Not too surprising news, from what I understand in conversations with my Calgary-based colleagues..

Calgary top real estate investment market in Canada, Edmonton ranked second

Edmonton ranked second

CALGARY — Calgary has been ranked as the top real estate investment market in the country followed by Edmonton by the Real Estate Investment Network Ltd.

In its Top Alberta Investment Towns report, REIN said that Alberta’s economy has come out on top after a few years of economic turbulence. To read more, click here...

I'm on board!!

Staples: Old Neighbourhoods Must Loosen up to Attract New Families

Allowing front driveways part of urban renewal mix, builders argue

Edmonton’s old neighbourhoods need young families to keep their schools full of children and to create ready customers who spend at local businesses. But land prices are far cheaper on the outskirts. Young families can get more house for their dollar as a result, so the lure of the suburbs will pull new homebuyers in that direction.

What’s needed is affordable new, single-family homes in the inner city, and that’s why homebuilders such as Paul Schaefer, 35, of Urbanhaus and Tegan Martin-Drysdale, 33, of Redbrick, are pushing for more changes to Edmonton’s revamped zoning bylaw, which is going before council in January. To read more, click here...

This sounds interesting and quite nice... all with a cost though -- of course -- but it would nicely accentuate our downtown, that's for sure.

EDMONTON - Large swaths of Churchill Square will be filled with trees and city centre festivals will shift onto 99th Street, if city planners have their way.

There would be a park north of City Hall, where the post office parking lot is now. The avenue between City Hall and Churchill Square would also be torn up, and the Three Bananas Cafe would be bordered with a strip of green tree canopy to the north and west. A green connection would continue south down 99th Street to the river valley. To read more, click here...

Well this is very interesting and, from what I glean from local AB data, actually not all that surprising. Check out RAE's October numbers as well as any Commercial / Industrial recent reports. Contact me directly if you'd like any other insights into this report. Otherwise, read on:

 

CALGARY — Calgary and Edmonton have displaced Toronto and Vancouver as the top-ranked cities for real estate, according to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2013 report released Tuesday.

The report, by PwC and the Urban Land Institute, said the Canadian real estate market is expected to remain steady with “modestly good” investment and development prospects across most property sectors for 2013, reflecting expectations of solid supply and demand. To read more, click here...

Edmonton, November 2, 2012: Even with ghosts, ghouls, and goblins running through the streets, homeowners could find refuge in the local housing market. The REALTORS® Association of Edmonton reports that housing prices in October were up compared to a year ago and are the highest in October in the past five years. The all residential average price for the Edmonton Multiple Listing Service® was up 0.6% at $324,924 when compared to October 2011. The average price of a single family detached home was $372,061 up 2.1% over a year ago. Condos were priced on average at $234,177 which was an uptick of 1.8% from a month ago and up 5.4% from last October. Duplex/row house prices were down 1.1% Y/Y at $305,777.

“Homesellers are pleased that their property may be worth more than it has been in the past five years but homebuyers can plan their financing in an environment of small, steady price increases,” said REALTORS® Association of Edmonton President Doug Singleton. “The housing market is be-deviled in other centres but here in Edmonton both buyers and sellers find it heavenly. The pace of sales is steady, prices increase year-over-year, there is sufficient inventory and average days-on-market is reasonable.”

REALTORS® listed an average of 72 homes each day in October and sold an average of 44 per day. There were a total of 2,228 residential listings in October, with sales of 1,375 properties. As a result of lower listings and larger sales volumes, the month end residential inventory was down (-7.9%) from last month with 6,406 properties available. Days-on-market was an average of 61 and the sales to listing ratio was 62%. There was $447 million worth of residential property, $53 million of rural and $23 million of commercial property sold through the Edmonton MLS® in October.

“Life happens to us all,” said Singleton. “Unless you are an investor, the best time to buy or sell your home is when your lifestyle changes. No matter what your personal circumstances, your REALTOR® is here when life happens.”

Activity (for all residential sales on Edmonton MLS® System)

¹ The total value of sales in a category divided by the number of properties sold
² Single Family Dwelling
³ The middle figure in a list of all sales prices
⁴ Residential includes SFD, condos and duplex/row houses.
⁵ Includes residential, rural and commercial sales

¹ Average prices indicate market trends only. They do not reflect actual changes for a particular property, which may vary from house to house and area to area. Prior period figures have been adjusted to include late reported sales and cancellations and therefore reflect a more accurate view of the period than previously reported at month end. The RAE trading area includes communities beyond the CMA (Census Metropolitan Area) and therefore average and median prices may include sold properties outside the CMA.

The good news keeps coming as another positive announcement comes on the same day as the good October Edmonton Real Estate Stats; we're number 2 in Canada for the lowest unemployment rate, nice!
 

Edmonton’s low unemployment rate second only to Regina’s

EDMONTON - The city’s unemployment rate remained the second lowest in the country in October, according to Statistics Canada.

Unemployment in the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA) dipped 0.2 percentage points from the previous month to 4.3 per cent, the federal agency said. It’s the second month in a row that Edmonton has posted the nation’s second-lowest jobless rate among CMAs. Only Regina, at 3.9 per cent, was lower in October.

To continue reading, click here...