Edmonton Real Estate Blog

What's hot in the Edmonton market? Condos near the U of A

It’s got to be an amazing thing to hear those words from your children “mom, dad, I got accepted to the UofA”.  The first thought is “that’s fantastic sweetie”, the second is "where are they going to live and how are we going to pay for it?" Many of the students come to the university from outside of Edmonton and without fail the summer market in Edmonton sees many parents shopping for a condo for their children.

On an annual basis June and July are some of the busiest months for sales of condos under $330,000 in the Edmonton area.  This is especially true in areas close to or with easy access to the U of A.

Over the years we’ve helped many families find condos for U of A students. Some have purchased for their oldest and then their sibilings have gone on to live there too. I’ve been around long enough that the original students I worked with are buying condos for their kids now!

The two biggest mistakes I’ve seen people who weren’t working with us make, is buying low quality because its cheap, and not looking deeply enough into the management of the condo association because they are pressed for time.

My best advice for people who are looking to buy something is to start doing their research early.  Perhaps a year in advance, and in my opinion you are better off buying earlier in the year and sometimes carrying it a few months instead of waiting until the last moment when you are competing against others in the same situation.

~Sheldon.

Edmonton Real Estate Market Weekly Update

Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market. (Previous week's numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days:

New listings: 499 (453, 448, 483)
# Sales: 337 (329, 421, 441)
Ratio: 68% (73%, 94%, 91%)
# Price changes: 191 (189, 203, 233)
# Expired Listings: 93 (308, 69, 102)
# Withdrawn/terminated/etc. listings: 26 (32, 34, 46)
Net loss/gain in listings this week: 43 (-216, -76, -60)
Active listings for single family homes: 2178 (2150, 2255, 2264)
Active listings for condos: 1828 (1797, 1908, 1934)

For the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton as a whole (including Edmonton and surrounding areas) there have been 619 sales so far this month, which could lead to over 2000 sales which would be another record breaking month. I don't expect the pace will continue though, as things tend to slow down each week into summer, but it's quite early to make any reliable predictions there yet.

The average residential sale price is sitting at $328k (about the same as last month), single family homes at $379k (up from last month) and condos at $237k (down from last month).

 

I had a quick look at what is happening in the $1 million plus market - so far this year there have been 26 sales in Edmonton over $1 million. High end sales have definitely picked up in the past two months - from January to the end of April there were only 7 sales over $1million, while in May there were 7, in June there were 10 and there have been 2 so far this month. The most expensive sale this year went for $2.25 million in Valleyview. It's still a tough market to compete in with 96 listings over $1 million currently on the market.

Happy Weekend!

A Sellers Market in Edmonton in June

No sooner had I pushed the publish button on my "weekly update" this afternoon did I receive notification from the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton that the monthly numbers were ready! I don't think they're trying to ruin my vacation but they are certainly giving me lots to do! Just kidding.... They obviously worked hard to correct the problem and release the numbers as quickly as possible.

Anyway, here is what June 2009 actually looked like:

That is a lot of sales! The highest number of residential sales for June ever (that I am aware of) and the third highest number of sales for any month (that I am aware of). What is causing this high number of sales? First it's seasonality - there are always more sales in the spring than in the rest of the year. Second, record low mortgage rates and lower prices. Third, there have been a lot of people sitting on the fence, waiting to buy for a couple of years now and a lot of them have decided now is the right time for them since things are more affordable.

Of course, with an influx of buyers comes more competition (we've seen this on many of our listings that have received multiple offers in the past two months) and increasing prices:

And more sales means dropping inventory. But that is not the end of the story... 

We typically would see the number of new listings drop in June, but they have stayed flat (3180 new listings in May, 3179 in June). Some home owners are starting to jump in with the buyers as well... what I mean is that I'm starting to get a lot of questions from owners who were thinking of selling a couple of years ago but decided to wait when the market turned. Many of these people rented out their properties, or some decided not to move up or down or out of Edmonton. My guess is many of these people are going to try selling again this summer because they feel the market is improving and it's time to cash out. I wouldn't be surprised to see a higher than normal number of new listings in July and perhaps even more than we saw this month.

What could this mean for the market? Well, for buyers that have reserved a rate with their lender it could mean more selection and less competition as the summer progresses, which would be an ideal time for many to buy. For sellers it could mean that they should put away their rose coloured glasses until next year (or maybe the year after that). Whatever it means, the market is certainly unpredictable and we're all going to have to wait and see what happens.

June definitely turned out to be the best month so far for sellers this year, with an 80% sales to new listings ratio is was most definitely a seller's market:

 

 The absorption rate also shows sellers had the upper hand, and for the first month this year I'd say the absorption rate was normal:

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend and I do look forward to the discussion that is generated by these numbers.

Edmonton Real Estate Market Weekly Update

Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market. (Previous week's numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days:

New listings: 453 (448, 483, 536)
# Sales: 329 (421, 441, 359)
Ratio: 73% (94%, 91%, 68%)
# Price changes: 189 (203, 233, 246)
# Expired Listings: 308 (69, 102, 112)
# Withdrawn/terminated/etc. listings: 32 (34, 46, 102)
Net loss/gain in listings this week: -216 (-76, -60, 36)
Active listings for single family homes: 2150 (2255, 2264, 2320)
Active listings for condos: 1797 (1908, 1934, 1969)

Since we're on holidays this week, the decrease in the number of sales in understandable...lol... Seriously though, this week is typically a slower week since many Albertans head off their on summer vacays.

