Buying a home in Edmonton will cost slightly more than last year but the overall cost of housing is still well below the national average, according to a house price survey released by Royal LePage Thursday.
The aggregate price of a home in Edmonton from April to June this year was $450,600 — a 3.7 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Across Canada, the aggregate price of a new home was $824,300 in the second quarter of 2024 — a 1.9 per cent increase from the same time last year.
Aggregate price factors in all housing types: single-family detached homes, townhouses, row housing, apartments and condominiums — new developments and resale.
In Edmonton, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 5.5 per cent year over year to $497,200 in the second quarter of 2024. The median price of a condominium increased 4.2 per cent to $201,600 during the same period.
Tom Shearer, a broker for Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate, said the increase in prices and the rate of sales have been steady compared to other parts of the country.
“If you’re a seller and you’re putting your home on the market at the right price, you’re going to see action. You can count on your home being sold,” Shearer said in an interview with CBC News Thursday.
“If you’re a buyer, you kind of have, first of all, more selection than other parts of the country compared to what we’ve seen in the past.”
The odd property for sale in Edmonton might get some competition but that usually means six or seven bids, he said.
In other hot markets, there might be 10 to 20 bids where, for a buyer, “you’d have to go hundreds of thousands of dollars over to beat or meet whatever was going on out there,” Shearer said.
It’s not hot and it’s not cold, he said.
“I’d almost call it like a Goldilocks real estate market because it’s not going up exponentially.”
That fairy tale may be inching toward an inevitable denouement.
Low inventory, rising demand
Growing demand and population are expected to change the affordability advantage in Edmonton.
“We are on pace to be the busiest market in Edmonton’s history,” said Chris Proctor, a real estate associate in Edmonton with MaxWell Realty.
Now, prices are going up while inventory is low and more people are moving to the province.
“Other markets are so expensive that people are actually reconsidering their lives, where that was not something you would see five years ago,” Proctor said.
“Day to day, I’m getting calls from people from different parts of the country, saying ‘We’re thinking about relocating here,’ or maybe they moved away and they’re thinking about moving back because it’s so much better of a life.
“With immigration and interprovincial migration and really just the lack of inventory overall, it’s pushing the home prices up, in Alberta.”
Shearer also said more housing is needed.
“Really, the only thing holding us back in the Edmonton market from having an even better year is the lack of inventory that’s available for buyers.”
Edmonton city councillors have raised that alarm for months, as the population increased 10 per cent in the past two years.
More than 100,000 people moved to Edmonton, driving the population up to 1.14 million in 2023 from just over one million in 2021, according to Statistics Canada and City of Edmonton projections.
Another 100,000 people are projected to move to the Alberta capital within three years.
Comeback of the condo
Buyers are taking an interest in condominiums again, Proctor said, after a decade of drought.
“We’re finally starting to see some pulse to it, which we honestly haven’t seen in 10 years,” Proctor said. “It’s been really, really bad.”
Other forms of housing are growing in construction and popularity — townhomes, row housing and duplexes, Proctor noted.
That’s in part because of the city’s new zoning bylaw that allows for higher density across neighbourhoods.
Country-wide
Prices in other parts of the country have spiked 20 per cent in one year, and those are starting to cool off, hence the minimal increase in some larger housing markets.
Toronto and Vancouver reported slower-than-usual market activity this spring as inventory builds, while demand continues to outpace supply in Prairie provinces and Quebec, the report says.
Quebec City records its highest year-over-year aggregate price increase of 10.4 per cent in Q2.
In Calgary, the aggregate price of a home in the second quarter was $694,000, up 7.9 per cent compared to the same period last year.