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Edmonton Real Estate Market

archited said:
Edmonton is fortunate in not having runaway inflationary house prices as is evident in other parts of the country.
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Maybe, but its a depressed market and one that continues to underperform. It is on par with Regina and Saskatoon good sir...
 
Greenspace said:
We have literally no growth boundaries. On top of that we have a regional approach to growth that doesn't always mean Edmonton is in charge. So despite record in-migration prices stay stagnant or even have been dropping.
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There are things such as economic cycles and the period from 2018 to 2020 was a particularly bad period here. It takes some time for excess supply to correct itself.

But when that happens, things can change quickly. I remember well how after slowly increasing for years, housing prices here almost doubled in about one year in the early 2000's.
 
IanO said:
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I'm curious, along with the equity people may accumulate as homeowners that are reflected in these stats, would the same be true for the development industry in all these cities?

For instance, do property developers and home builders in Edmonton have a similar rate of return that is significantly lower than the rest of the country?
 
I realize building up equity makes home owners feel good, but its not very meaningful unless you are somehow leaving the market (ex. renting, downsizing or moving somewhere else more affordable).
 
IanO said:
It is on par with Regina and Saskatoon good sir...
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There seems to be some hint of discrimination in that comparison... it is also good news for those cities. Extreme inflation tends to meet extreme bust at some point along the economic highway -- take San Francisco as a current example -- and extreme bust tends to lead to all other kinds of localized societal problems. Edmonton, Regina and Saskatoon are missing out on something that is generally bad.
 
IanO said:
Maybe, but its a depressed market and one that continues to underperform. It is on par with Regina and Saskatoon good sir...
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Depressed...or affordable?

It's a good thing that our market isn't experiencing the wild price appreciation as in other places. I don't want a 'starter' home/condo whatever to cost $500,000 here but I get why you do, since you're trying to sell your condo.

Those of us that are here for the long haul want housing to remain affordable.
 
I bought my house in fall of 2017 in an inner mature suburb. I have been lucky enough to exceed 18k equity growth, but do find myself jealous sometimes of other markets. Even if you are in Edmonton for the long haul, having extra equity available due to capital appreciation can allow greater flexibility in making big life decisions and building long term wealth.

I would be interested to see what all went into these calculations.
 
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Romanov said:
I bought my house in fall of 2017 in an inner mature suburb. I have been lucky enough to exceed 18k equity growth, but do find myself jealous sometimes of other markets. Even if you are in Edmonton for the long haul, having extra equity available due to capital appreciation can allow greater flexibility in making big life decisions and building long term wealth.

I would be interested to see what all went into these calculations.
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Ideally it would just keep pace with inflation over time, so I don’t think you need to feel lucky
 
Romanov said:
I bought my house in fall of 2017 in an inner mature suburb. I have been lucky enough to exceed 18k equity growth, but do find myself jealous sometimes of other markets. Even if you are in Edmonton for the long haul, having extra equity available due to capital appreciation can allow greater flexibility in making big life decisions and building long term wealth.

I would be interested to see what all went into these calculations.
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Yeah. What’s hard too is not wanting Edmonton to be unaffordable, but real estate appreciation in Canada is almost like currencies. If you spent 600k in Toronto in 2010 vs in Edmonton, one person’s currency is now doubled while the other is up 10-20%. Essentially, Edmontonians are becoming poorer than the rest of the country. No one here can sell and move to the other big cities with a ton of ease. But moving from those cities elsewhere gives unlimited options due to equity (wealth) gains.

I have friends in Vancouver with 600-800k to their names at 32 while never making over 6 figures purely due to the real estate out there. They can easily move here and buy a house cash now.
 
thommyjo said:
Essentially, Edmontonians are becoming poorer than the rest of the country.
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This makes absolutely no sense, from a financial perspective. For as long as our income (and disposable income) remains higher, which it has, you can always invest the surplus income in high return portfolios and actually get more appreciation than you'd have with real estate. It also frees up income to purchase multiple properties and have additional income streams, etc... It's much more a matter of financial education and risk aversion.

Expecting to build equity with such returns as those of the GTA or Lower Mainland is simply the laziest way to do it.

Not to say that it wouldn't be healthy for the development market in general, especially the condo market, if prices had a slightly more aggressive uptick, but frankly, unless wages rise as fast as real estate prices, I definitely don't think we want to see things like we saw in Toronto or Vancouver, where starter 600sqft condos cost $500k+, and if you ever want to have a family and live in a decently spacious place, you'd better hope that you are in a dual-income family with both making upwards of $100k/year to even begin dreaming about anything other than renting.

There has to be a balance between a healthy market and affordability, otherwise, what we'll see is a lucky few who will be able tu buy during this low period, make A LOT of money on these properties, and be left with generations of young people who cannot even dream about owning a home until they're closer to retirement than to their youth.

Also, I'll be the first one to say: if Edmonton gets nearly as expensive as Toronto or Vancouver I'll be the first one to jump on a plane a move to the GTA. As much as I love Edmonton, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that would make me chose Edmonton over Toronto in a condition of similar housing prices. Out of our major English speaking cities (sadly, I'm as likely to be able to build a career in Montreal as I am to do it in Moscow), the only one that comes relatively close to justifying the high housing prices is Toronto (by far the most complete metropolis of the country).

Honestly, at this stage, looking at housing prices, Edmonton (because it's affordable, especially considering wages and what the city offers) and Toronto (because it's a proper global metropolis) are the only two major cities I'd live in by choice. None of the others is worth what they cost, IMHO. Vancouver is overrated and neither Calgary or Ottawa offer much more to justify the price gap between them and Edmonton. If I was ever able to establish myself in Montreal, it would likely be my top choice, for lifestyle and affordability (almost as good as Toronto, just as affordable, if not more, than Calgary).

Note the that I don't consider Halifax, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Victoria or QC City as being nearly on the same tier as Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton, and Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto are also in a different tier.
 
EXCEPT that a majority of people now use their primary residence as their primary investment/asset/instrument.

Vancouver is overrated? It is one of the most beautiful urban metropolis' in the world with an incredible lifestyle, climate, culinary, arts and sports options with IMO the best airport in Canada. Is some of the pricing there stupid, yup, but it is a city unique to Canada is highly desirable and attracts a lot of foreign investment.

Calgary and especially Ottawa are much more mature urban centres than Edmonton.

Montreal is sublime, but now getting pretty expensive; it was only a few years ago that housing prices there were on par with Edmonton.

Victoria, QC and now too Halifax are most wonderful mid-sized cities that all attract massive tourism numbers that provide them amenities they would not otherwise have.
 
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