The Central Alberta real estate market is setting a pace rarely seen in the past 40 years, and detached and semi-detached homes are reaching record prices, now firmly having surpassed our previous market heights of 2014.  Immigration levels into the province are well surpassing new home construction levels indicating that our low inventory is going to be an ongoing problem for the foreseeable future.

Buyers waiting for interest rates to drop will ultimately end up paying more, as the price increase we’ve seen over the first 4 months of the year will have negated any savings they would have seen from a 0.25% rate decrease.  According to our stats, Red Deer is sitting on 1.4 months of inventory, meaning at our current pace of sales, if we didn’t list any new properties, it would only take 1.4 months before there was no houses left on the market.  In a balanced market, we’d be looking at 3-4 months of inventory.

Detached and semi-detached homes under 600k continue to be in the highest demand.  Interestingly, while those houses are selling very quickly and often in multiple offers, homes over $600,000 are actually in buyers markets.  Sales are happening, but at a much lower pace in comparison.  Given general day to day cost of living increases, along with higher interest rates, it’s not surprising that a smaller percentage of buyers can afford to buy more expensive homes.

Inflation appears to be heading in the right direction still, but home prices across the country generally appear to be holding in most markets, and increasing in others still, so the Bank of Canada is being cautious right now about rate drops.  Dropping the rates will inevitably cause prices to push higher as more buyers will come into the market, further pushing demand despite limited inventory.  At this point, I’m not confident we’ll see any rates drop in 2024, but time will tell.

On another positive note for the economy, the trans mountain pipeline is now fully active, allowing us to sell our oil to world markets.  This will help keep our prices higher during oil price slumps and increase demand for Alberta oil products, providing further stability to our already vibrant economy.

Surrounding Community Snapshot:

Blackfalds:

Current Active Listings – 28

Sales in March – 24

Likelihood to Sell – 86% (Seller’s Market)

Sylvan Lake:

Current Active Listings – 112

Sales in April – 69

Likelihood to Sell – 61% (Seller’s Market)

Penhold:

Current Active Listings – 12

Sales in March – 6

Likelihood to Sell – 50% (Seller’s Market)