According to the most recent statistics from the Realtor Association of Edmonton, property values have risen approximately 5%  this year!  Median prices which I believe tell us more about the trend are stable and that’s good news as well.  The median price for a single family home was $355,000 in September 2011, the same as August!  And also the same as the year-to-date average for all of 2011.  However you slice it, Edmonton (and Alberta!) homeowners are in an enviable position compared to almost every other region of North America.

Buyers can feel safe proceeding with a purchase, knowing they are not buyingat a peak and sellers can put their homes on the market expecting to receive fair value and a timely sale.  Speaking of timely sales, the average time it took a property to sell in the Edmonton area on MLS was 54 days.  Not bad!  But not as fast as sellers who chose to work with Schmidt Realty Group! Our clients sold in an average of just 35 days!  Our savvy sellers also beat out the MLS median time to sell!  Median time to sell with SCHMIDT was just 23 days vs the MLS average of 38 days!

Click here  to read our MARKET REPORT  for September 2011!
Click here to see the entire statistics report on the Realtor Association of Edmonton website.

Contributed by Kathy Schmidt, Broker Owner, Schmidt Realty Group Inc.

Aging Boomers Spur Housing Needs by 2030

Financial Post
Garry Marr – September 8, 2011

Click here to view the full article online.

A new study from the Conference Board of Canada predicts that by 2030 about 80% of new housing demand will be consumers in their golden years.

It will bring a new wave of homes that are very low maintenance, like condominiums or seniors residences. At the same time the shift will put downward price pressure on the traditional single detached home which has skyrocketed in price over the past 15 years.

Already the Canadian Home Builders’ Association says its members are catering to the aging population by building more condos and retirement communities to meet the growing need.

“Baby boomers are the largest demographic cohort in our population and as such have been the main drivers of household formation for the past 40 years,” says the report. [continued]

Click here to view the full article online.

EDMONTON – Housing prices in the Edmonton region are expected to end 2011 little changed from the previous year, but rise significantly next year, according to Canada Mortgage Housing Corp.

Annual average MLS prices in the Edmonton census metropolitan area will rise by less than one per cent to $329,000 from $328,803 in 2011.

Next year, they will rise by 2.4 per cent, according to the federal agency’s new forecast report released Wednesday. [continued]

ATB Daily Economic Comment: Alberta Job Machine Keeps Churning Out Work

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The Alberta economy created a further 12,400 new jobs in July, the third straight month of stellar job creation. The past three months have been the strongest period for Alberta’s labour market since the recession, with Statistics Canada estimating that over 40,000 jobs have been created [continued...]

What a $300,000 Investment Gets You Across Canada – A BNN TV Series
Don Campbell, President of the Real Estate Investment Network

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My new series on BNN TV is titled “What Type of Property Investment Does $300,000 Buy You Across Canada”. In it we are looking at specific properties real estate investments in specific neighbourhoods.  At the Real Estate Investment Network we are not realtors, nor do we sell real estate – this allows our research and analysis to be unbiased and brutally honest. There are 4 clear goals of the series:

#1 To provide perspective on the incredible differences between the real estate markets across Canada

#2 To put a spotlight on the yield that a good quality piece of invesetment real estate can provide an investor

#3 To help Canadians understand that real estate can play a very important role in the development of a quality investment or retirement plan

#4 To do some mythbusting about reputations that some cities have.  Many of the best investment opportunities aren’t located in the cities/regions with the best reputation. Cities, like people, change over time, yet sadly many investors miss the changes that have occured and then miss the underlying opportunity.
[continued]

Click here to view the full blogpost online