Red Deer’s residential resale market generated 168 Multiple Listing Service sales last month, according to figures released Thursday by the Central Alberta Realtors Association.
Although that tally was down nine per cent from the 185 MLS sales in June, it marked a six per cent improvement on the 158 deals recorded in July 2012.
Elsewhere in the Central Alberta region covered by the association, July sales numbered 284. That was six per cent higher than the June figure of 268, but represented a nearly 10 per cent decline from July 2012, when there were 311 MLS sales.
So far this year there have been 1,145 sales in the city, up three per cent from 1,115 to the same point in 2012; and 1,540 transactions in the association’s area outside Red Deer, a two per cent decline from 1,578 during the first seven months of last year.
The average resale price in Red Deer during July was $336,430, up from $307,862 a year earlier. The average for the year-to-date is $324,893, an improvement from the 2012 average for the same period of $304,622.
For the surrounding region, the July average was $275,998, as compared with $288,668 for the same month last year. The January-to-July average was $266,705 this year, up from $260,129 last year.
Because average prices include homes of a various types and from different locations, they can vary from month to month and may not be indicative of market trends.
The association processed 737 residential MLS listings in July: 290 for Red Deer homes and 447 for dwellings in the outlying area.
Last year, the number of new listings for the same month was 699, with 230 of these in the city and 469 elsewhere.
So far this year, there have been 5,020 new listings. Of these, 1,830 have been in Red Deer and 3,190 outside the city.
Last year during the same period there were 5,527, with 1,813 in the city and 3,714 outside.