Central Alberta Real Estate Blog

http://www.carlstepp.ca

In spite of the heat and smoke, August turned out quite nicely in Red Deer, Lacombe, Sylvan Lake and Blackfalds with stronger than expected sales.  At the same time the number of active listings continued their downward trend, pushing supply and demand slightly closer to balance.  Ponoka, Rocky Mountain House and Penhold didn’t experience the same sales activity, but the number of active listings did come down slightly.  Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to get the market back to balance and prices will remain depressed until then.

For the last three and a half years the Alberta real estate market has experienced excess inventories, slow sales and declining prices.  Any gains we should have made from the economic recovery have been offset by crippling changes the federal government applied to mortgage qualifying rules.

Will the ongoing challenges to construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline will affect the real estate market?  The simple answer is yes, but it’s important to note there is still hope that the issues can be resolved.  The Federal Government is heavily invested in this project both politically and financially and must find a solution.

June sales in central Alberta were down compared to May in most central Alberta markets except Red Deer, which managed a slight increase.  In that time the number of active listings has experienced slight increases in some markets and slight decreases in others.

There are several big picture issues that are influencing the real estate market in Alberta, positive and negative.  On the positive side, oil prices are up again and there appears to be some good news on the pipeline front – Kinder Morgan still in progress rather than stopped completely, Enbridge’s Line 9 has received further approvals in the U.S (although there are still some regulatory hurdles) and even the long-delayed Keystone appears to be making headway.  And, for the first time in three years, Alberta experienced a positive net interprovincial population increase in the first quarter of 2018.

On the negative side, the escalating trade war between Canada and the U.S. is causing some real financial stress for some, but more importantly, anxiety and a loss of confidence on the part of many Canadians.  That loss of confidence causes people to hesitate when it comes to large decisions, one of the most important being home purchases.  We do believe the market may have bottomed out with better prospects for the balance of the year on the assumption that the trade issue doesn’t escalate further.

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