New report suggests city could see home-sales boom

Edmonton's housing market got a very notable bump in February with 60 per cent more detached homes sold than at this time last year.

According to the latest monthly report from Realtors Association of Edmonton comparing the year-over-year prices and number of homes sold in the Greater Edmonton Area, detached home sales totalled 1,159, a 60 per cent increase from the previous year.

The average price of an Edmonton home is now $407,458, a 10.4 per cent increase from February 2023. Detached homes, meanwhile, carry an average price of $508,411, representing a 5.2 per cent increase from January 2024 and up 10.7 per cent from this time last year.

Semi- detached unit sales showed an increase of 28 per cent year-over-year, with an average cost of $385,163, a nearly eight per cent increase from the previous year. Townhomes and row housing prices increased 2.4 per cent compared to January, and 9.7 per cent compared to this time last year, while carrying an average price of $275,735.

While apartment condominium sales also increased 46 per cent in February 2024 from the previous year, they went down in price, costing an average of $181,347, three per cent lower than in February 2023.

“It's expected that the spring market will be busy this year, but when you see detached single family homes are already selling 60.5 per cent more units than last year, it makes you sit up and take notice,” said association 2023 board chairperson Melanie Boles in a news release.

Not only are the homes selling at higher quantities and costs, but they're also selling at a faster rate. Detached homes averaged 48 days on the market, 12 days less than in January, while semi-detached homes spent 42 days on the market, 11 days less than last month. Overall, all residential listings averaged 50 days on the market, a seven-day decrease from February 2023.

Boles hopes that these numbers from February are a sign that spring will be a boom period for Edmonton's housing market.

“If the month-to month change in sales continues at this pace, it will be a hot market indeed.”