Housing sales up in July as market shows some signs of life: report

Following months of delays because of the COVID -19 pandemic, Edmonton’s housing market appears to be getting back to normal.

July sales for homes and condos in the area saw year-over-year increases in the range of 10 per cent, along with a bump from June of 3.91 per cent and 6.70 per cent, respectively, according to the latest Realtors Association of Edmonton report.

The recent increase in sales follows months of sluggish activity after the start of the pandemic in March.

Association chairman-elect Tim Shearer said everything has been delayed by a couple of months.

“June became April, July became May and hopefully, August becomes what July normally would be, which is another one of our busier months,” he said. “We’re seeing seasonally appropriate activity that we would normally see but we have a whole lot of catching up to do.”

The average price of a home went up from last month by 3.06 per cent to $436,142, which is 1.39 per cent more than in July 2019. Condo prices also saw an increase of 2.41 per cent month to month, as well as a .9 per cent increase from last year to $225,138.

Shearer said he’s surprised by how much the market has rebounded already.

“We’ve gone from a shutdown buyer … to a market that visually is starting to favour the sellers,” he said. “You’re having to navigate multiple offers in some situations. It’s amazing how fast the market shifted from one way to another.”

Shearer said the market was recovering from the economic recession and showing signs of improvement before the pandemic hit. He said it will be interesting to see if the market is able to return to the same level as it was last year.

The only decreases in the report were with new residential listings and overall inventory. New listings dropped 8.66 per cent from June but increased by 7.56 per cent from the year prior. The area’s inventory decreased 3.58 per cent from last month and 15.5 per cent from July 2019.

Shearer said where the inventory is right now is matching with the current demand. “We are in a seller’s market right now and the question is for how long,” he said.