November’s unit sales were 3,525 units, down approximately 3% over last year due to weak sales in Wood Buffalo and South-Central Alberta. Overall, year-to-date sales are below long-term trends.
Year-to-date housing starts are 2.6% below last year however, depending on the market some locales are building substantially more homes than last year. The bulk of new home construction has been row or semi-detached homes, and multi-unit/apartment.
Housing inventories remain high despite improvements in sales in the province’s major cities and a slowdown in new listings. This has helped create a buyer’s market in many regions as housing prices have dropped. The average sale price of a home has seen a year-to-date decrease of 2.5% in Alberta with only Lethbridge seeing a sizable increase in sale prices. Wood Buffalo has seen the largest decrease, showing a year-to-date decline of 6.7%.
The following table provides a snapshot of key indicators for Alberta’s major centres. More detailed information of the individual centres is available in the
local reports.