October 30, 2015- Market Update
Sales in Red Deer have been very consistent for the past 3 months while the number of active listings is lower at the beginning of November than it was a month ago. The Red Deer market continues to look quite normal in spite of ongoing concern about the Alberta economy. One explanation may be that Red Deer has diversified form an oil town to a much more broadly based economy consisting of manufacturing, services, government, agriculture and construction in addition to oil and gas.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Forecast for the 4th quarter of 2015 predicts that total MLS sales in the Red Deer region will end the year 15% lower than 2014, with increases of 1.0 and 1.5 percent in 2016 and 2017 respectively. That report also predicts the average price to drop by 1.1% this year and then increase by 1.1% in 2016 and 1.3% in 2017. In other words, CMHC doesn’t see the market changing drastically one way or the other.
Predictions are very dangerous. No one knows what the future holds. We do know that housing is a necessary requirement for life in central Alberta. The decision to buy or sell should not be made based on assumptions or hopes about whether prices will go up or down. An investment in a home is made for more important reasons and has always been profitable in the long run. Oil prices will eventually recover and Alberta will return to strong economic growth, just like it has in the past.
