Allan Melbourne, president, Central Alberta Realtors Association for 2020. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Wait And See

Cautious optimism for local real estate market in 2020

Jan 2, 2020 | 4:05 PM

The new president of the Central Alberta Realtors Association (CARA) is describing 2019 as a slight improvement over the year previous for the local real estate market.

However, Allan Melbourne says the local market is still grappling with a sluggish economy.

“Residential sales numbers are down a little bit from year-over-year, but the most active part of the market continues to be the lower end of the price bracket, you know the $250,000 to $350,000,” he explains. “It continues to be a buyer’s market. There’s more inventory, more supply than there is demand.”

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the number of units sold in Red Deer as of November, 2019 came in at 1,223 – down from 1,272 units sold by November, 2018.

Melbourne says he doesn’t see those conditions changing much over the upcoming year.

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“We’re still just kind of waiting to see if Premier Kenney’s election promises come to fruition,” says Melbourne. “Of course the pipelines are supposedly going ahead, we’ve got one of them that is up and running while the other two are on-again, off-again. That would make a big difference to get our oil and gas out of the province in a little bit more of an economical fashion.”

The ”Mortgage Stress Test” is an area Melbourne also highlights as having a major impact on central Albertans.

“The Mortgage Stress Test has done what it was designed to do. Vancouver, Toronto, the markets that were superhot, prices were extremely high and it certainly slowed things down there, but it has hurt Albertans for sure.”

In terms of price, statistics show the average price for a single family home in Red Deer was $321,141 in November, up from $316,242 in November, 2018.

Melbourne acknowledges that the current inventory of homes for sale is the result of many factors, including people’s economic circumstances and job locations.

“They’re moving for jobs and there’s buyers out there that are looking to move up to a bigger home,” he exclaims. “And of course with the current conditions, it’s a great time to sell your smaller home and move into a bigger home. We’re seeing some folks that are downsizing, so there’s a lot of factors going on in there for sure.”

According to CREA, the average number of days to sell a home in Red Deer was also a little higher in most months of 2019, with January seeing the largest amount of days to sell a home at 82.

Melbourne says both buyers and sellers have to be patient with current market conditions, adding first-time home buyers should seek-out an experienced agent for help.

“Of course prior to going out and looking at properties, make sure that their mortgage and financing are in place and go out and spend some time looking at houses and make a wise decision based on the needs of your family,” he explains.

For those looking to sell, Melbourne encourages owners to have their home staged properly.

“You only get one opportunity to make a first impression,” he warns. “It has to be priced well, it has to be based on the market and buyers need to understand that they’re not going to go in and get a super deal on a property. You can’t low-ball properties, you have to go in with a fair and reasonable offer and the same applies to the seller, you have to look at fair and reasonable offers.”

Melbourne admits they’re now in wait-and-see mode in terms of what to expect in 2020.

“We took some small steps forward in 2019 and we’re just kind of waiting to see what election promises come ahead,” says Melbourne. “We’re anticipating a little bit better market in 2020, but it’s certainly not going to be anything in leaps and bounds. It’s going to be very slow and very steady throughout the year.”