The average price of a St. Albert home jumped 11 per cent in the last year, statistics released by the Realtors Association of Edmonton show.
The average selling price of a detached home in February was $429,000, an increase of 11.3 per cent over the $385,000 average posted in February 2009. Contributing to the increase was a lack of good homes on the market, said Denis Lamothe, manager of St. Albert’s Coldwell Banker Panda Realty.
“We seem to be struggling here in St. Albert to find good listings to sell,” Lamothe said. “Good quality homes are usually gone in a day or two, if they’re priced right.”
There are currently 262 homes listed in St. Albert, 165 of them single family. Inventory levels are increasing but not to the point that it’s becoming a buyer’s market, Lamothe said.
New federal financing rules announced in mid-February are also contributing to healthy buyer interest. These rules require that homebuyers qualify for a five-year fixed-rate mortgage rather than a three-year mortgage, which was the previous minimum. The changes take effect April 19 but some banks are already implementing them, Lamothe said.
And this has some buyers jumping into the market.
“They’re trying to get in underneath the wire,” Lamothe said.
Real estate prices are definitely on the way up after falling from mid-2008 into 2009, said Larry Westergard, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton.
“Prices weren’t going to drop any further so they had to come up,” he said, adding that prices are still well below heights seen in 2007.
“We’re not there yet. It’s going to be a while before we get back,” Westergard said.
The price increase experienced in St. Albert over the last year is nearly twice that posted through the Edmonton region overall. This is a reflection of St. Albert’s continued status as a desirable and somewhat homogeneous market, Westergard said.
The average selling price for a St. Albert condominium, which the board just started reporting, was $281,000 for February, a 5.4 per cent increase over the average posted in February 2009.
Box
February sales figures, St. Albert
2010 2009 2008
Single family
Units sold 48 51 48
Average price $428,782 $385,267 $473,439
Condominium
Units sold 19 10 21
Average price $281,336 $266,900 $284,533
