Trees are budding and houses are selling now that spring has arrived early in St. Albert. Even so, the harsh reality of the provincial economy is keeping the market from full bloom.
Single-family home sales were up 119 per cent over last month, but are still 13.9 per cent lower than this time last year.
St. Albert realtor Matthew Barry of RE/MAX said this month-to-month spike was the result of an “exceptionally poor” January and February.
“If we compare to last year, that wasn’t really a shocker to go up like that,” said Barry. “So far the year looked pretty drab, so you had a big increase from March to February.”
The fact that we are still lagging behind last year’s numbers is indicative of the overall state of the economy, he added.
St. Albert’s single-family home market is slower to pick up than the rest of the Edmonton region, which was down only 1.5 per cent in sales from March 2015.
Prices in St. Albert are also lagging behind Edmonton’s.
Single-family homes sold for an average of $474,010 in St. Albert this month, a 3.3-per-cent decrease over this time last year. The median price, at $438,000, was down 3.7 per cent over March 2015.
Prices in the Edmonton region were up slightly over last year, posting a 0.56-per- cent increase in the average price and a one-per-cent increase in median price.
Barry said this is due to St. Albert market composition. Selling higher-value homes was not an easy task this winter. But given the number of $600,000 homes he has been selling so far this month, he expects these numbers to change when next April’s statistics are released.
While the winter months may have been a buyer’s market, Barry said this is no longer the case. Properties are moving and prices are starting to even out. The average price was two per cent higher than February’s and the median price was up eight per cent over last month.
Inventory has gone up in the region, more than 3,000 properties came on to the market last month, but even so, it’s “tough shopping,” especially in St. Albert.
“There’s not a lot of choice out there. It’s higher than last year, but it’s not our highest point by any means for inventory,” he said. “Meaning it’s hard if you’re a buyer – you still want to be picky.”
Condo sales were up slightly over last month, but down 15.7 per cent over March 2015.
St. Albert condo sales have kept pace with last year (year-to-date sales were only 2.4 per lower than 2015), but single family homes are trailing by 23 per cent, with only 124 homes sold so far this year compared to 161 in the first three months of 2015.
