Prices and the number of sales and new listings in Edmonton's housing market will all rise in 2024, a group representing the city's realtors said Wednesday after presenting its annual housing forecast at the Edmonton Expo Centre. In a media release, Realtors Association of Edmonton chair Melanie Boles said the outlook for the coming year "appears promising." "We anticipate stability and growth in 2024, driven by migration, employment, and a positive economic outlook," Boles said. The number of units sold this year is expected to rise in each category, the association said, led by a five-per-cent increase in sales of detached homes, followed by condominiums (4.4 per cent), semi-detached (four per cent) and townhouses (two per cent). Overall, it expects the number of sales to rise 2.8 per cent. The average price for all types of housing is expected to rise 1.2 per cent overall. Detached housing is expected to fetch an average price of $497,000 in 2024, up one per cent from 2023's $492,283 average sale price, with semi-detached expected to go for an average of $377,000 (up 1.2 per cent from $372,535 in 2023), townhouses for $261,000 (up 1.1 per cent from $258,160) and condos for $192,000 (up 1.1 per cent from $189,861). The association also expects the number of listings in 2024 to rise by 4.6 per cent. Its outlook is bullish compared to last year's, which forecast drops in prices and numbers of sales and listings across the different property types. Boles said at the Expo Centre that while prices are expected to remain steady, a larger influx of people than expected could change the forecast numbers. "Not knowing what the future holds and what those migration numbers, our immigration numbers look like ... we expect to see our affordability hold in Edmonton, but there always is, depending if our migration numbers exceed what we're expecting and our supply chain can't keep up, we could risk inventory levels falling," Boles said in response to a question from the audience. In real-estate brokerage ReMax's Edmonton market forecast, authors call for the city to shift from a balanced market to a sellers' one in 2024, with single-detached homes attracting the most demand. ReMax says it expects a four-per-cent increase in residential prices after watching the average price drop from $418,713 in 2022 to $400,827 in 2023, and that while rising interest rates have affected the market, Edmonton's affordability compared to other major cities in Canada is attracting more people and buyers to the region," John Carter, owner of the ReMax River City brokerage, said in a blog post. "We’re seeing strong migration to the region, especially from out-of-province buyers, and it’s keeping property values stable," he said. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Brandon Lynch
