Last year, Red Deer residential sales topped the bounce-back year of 2021 despite a steep December decline.
In 2022, there were 1,977 sales of residential units of all kinds in the city, compared with 1,924 in 2021, which had seen a huge increase from the pandemic low of 1,262 sales in 2020.
While the yearly sales numbers were encouraging, December offered a bit of a reality check. The 64 sales last month were far below the 123 sales in December 2021. That represents a drop just short of 48 per cent.
In the entire central Alberta market, 2022 was a slower sales year than 2021. There were 5,605 sales, compared with 6,562 in 2021 — 1 14 per cent drop. December sales were 191, compared with 355 in 2021 — down 46 per cent.
In its Red Deer report, the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA) said a strong start to sales begin easing off through the second half of the year.
“Stronger sales in 2022 were met with a decline in new listings and inventories fell to levels not seen since 2014,” says AREA’s market trend summary. “Much of the decline in both inventory and new listings was concentrated in the more affordable price range in the market.”
In Red Deer, the highest number of sales were in the $200,000 to $299,000 price range, followed by $300,000 to $399,000.
“Adjustments to the market in the second half of the year have resulted in the market moving toward more balanced conditions. However, there is some divergence between price ranges as conditions continue to remain relatively tight for lower priced product.”
Average residential prices remained stable throughout the year. Detached and semi-detached homes increased about four per cent in value.
The average price of a detached home in Red Deer was $359,519 in December, down about six per cent from December 2021. Semi-detached prices were up 17 per cent year-over-year to an average of price of $187,316.
Provincially, sales were down two per cent to 84,050 residential units last year. Month-over-month December sales were down 32 per cent to 3,296 units last month compared with 2021.
“Easing sales in the second half of the year was enough to offset earlier gains and sales in the province declined by nearly two per cent,”says AREA. “When considering the larger centres in the province, sales growth was strongest in Calgary followed by Red Deer, Grande Prairie, and Edmonton.”