Real Estate update December 2017

Residential sales activity reported through the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Alberta numbered 4,465 units in October 2017, down 1.3% from a year earlier. It was also slightly below the 10-year average for the month. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 50,004 units over the first 10 months of the year, up 8.5% from the same period in 2016. Nationally, home sales activity was down 4.3% from year-ago levels in October 2017. The provincial average price for homes sold in October 2017 was $395,429, edging up 1% from a year earlier. The year-to-date average price figure was $400,301, up 1.5% from the first ten months of 2016.The national average price, by comparison, rose 5% on a year-over-year basis to $505,937 in October 2017. Across Alberta, monthly residential average prices were up from year-ago levels in South Central Alberta (+8.3%), Medicine Hat (+4.9%), The Edmonton board (+4.9%), Central Alberta (-2.9%), Calgary (+3.3%) and Alberta West (-0.19%). Meanwhile, average prices declined in Lloydminster AB (-2.2%), Lethbridge (-4.4%), Grande Prairie (-11.6%) and Fort McMurray (-14.7%).

New listings on the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Alberta numbered 8,484 units in October, rising 10.8% from a year earlier. This was the highest level for the month in nine years. Active residential listings numbered 30,466 units at the end of October, up 12.6% from one year earlier. This was the highest level for the month in nine years. There were 6.8 months of inventory at the end of October 2017, up from six months at the same time one year ago and above the long-run average for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The value of all home sales in the province totaled $1.76 billion in October 2017, edging down 0.4% from October 2016. The dollar volume of all home sales in Canada edged up 0.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sales of all property types in Alberta numbered 4,708 units in October, down 3.6% from October 2016. The value of those sales amounted to $1.9 billion, a decrease of 3.4% from a year earlier. A total of 1,845 home sales were recorded through the MLS® System of the Calgary Real Estate Board in October, down 10.3% from a year earlier. The combined value of home sales activity in Calgary was $850.4 million, 8.2% below year-ago levels. There were 1,589 home sales recorded through the MLS® System of the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton, up 8.6% from October 2016. The total value of home sales in Edmonton was $596.6 million in October 2017, up 14% on a year-over-year basis.