Rocky Mountain House realtor Larrissa Kalyn has been selling homes in west central Alberta for nearly 30 years and has never seen a market quite like it.
“I’ve been selling real estate since 1996 and I’ve worked with more out-of-province buyers this year — and I think everybody in my office would agree — than in our whole careers,” said Kalyn, broker-owner with Rocky’s Century 21 Westcountry Realty Ltd.
Potential buyers often arrive with plenty of equity in their pockets after selling homes in hot markets in B.C. and Ontario and are eager to take advantage of central Alberta’s affordable market.
Prospective buyers’ biggest problem is the lack of available choices. Resale home inventories in many communities are the lowest they’ve been in up to two decades.
“When you look at what’s happening in sales, residentially in Rocky we’re down over 100 listings, but only down (43) sales,” said Kalyn. The same story is being repeated in surrounding Clearwater County, where listings are down about 150, but sales only 43.
That shows there are still many buyers out there but not enough choice to drive up sales numbers.
“If the inventory is there things are happening,” said Kalyn
The last time she checked, there were only 28 homes for sale in Rocky and few in the most desirable price range.
“There’s just not the inventory for the buyers to be choosing from. Over and over we hear from our sellers: ‘As soon as I find something I want to buy I’m going to list.’ But nothing is coming up.
“Between $300,000 and $400,000 in Rocky, I think we only have two properties to choose between,” she said.
“But if you do list something and it’s properly priced we’re seeing people line up to make back-up offers and competing offers.”
Rocky Mountain House has seen 147 sales through 11 months this year, down from 190 a year ago, according to Kalyn’s statistics. New listings are down even more sharply — 214 this year, compared with 324 in 2022. Clearwater County’s sales picture is the same, with 115 sales this year, down from 158 a year ago.
The house shortage is reflected in sales statistics, which are down in every central Alberta community, compared with last year. Rising mortgage rates have had an impact but realtors point to a lack of inventory as the main reason for slumping sales.
Central Alberta real estate sales are down from the previous two years, a pattern repeated in nearly every community as the year draws to a close.
There were 4,821 residential sales of all kinds through November, down from 5,414 last year and 6,178 in 2021, according to Multiple Listing Service statistics provided by the Central Alberta Realtors Association (CARA).
The trend is similar to that seen in the Red Deer market, where the 1,744 total sales, trails last year’s 1,913 and 1,801 a year earlier. In Red Deer County, the 958 total sales were a three-year low. In 2022, there were 1,057 sales and in 2021, 1,185.
Consistency is the trend story in real estate sales. Of the nine urban communities singled out in the CARA stats, all but two recorded sales levels at three-year lows. The outliers were Penhold and Rocky Mountain House, where sales were lower than 2022 but higher than 2021.
Urban municipalities in CARA’s statistics include: Red Deer, Blackfalds, Innisfail, Lacombe, Penhold, Ponoka, Rocky Mountain House, Stettler and Sylvan Lake.
Rural municipalities, including Red Deer County, Clearwater County, Lacombe County, Mountain View County, Ponoka County and Stettler County all posted sales at three-year lows.