No. 3·The Edmonton market
What the October Edmonton housing market report means for homeowners
For most homeowners, change has been smaller than the signs suggest. Prices for the majority of homes are pretty much where they were a year ago.
Drive through Edmonton this fall and you’ve probably seen more ‘For Sale’ signs than you have in the past year. If you’ve got a house and you’re not planning on selling it, you can’t help but wonder what all those signs are implying about your own property. Is it worth less? Should you be doing anything about it?
For most homeowners, change has been smaller than the signs suggest. Prices for the majority of homes are pretty much where they were a year ago. The difference is how crowded the market is and how long they’re taking to sell.
Why are there so many homes for sale this year?
It isn’t because owners are rushing to sell. Buyers are still buying, just fewer of them, so homes are staying on the market and adding up. In October, sales in the Greater Edmonton Area were down 8.3% from a year earlier, while new listings rose only 2.9%, according to the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton (RAE). That left 7,533 homes for sale at month-end, 15.2% more than last October and the most for an October since at least 2022.
Another way to picture it is months of supply: how long it would take to sell every home on the market if sales held at their current pace and no one else listed. At October’s pace, that’s about four months, up from about three months a year ago (7,533 homes for sale ÷ 1,882 sales, compared with 6,540 ÷ 2,053 last October).
For you, that means the extra ‘For Sale’ signs come from slower buying, not a rush to sell, and buyers now have more homes to choose from than they did a year ago.
Is my home worth less than it was last year?
For most homes, only slightly. You might expect 15% more homes for sale to pull prices down, but so far they’ve barely moved. RAE’s benchmark price tracks a typical home with the same features over time, so it isn’t skewed by which homes happened to sell that month. In October, it was $509,800 for a single-family home in the Greater Edmonton Area, down just 1.1% from a year earlier. Buyers are also still paying close to what sellers ask. Homes sold for about 98% of their asking price, the same as last October. However, townhouses are the exception. Their benchmark price fell 8.6% over the same period, meaning townhouse owners are feeling the slowdown more.
That doesn’t mean prices are locked in. RAE’s board chair Darlene Reid expects the gains to level off and potentially reverse as the year draws to a close. It’s also important to note that the benchmark is a regional figure, so a particular home in a particular area can behave very differently.
For you, that means your home is probably worth about what it was a year ago, even with more homes for sale.
What does it mean for the homes that are listed?
The real change is for homes that are on the market: they’re waiting longer, with fewer buyers to go around. Homes that sold in October took an average of 43 days, three days longer than a year earlier, and there were 58 sales for every 100 new listings, down from 65. RAE expects the slower pace to last through the winter, since sales usually slow once the school year starts and don’t pick up again until after the new year.
None of that means listing doesn’t work. Close to 1,900 homes sold in October, and RAE’s board chair notes that serious buyers are still looking at this time of year. For owners who have decided to sell, a listing is still the standard way to reach them. But a listing is public, and on the clock from the day it goes up, and in a slower market that clock runs longer.
For you, listing this fall would likely keep your home on the market longer, in the public eye, and with more competition.
What’s worth knowing if you’re not selling?
More listings give buyers more homes to choose from, but only from owners who have already decided to sell. Homes whose owners would sell at the right price stay out of view, even when a buyer would want them. That’s the gap Windfal is built to close. A Windfal profile is a page for your home: you set the price you’d sell for, and your home becomes discoverable to vetted agents and their buyers, who are the only people who see that price. Your profile isn’t on the clock, and you can change your price or take it down anytime. Soon, if you’d like more eyes on your home, you’ll be able to show your profile on Windfal’s public map of Edmonton homes, where anyone browsing can see it, like it, and share it with their agent. The public never sees your price, and no one can contact you directly. A buyer who’s serious about making a deal has to work with a vetted agent, and that agent can only reach you through a message inside Windfal.
The extra ‘For Sale’ signs on your street mean buyers have more choice this fall. They don’t mean your home is worth less, and they don’t mean you need to do anything. But if you’ve ever wondered whether a buyer would pay the price you’d sell for, you can find out without putting up your own ‘For Sale’ sign. Set your price and create a profile at windfal.com.
