Jack Frost Can't Scare Away Edmonton Home Buyers

As a testament to the true Canadian spirit hardy Edmonton home buyers braved FREEZING temperatures last month pushing sales to the second best January on record. It was so cold that the keys in the keyboxes that REALTORS use to show homes were literally sticking to my fingers when I took them out. The keybox containers were so cold that minor surgery could have been performed on my hands after holding them for a few minutes and I wouldn't have felt a thing.  Usually when the weather goes below -20 buyers aren't interested in trudging through snow and cold to see houses. All things considered confidence in the market seems strong.

So what's happening here? Prices rose, so did inventory, so did the number of sales, so did the time on market. You don't usually get every stat going up at the same time! So where exactly do we stand? The inventory is the highest it has ever been in January in Edmonton, the previous record was 5490 in 1996. High inventory means there is lots of choice for buyers, it also means that many of the properties on the market will not sell based on current sales.

As you can see, even with good sales, inventory remained high.

The sales to new listings ratio dropped back into "buyer's market" status. In other words, even though there were lots of sales, there were enough new listings in January to keep the ratio low. On the other hand, the ratio is typically fairly low in January.

So where do we go from here? Some expect prices to rise moderately, others expect pricing stability, others expect turbulence (up one month down the next). I think it will be somewhere between turbulent and stable... there are lots of buyers, reasonable affordability, and lots to choose from.  All in all it should be a good market to be in... unless of course  you're one of those sellers who needs to sell, and isn't successful. 

Lastly I always like to keep things in perspective... yes, prices are up over December, and they are up 9.3% over last January. But January's average price is still down from the overall average for 2007: