Month to date sales in Red Deer kept pace with July’s and were almost double the number sales for the same period in 2012.  The change from last year is in the number of active listings – down more than 10% from last year.  Fewer listings combined with strong sales is keeping Red Deer in Seller’s market territory, a bit unusual for the summer market.

Strong activity in new construction is a big factor in keeping the market closer to balance as people continue to move to Alberta in large numbers as indicated in the ATB article below.  It’s good to see that the jobs are not all energy related.  Growth in other sectors is critical to balance in our provincial economy.

Interest rates are on the rise, but still very low compared to the last 30 years.  Mortgage rate increases will have some negative impact on house prices. It will be interesting to watch how high they go and what impact they will have over the rest of the year.  It’s possible we could see stronger activity because buyers with locked in rates on mortgage pre-approvals are hurrying to buy before their lower rates expire.

Weather Cool, But Job Market Hot – Todd Hirsch, Senior Economist, ATB Financial 

Alberta may be experiencing a cold, damp summer—but its’ job market is anything but.  In July, Alberta gained 16,600 new jobs, bringing the seasonally adjusted total employment to 2.217 million workers. The June flood may have played a part: while the provincial unemployment rate fell to 4.5 per cent, it actually ticked higher in Calgary to 5.3 per cent.

Canada’s job picture was not as rosy this morning. A loss of 39,000 jobs surprised economists who had, in a consensus forecast, predicted a modest gain of 6,000 jobs. The national unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to 7.2 per cent—now only slightly below the 7.4 per cent rate in the United States.

Alberta and Saskatchewan remain the hot job markets of the Canadian economy with employment growing by 3.0 and 3.9 per cent, respectively, over the last twelve months. Nationally employment has grown by a much more sluggish 1.3 per cent.

The sectors creating the most jobs in Alberta are not, however, the traditionally strongest sectors. Indeed, the oil and gas sector has shed 9,500 jobs (year-over year), as has the construction sector (-4,900). The strongest gains have come on the service side of the economy—professional, scientific and technical services (+28,200), retail and wholesale trade (+17,600) and information, culture and recreation (+13,700) showed the largest annual gains.

The surging employment has also been marked by good quality jobs. Nearly 89 per cent of the new positions created over the last twelve months are fulltime. That has helped boost consumer confidence, retail sales and the housing market throughout the province.