Home sales in Red Deer, Alberta have outperformed the same month a year prior 10 months in a row. I’ve mention before how sales tanked for a couple of months after Covid-19 came into effect but since then sales have been doing better.
Nobody knew what would happen with home sales in a pandemic but it’s nice they didn’t crash. There are a number of variables that have encouraged higher sales since COVID-19 began but it’s still a little unexpected. One variable is low interest rates, another is the easing of our mortgage “stress test” but some other less tangible variables have helped too. It’s hard to peg what the other variables are exactly but it might even be just everyone staying home more.
Encouraged to stay at home, homeowners may have decided they needed a home they like more. Another variable might be, buyers who couldn’t move upward when the “stress-test” took place now being able to.
Whatever the reason, home sales in Red Deer are up for 10 months straight. This is a good thing because sales have been very slow this decade. But note, we’ve had lower sales this decade and outperforming the last couple of years isn’t a big feat.
The chart above shows how low sales numbers were the last couple of years and why we shouldn’t get overly excited with current numbers. Also, if some of the variables that helped are changed, we might see sales slower again.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with sales numbers over the next 12 months and we’ll track them here each month at www.iOnRealEstate.ca.
