Another busy month for real estate in August!  A couple of notable items to point out:

• Detached home sales are still extremely active sellers markets up to $600k.
• Price points over $600k are in buyer or balanced market scenarios.
• Acreage sales have slowed down considerably, however there is very limited inventory at all price points except for the over 1M mark where there are 39 active listings in Red Deer County.
• Condo sales are also very active, largely due to price point affordability, which we haven’t seen since the last hot market in 2014.
• Inventory levels have once again dipped below 300 units in Red Deer, leaving buyers with limited options.

Despite sales and activity levels still being very high, we’ve noticed a bit of a correction in most price points from our market high in May, largely due to less competing offers.  Buyers are being a little more picky despite limited inventory, and while most properties (especially those under 600k) are still seeing high volumes of showings, we’re not being flooded with offers the way we were in the spring months.  Competing offers at the time were generally driving prices up over list, whereas most buyers are expecting to be able to negotiate off the list price for any homes listed for more than a few days now, especially at the higher price points.  

This has translated to price corrections generally of $10,000 – $20,000 on most properties compared to prices from April and May of this year (slightly less on more in demand price points, and sometimes more on the lower demand categories such as the 600k+ price points).  It’s not unusual to see a correction like this in a hot market, this happened in August of 2022 after interest rates peaked on July 31, and again in September of last year as the fall market kicked in.  While it happened earlier than expected this year, I do think things have balanced out now and we’ll see stable prices for the rest of the fall and winter months.

Interest rates dropped again this week, and ATB is forecasting two more .25% drops before the end of the year.  While the .25% drops won’t have an immediate impact on buyers, improving interest rates will continue to bring new buyers into the market as payments slowly become more affordable, and it’s likely this will lead into another hot spring in 2025.

If you’d like more specific insight to your own home and market segment, please reach out, and please feel free to pass this information along to any friends, family, and co-workers who may find it valuable.