 

Still waiting to hear on the final numbers for July. have a great weekend!

Record Breaking Home Sales in Edmonton

Happy Canada Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the day as much as we are. I was planning on doing a full report on the Edmonton residential MLS® sales in June, however, it appears as though the REALTORS® Association computer hit some sort of a glitch, and did not run the daily stats last night. From what I can see, the numbers reported today are exactly the same as yesterday (2425 sales, average residential sale price $327, 935, single family $370,696, condos $247,173). With it being a holiday I can't call anyone and find out what is going on.

That being said, I can give some information on what is happening in Edmonton specifically (as opposed to the whole MLS® region).

Single family home sales in Edmonton have been increasing essentially at the same high rate all year:

 

 

 

 

 

I may have an update for you tomorrow, depending on what happens with the daily stats, otherwise I won't have the final numbers until July 6 when the official numbers are released.        

Edmonton Real Estate Sales Watch

As of yesterday there have been 2425 residential sales reported by REALTORS® in the greater Edmonton area. That's a new record June for sales! With 1 day left in the month, how high will the new record be? Full report tomorrow!

Edmonton Real Estate Sales Watch

As of yesterday there have been 2304 residential sales reported by REALTORS® in the greater Edmonton area. That's a record June for sales beating the previous record (June 2007) of 2203. With 2 days left in the month, how high will the new record be?

Edmonton Real Estate Market Weekly Update

Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market. (Previous week's numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days:

New listings: 448 (483, 536, 516)
# Sales: 421 (441, 359, 377)
Ratio: 94% (91%, 68%, 73%)
# Price changes: 203 (233, 246, 207)
# Expired Listings: 69 (102, 112, 204)
# Withdrawn/terminated/etc. listings: 34 (46, 102, 29, 21)
Net loss/gain in listings this week: -76 (-60, 36, -86)
Active listings for single family homes: 2255 (2264, 2320, 2326)
Active listings for condos: 1908 (1934, 1969, 1935)

Wow the market is hot out there right now! Multiple offers all over the place... I've been expecting a slow down for a few weeks now and with the sales to new listings ratio at 94% it is hard to say things are slowing down.  I still do expect that it will be Alberta's highways that are busy next week with vacationers, not the real estate market (but I have been wrong before!):

 

So far this month there have been 2194 residential sales reported by the REALTORS®  Association of Edmonton. That is already more sales than we've seen in a full month of June in at least 10 years except for 2007 when there were 2203 sales which means this should be a record June for sales.

 

The average residential sale price currently sits at $327k, single family homes $370k (both down slightly for the past two weeks) and condos at $246k (up slightly for the past two weeks).

What can we say? There has definitely been a mood shift - from a buyers market to sellers market, from no confidence to lots of confidence. We talked a lot about people sitting on the fence last year, it must have been a really big fence. 

While the market has changed, so has our little company. Sarah MacDonald has joined our company as our Client Services Manager, and Justin Tazi has come on board as our newest REALTOR®. Justin has been a REALTOR for over 5 years and we look forward to bringing additional members to our team. Welcome aboard Justin and Sarah! We know these changes will allow us to better serve the needs of our clients and we plan to continue to grow in the months and years ahead. If you're interested in starting a career in real estate, or growing your career with an innovative, successful brokerage contact us today.

Happy weekend!

Edmonton Real Estate Market Weekly Update

Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market. (Previous week's numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days:

New listings: 483 (536, 516, 469)
# Sales: 441 (359, 377, 437)
Ratio: 91% (68%, 73%, 93%)
# Price changes: 233 (246, 207, 239)
# Expired Listings: 102 (112, 204, 85)
# Withdrawn/terminated/etc. listings: 46 (29, 21, 27)
Net loss/gain in listings this week: -60 (36, -86, -80)
Active listings for single family homes: 2264 (2320, 2326, 2400)
Active listings for condos: 1934 (1969, 1935, 2008)

Another week of high sales, perhaps there will be more sales this month than I predicted last week. So far this month there have been 1577 residential MLS® sales in the greater Edmonton area - if the pace continues we will see over 2600 sales this month but I do think the pace will slow down as the kids get out of school.

The average MLS® residential sale price is $328k, single family homes at $371k (both down slightly from last week), and condos at $249k (up from last week).

Have a great weekend!

Edmonton Brings up the National Average

All the Canadian newspapers are aflutter because the Canadian Real Estate Association released their monthly report today, with positive news. I think people tend to get over excited about these releases whether positive or negative, but, here is the gist of it.

Resales of existing Canadian homes showed continuing improvements in in May, with both the number of transactions and the national average price on the rise. The national average sale price in May hit the highest monthly level on record, at $319,757, which was up four-tenths of a percentage point from the previous record in May 2008.

The real-estate association said the dollar value of sales through its members reached $11.4 billion in May, up 10 per cent from the previous month and more than 50 per cent above the low of $7.5 billion in January.

The association said the the rebound in activity was led in some of the most expensive local markets in Canada and that had the effect up pushing the national average price upward.

Seasonally adjusted sales were up on a monthly basis in about 70% of local markets. Monthly activity gains in Toronto (9%), Calgary (25%), Montreal (10%), Vancouver (8%), and Edmonton (12%) contributed most to the overall increase in monthly activity.

"Inventory levels are still high in many markets, but fewer new listings and rising sales activity suggests that the selection of homes available for sale may shrink as the year progresses. The supply of homes up for sale needs to be drawn down further before average price increases become more widespread among local markets," said CREA economist Gregory Klump.