A young family’s struggle to find an affordable home in this city points to the need for more housing options in St. Albert.
RenĂ© Busque’s experience trying to find a home for his family highlights a lack of affordable housing for young families.
“There was pretty substantial gaps,” Busque said of his efforts to purchase a home this year.
He and his wife wanted to upsize from their condo to accommodate their family. They have three-year-old twins and wanted to find a single family home somewhere in the $200,000 to the low-$300,000s range.
They grew up in St. Albert and wanted to stay here, noting the excellent school system.
“It was virtually impossible to find anything in St. Albert with that limit,” Busque said.
They found more in their price point looking in Edmonton, though they were eventually able to find the right fit in Grandin.
Busque, who is a service technician for a homebuilder in Edmonton that specializes in starter homes, said he couldn’t find any new freestanding homes in St. Albert for similar prices.
“There wasn’t anything available for new houses,” he said.
A draft report examining the city’s housing options found St. Albert has a few gaps – including affordability for the age group looking for starter family homes.
Council has referred the draft report for review until the end of the year, but the initial version identified demographic, housing, growth and affordability gaps that could be addressed.
The report identified a declining number of people in the age group who might be looking to start a family.
“This is a population that will be looking for a home in the community in which they grew up,” said Coun. Gilles Prefontaine. “We need to have options, we need to have a diversity of housing that allow them to have that first starter home.”
The report also suggests there needs to be more housing options available for St. Albert’s growing seniors population.
One-person households are also growing and their needs should be considered as well, the report suggests.
There needs to be a wider range of housing types, ideally with lower prices than are currently on the market here, the report said. More rental options are also needed.
One-person or single-parent families can struggle to afford housing in St. Albert, the report said. There’s also too few options that cost less than $1,000 a month.
Forecasted growth for the next 30 years demonstrates a need for more higher density housing, the report says.
Median housing prices of single-family residential homes exceed the communities used for comparison by more than $100,000, the report said. In 2013, 57 per cent of the new single-family homes were priced more than $550,000, compared to 23 per cent in Edmonton or 10 per cent in Leduc.
Median house prices in St. Albert from the period between 2011 and 2013 were more suitable for a higher income than the actual median income of city residents.
Ryan Boser, a realtor with Sarasota Realty, said there certainly seems to be a demand for multi-family homes in St. Albert.
“We just actually completed our first multi-project on the building side of things, half duplexes over in North Ridge, and it went extremely well, better than anticipated to be honest,” Boser said, noting the price ranges for those units were between $340,000 and $400,000.
There aren’t many other options for brand-new homes under $400,000 in St. Albert, he noted, whereas there are more options in Edmonton under that price point.
Many people are looking for smaller housing as a starter home or to downsize, Boser said.
He said it’s positive the city is putting together such a report.
“I think it’s good the city’s being proactive on it, and taking a look at things,” Boser said.
