Despite many still struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at least one industry seems to be thriving.
“It’s been the busiest year that I’ve seen in real estate in the last 13 years, it’s just absolutely bonkers,” said Courteny Atkinson, CEO with the Atkinson Team at eXp Realty.
He said Lethbridge and the surrounding area is seeing a significant ump from last year.
“The market is up 37 per cent when you look at transaction volume for 2020 in the county and City of Lethbridge from last year, so that’s quite a bit.”
The Alberta Real Estate Association’s chief economist, Ann-Marie Lurie, said the province is seeing a similar trend.
“If we look at Alberta’s numbers, we are on pace to hit a record level of sales this year.”
Lurie added while other areas of the province have had big ups and downs over the past 10 years, Lethbridge has been on a steady climb.
“You’ve seen steady price gains and you are sitting this year with price gains on a year-to-year basis for detached homes that’s over eight per cent.”
According to the Lethbridge and District Association of Realtors, in November alone 153 homes were listed with 154 sold. Atkinson said with more people looking to buy then sell, the price for homes continues to climb.
“The average price point is around $340,000. It’s not up dramatically, we were about $325,000 last year.”
He added the supply chain disruptions and losing highways in B.C due to flooding has caused issues and delays for new home builds, pushing some people to go with a re-sale instead.
“Those folks simply don’t want to wait a year, year-and-a-half and in some cases two years, depending on the type of build, to get into their new home so instead they are looking at that resale market and that’s just increasing the demand.”
Atkinson said for those looking to buy, the market is moving fast with the average days on the market in Lethbridge going from 80 days last year to about 55 this year.