Central Alberta’s residential real estate market continues to trail last year’s pace, according to the latest Multiple Listing Service counts.
However, there were signs the real estate market is improving in the city. Last month, there were 121 residential sales, on par with the 122 sales posted for the same month last year, according to statistics provided by the Central Alberta Realtors Association. In August, city residential sales were off 42 per cent from a year earlier.
Outside the city, markets remained weaker with 155 sales, down 22 per cent from 199 sales a year ago.
So far this year, there have been 2,470 residential sales across the Red Deer region, including 1,101 in the city and 1,369 in the rural region.
That represents a 15.6 per cent drop from last year when 2,930 sales were reported in the first nine months. In the city, residential sales were down 16.6 per cent, and in rural areas the drop was just under 15 per cent.
The average sale price for city homes in September remained ahead of last year at $342,008, compared with $336,052 in September 2009.
Elsewhere in Central Alberta, the average climbed to $274,057 from $258,200.
The number of residential listings processed last month was down in the city with 254 compared with 272 in September 2009, a 6.2 per cent drop. In the surrounding area listings were up five per cent to 420, compared with 400 last year.
For the year, the total number of listings for the city and rural areas fell 4.9 per cent to 8,460 from 8,891.