The market enjoys strong momentum coming into the spring months
While Edmonton’s new residential starts slowed down by more than 15% annually in February, the fevered pace of sales and price growth is likely to stimulate more construction over the next few months, according to a market observer.
“My expectation for the new homes market is we will see more strength as the year progresses,” said Taylor Pardy, senior analyst at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “One way to measure often indicating future starts growth is unabsorbed inventory. When that gets really low, builders generally ramp up production.”
An estimated 589 units represented the region’s unabsorbed single-family home inventory, Pardy said. To compare, the average pre-pandemic monthly unabsorbed inventory was at more than 1,000 units.
Read more: How busy will Canada’s spring housing market be?
Data from the Realtors Association of Edmonton showed that a total of 2,258 residential transactions were closed in February, up by 41.7% annually and establishing a new record high for that month. Similarly, the average single-family detached home price reached an unprecedented $493,543 (up by 12.7% year over year).
“We continue to see incredible momentum emerging out of the Greater Edmonton Area real estate market as we head into the warmer months,” said Paul Gravelle, the association’s president.
