is the market is moving.
“Sellers should not be afraid of listing their property,” he said on Thursday. “Buyers should not be afraid of buying property. There is movement in the market. There shouldn’t be fear of participating. I think both sides, both buyers and sellers, need to be patient as there is quite a bit of inventory still available.”
Brodrick explained St. Albert is usually ahead of other cities in terms of numbers, primarily because the sale sizes aren’t as large and that can skew statistics as well as any big sales that happen. The city also heavily features sales for single-detached homes and condos, which brings the overall residential sales number higher, he said.
“If we look at the general overall stats for May, we’re seeing a general trend upward month to month, which is very typical for us this time of year,” Brodrick said. “The weather’s getting nicer and people are looking to do things, so that changes a fair bit as we go along.”
Brodrick noted the numbers themselves are still lower than they were the last few years.
In 2017, the total sales volume was at approximately $59 million before it climbed to more than $60 million in 2018. That number dropped this year to roughly $51 million.
Brodrick said the numbers are creeping up but are doing so slowly.
James Mabey, a broker at Century 21 Masters, had similar insights on the city’s housing market, adding the overall sales volume in May went up by more than 17 per cent from April but only four per cent from this time last year. For him, the most positive numbers are the end-of-month inventory numbers.
“The new listings to market have come down year over year,” he said. “The reason (for that) is particularly interesting, because over the last couple of years we’ve had a lot of downward pressure on pricing, mostly because we’ve had an oversaturated market in terms of inventory. We just had far too much inventory than what can be absorbed by the marketplace. So as we start to see those inventory numbers kind of recede a little bit ... that’s going to take a little bit of pressure out of the marketplace.”
Inventory refers to properties like homes, apartments and condos. Mabey said the market was oversaturated because the demand didn’t match what was available. He believes the province’s economic situation played a role in causing some of that oversaturation.
He added more than 30 per cent of St. Albert’s inventory is priced over $500,000, while Edmonton (as an example, not as a comparator) has approximately 24 per cent.
Meanwhile, St. Albert is considered one of best places to benefit from the federal government’s first-time homebuyer incentive, according to a report by the real estate research company Zoocasa. The report states most of Alberta would widely qualify, with the exception of Canmore, Chestermere, Beaumont, Sherwood Park and Fort McMurray.
The government’s incentive program, which rolls out in September, offers loans to first-time homebuyers at five per cent for resale homes and 10 per cent for new build purchases. The loan is interest-free, paid back when the home is sold off or the mortgage matures. The total amount owed will go up or down based on the percentage of equity and market conditions.
