By rdnewsNOW staff

Quieting Market

Local housing market feeling impact of COVID-19

Apr 27, 2020 | 1:54 PM

It appears the economic impact of COVID-19 and its physical distancing guidelines are causing a bit of a slowdown in central Alberta’s housing market during what is normally a robust time of year.

Officials with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) say residential sales reported through the MLS® System of the Central Alberta REALTORS® Association numbered 256 units in March, up 1.6 per cent (four sales) from March 2019, but below average for the month.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 642 units over the first three months of the year — little changed from the same period in 2019, edging back 0.3 per cent (two sales).

Residential sales activity in all of Alberta, however, was down 8.5 per cent last month when compared to March 2019.

Elsewhere, the latest stats show 761 new residential listings in March, a decrease of 12.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

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The dollar value of all home sales in March was $73.6 million, up 5.9 per cent from the same month in 2019.

By comparison, the dollar value of all home sales in Alberta declined 10.9 per cent compared to March 2019.

Active residential listings numbered 3,398 units at the end of March, edging down 2.6 per cent from the end of March 2019.

Months of inventory numbered 13.3 at the end of March 2020, down slightly from the 13.8 months recorded at the end of March 2019 but above the 10-year average of 10.2 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

Sales of all property types numbered 270 units in March, edging up 0.4 per cent (one sale) from March 2019. The total value of all properties sold was $85.1 million, rising four per cent from March 2019.