Home sales up again in September and guess what also happened?

Home sales hit a decade high

Home sales up again and have now been higher for 15 of the last 16 months. And that’s contributed to this year’s total detached home sales at the end of September hitting a decade record.

Up till now, over the last 10 years, home sales year was highest in 2014. In 2014, at the end of September, home sales reached 1094 units sold. At the end of September this year, home sales reached 1097 units sold. 2021 home sales were higher than in 2014 but only by a little. It will be interesting to see how the fourth quarter pans out.

It’s hard to identify exactly what’s led to higher sales but is has to be connected in some way to the pandemic.

The higher sales number have pushed prices higher

Higher sales have contributed to lower inventory and when that happens prices tend to increase. Higher prices might sound like a bad thing but it’s worse when prices decrease and over the last 5 years that’s what has happened.

It’s been a relief for many homeowners to watch prices increase a little, it’s nice to see your equity increase. Especially for those homeowners who watched prices dip since buying. However, for buyers the price increase is less welcome.

Don’t worry too much though prices haven’t increased as high as some of the talk has lead most people to believe. We’ve noticed this most when seller jump on the market hoping for a windfall to only find out the increase is nominal.

The market is in a better place

For the last decade the Red Deer and Central Alberta market has been a little stagnant and that hurts the market. When a market rides flat for a long period of time buyers and sellers question what the right move is. But when prices move a bit it makes decisions easier.

Check back next month to see if sales keep beating records.

Check back tomorrow to see what the average home price did in September