Real Estate Review (Part 4)

Our fourth instalment of 2013 real estate in review is going to take a look at the communities that surround Edmonton; we will cast out to Beaumont and Leduc in the South, up through Devon to Stony Plain and Spruce Grove, across to St Alberta and up to Morinville then across to Fort Saskatchewan and finally south from there to Sherwood Park.  By the time we are through when you include our look at Edmonton we will have covered the overwhelming bulk of real estate in the Greater Edmonton area.

Unlike our look in Edmonton, I have created a couple of charts to summarize the comparisons between 2012 and 2013,  we can then consider where the markets are going in a brief summary paragraph for each.  While we might talk about some general trends, each community has organic features and influences that are unique to them alone.

The Numbers

First off, let's just get it out there that you need to take condominium stats in most of the markets with a grain of salt.  In many cases, even in those markets where condos sales are an established part of the market, there has been an increased introduction of complexes over the last year or so that is "bumping" numbers a bit.  Over all then, the takeaway for the condo market in the outlying communities should be that it is a market niche that is gaining much more traction over the past few years and one that I think will continue to expand.  Note though that it is one that is still a bit of a tougher sell in these markets - look at the days on market in many of the areas being at 60+ days.

There is plenty of good news in almost all of the single family home markets around the city of Edmonton.  Everyone of them posted gains in either price or transaction numbers.  Leduc, Stony Plain and Fort Saskatchewan were especially exciting as they all posted double digit unit gains and price increases of at least 3.5%.  The two negatives are in and of themselves somewhat trivial; Devon's drop in sales volume is 4 units which is offset by a 1.5% increase in price.  While the price decrease in Spruce Grove of .11% is really less than $500 and is more than compensated but the over 10% increase in units Sold.  All in all a very good report card for the communities.  Note thought that it is taking slightly longer to sell a home outside of the city (on average) and a a Buyer, you really are not saving as much as you used to,  In fact in four of the nine communities you will most likely spend more on an average home than you would in the City!

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A little bit more of a quick look at the surrounding regions but I hope you got a bit out of it.
Tomorrow is the Realtor's Association of Edmonton's annual forecast event.  On Friday I will make some comments on how they think the year is going to pan out and maybe discus a bit about the differences in our viewpoints!

Thanks again for reading and remember; if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to call or write!

Regards,

Larry
780-919-7653
lwestergard@remax.net