One major urban market continues to lag behind the region's other powerhouses
Western Canadian residential property markets had a strong October overall, but Alberta’s housing sector continues to lag noticeably behind that of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Alberta
Edmonton posted a 26.34% annual increase in home sales in October, despite experiencing a slight 0.21% decline from September. New residential listings also rose by 14.75% year-over-year, but fell by 7.43% from September. Overall inventory in the region decreased 12.1% annually. The average sales price across all residential property types, $382,060, grew by 1.5% versus September and by 7.97% compared to October 2019.
“The Edmonton market has seen an increase in year-over-year unit sales, compared to a slight decrease in month-to-month sales,” said Jennifer Lucas, chair of the Realtors Association of Edmonton. “There have also been more sales of single-family homes, condos and duplexes compared to October of last year, while we’ve seen stable or decreasing month over month sales in all markets, which is typical for this time of year.”
Calgary saw 23% annual growth in its home sales in October, racking up a total of 1,764 transactions. According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, this pace outstripped the year-over-year increase in new listings.
“Over the past several years, higher lending rates and the stress test pushed many out of the detached housing market,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist at CREB. “However, recent declines in rates, combined with prices that are lower than several years ago, have brought back some of that demand… This is helping support more balanced conditions and price improvements in the market.”
But while benchmark prices have trended up over the past four months and October prices were slightly higher annually, year-to-date, prices were 1% lower than 2019 levels and almost 10% below previous highs.
“Price improvements are not occurring across all product type and price ranges and downside risk still hangs over future conditions,” Lurie stressed.
Saskatchewan
As described by the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, the region has already “more than recovered” from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with sales activity swelling by nearly 52% annually. New listings were also up by 10% year-over-year, while inventory was down in 18 of the 19 markets in the SRA’s jurisdiction.
The median sales price was up in 12 of the 19 markets, while the number of sales was either flat or or higher in 17 of 19 markets.
“While it’s been suggested that the market would suffer due to COVID, this really hasn’t happened in Saskatchewan,” said Jason Yochim, CEO of the SRA. “The fact that sales and prices are up while inventories are down suggests the market has more than recovered and is doing better than last year – despite the pandemic… Even though we expect activity to fall off compared with the highs of summer, people still seem motivated and interested in real estate.”
Manitoba
October marked the provincial capital Winnipeg’s fifth straight month of record-setting strength with activity growing by 36% year over year to reach 1,595 transactions – representing a total sales volume of $505.3 million (up 48% annually).
New listings fell by 8.8% annually to 1,786 properties, while active listings dropped by 35% during the same timeframe to land at 3,545 by month’s end.
“Delayed spring 2019 market sales has more than made up for in the last few months with brisk sales activity,” said Catherine Schellenberg, president of WinnipegREALTORS. “Listings on the other hand, have been less so as a consequence sellers’ market conditions prevail.”
