Edmonton real estate listings up more than 80 per cent from December

Last year’s busy housing market appears to be continuing into 2025 with home sales rising in January from last year, while new listings soar more than 80 per cent from December.

Article content

Article content

“I think we may have been very conservative in our estimates for what was going to happen in 2025 if January is any indication,” said Darlene Reid, board chair for the Realtors Association of Edmonton (RAE).

Article content

In the RAE’s latest monthly housing report, released Tuesday, Edmonton’s real estate market remained active in January after strong sales throughout last year. While sales activity increased, buyers will be happy to hear that the total residential average price of an Edmonton home rose just a marginal 0.8 per cent from December to $438,278.

Ordinarily, real estate markets see a slowdown in the winter months, but the Greater Edmonton Area (GEA) saw nearly 1,600 residential unit sales last month, which was a little more than 12 per cent higher than December.

“It was surprising, like I was expecting to talk about a market decline, and here we are, surprisingly strong January market,” Reid said.

The largest change from December to January, however, was in new units listed, which came in at 2,452, a whopping 83.5 per cent jump from December, and almost a 13 per cent increase from last year. In comparison, January 2024 had 2,193 new listings, which was an increase of just about 49 per cent from December 2023.

“We did not expect to see so many listings.”

“We thought people would be sitting on the sidelines a little longer, but they’ve surprised us. Like I said, this market, what it’s telling us is there’s a lot of buyer confidence out there,” said Reid.

Article content

Article content

She said that because of the threat of tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump and its potential impacts on the economy and job availability, Edmonton’s market looks strong compared to others because of its relative affordability.

“We are still very affordable. So, if people are looking at a job losses, at least Edmonton still is affordable. We’re not the Vancouvers and the Torontos, or even Calgary, where their average home price is over $200,000 more. So, in terms of the Edmonton market, people still need homes to live in. So where are they going to go? Where it’s cheaper, and that’s Edmonton.”

Reid said the new listings this early in the year is a good sign for the market.

“What that’s telling us is that it’s signalling that there’s a lot of buyer confidence, and it’s signalling that we’re gonna have a very strong spring market. We normally don’t see these kind of rises till March, April, springtime, and it looks like we’re going to have a very early spring this year.”

Across all housing types, the sales last month showed improvements from the preceding month and from last year except for one category. There were more than 850 detached unit sales last month, which was a nearly four per cent increase from December, but more than two per cent lower than last January.

Article content

Sales were up in the other categories. Semi-detached sales increased 20 per cent from December and more than 40 per cent from last January. Rowhouses/townhouses had a roughly nine per cent uptick from December, but leapt nearly 22 per cent from last year. Apartment/condominium sales improved by 39 per cent from December and 36 per cent from the previous year.

For Reid, it was the changes in sales for rowhouses/townhomes that got her attention.

“They had the lowest days on market. What that’s telling us is there is a strong demand for those property types, probably because of their affordability, and there’s a big appeal to those for first-time homebuyers and people who are downsizing,” said Reid.

Given the strong start to the year that bucked expectations, Reid predicts a busy year for the market ahead.

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

Article content