Most Canadian cities have made it almost unaffordable to buy a home, but in Alberta we are staying relatively low in prices which is one of the reasons our market is on fire right now. As realtors in YEG and area, we are seeing a huge increase in homes going onto the market and buyers lining up at the damn door to put in offers. What may surprise you is that the split is almost even between first time home buyers, seasoned home buyers and property investors.

Alberta is hot right now; in fact we were just voted the 4^th most affordable city to own a home on the entire planet! WTH right?! Who would’ve thought! If you’re sitting back calling BS on this, we dare you to do a simple google search and see what other cities in our country and around the world are listing homes at. You will be surprised at how affordable and desirable Edmonton truly is.

You may be asking yourself why us, why Alberta? We were held back from the normal country upticks in Van and GTA due to the recession of 2014, and not to get political, but hey we are going to anyway, having a political war like we haven’t seen before didn’t help. We were more focused on slander of other parties, overtaxing citizens, stunting new businesses with taxes and lack of support and don’t even get us started with covid. These things pulled back our growth potential. BUT even through all of that, we only dropped 1% overall in residential sale prices across Edmonton and surrounding areas. Crazy, we know.

Our area and economy was so strong mostly due to the people’s perseverance, public service, and manufacturing jobs it held its own against everything that was thrown at it. Yeah, we pretty much rock as a province. Now in 2022 with oil, lumber and new tech booming in Alberta it is only pushing for higher wages and a stable economy.

We foresee a rise in the market for the next 3 years until they call another election. At that point we will see a halt because each party will come out with cost freeze initiatives and new home build incentives like they have done time in time again. None of this will help and the 2–3-year foreign investments halt will end. Foreign investors will flood our market and draw it up again. Round and round we go insert eye roll. Within 5 years we could see the average home sale price over 500K, just two years ago this was around 360k

Probably not what you wanted to read while sipping your morning coffee unless you are holding property with no outlook on upsizing, but with our team we say it how it is… even if we must sprinkle a little sarcasm on the reality of what is really going on in our province when it comes to buying and selling homes.

Living in Alberta will continue to be affordable compared to other major markets, if we see a slow in the market, and by that we mean a trickle, like savouring a glass of fine wine with a steak dinner, we are sure a low gradual uptick in prices will come shortly after. If we start jumping 10-20% a year like other Canadian markets that is too fast for middle class wages to keep up and we could be in trouble for the generation trying to get into their first home.

What’s the takeaway? Research, invest your time into understanding the market, and if you don’t feel like doing any of that, we are here for you to ask us anything, anytime. Hit us up for a chat, we really like going for beers and wings and on warm days sitting on a patio, but phone calls work too.

 

The Beech Woolger Team