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Local Real Estate Market Records Consecutive Years of Increased Sale Activity

Jul 13, 2016 | 2:18 PM

LETHBRIDGE:  The lack-lustre economy has not impacted real estate sales in  Lethbridge, as year-to-date and year-over-year sales are up!

There were 308 units sold in June, which is up 14.9% from June of last year and marks the second best sales tally for the month on record.  Of those 308 units, 220 were single family homes which represents a 15% increase in single home sales from June of last year.

The average price of homes being sold is at about $270,000, which is up 2% from last year.  The total dollar value of homes sold reached $83 Million in June, for a 17% increase from June of 2015, which also represents the second highest level of any month on record.

The rosy picture extends across the first half of the year.

Year-to-date sales volume is $389-Million, up about 5% from last year. In the first six months of the year, 1400 homes were sold, compared to 1340 units during the first 6 months of last year. (In 2014, 1267 were sold in the first half of the year).

Cathy Maxwell, the Executive Officer for the Lethbridge Real Estate Board says, “It’s unheard of in the province to see sustained increased sales such as this, particularly given the economic climate.

She has also witnessed a different category of buyers, “You’ve got the Millennials, who are looking for different things – they still want the traditional home but, they don’t necessarily want to spend all that time renovating or fixing-up older homes.”

However, Maxwell noted, “There is a large amount of buyers looking to purchase between the $220,000 and $320,000 price point, so that puts many of those homes in the existing-home category. 

While the new home market is thriving, Maxwell says residential resale is also doing very, “We have such a wide mix of demographics, you know you have the Baby Boomers and then the Millennials and they are looking for different things.”

The local statistics showed that only two homes between $750,000 and $1 Million were sold in Lethbridge in June.

Overall, Maxwell says the Lethbridge Real Estate market is doing well, with the inventory of homes for sale at 4.7 months, which means it would only take that amount of time to expend the entire number of homes for sale in the city.  That’s down from the 5.5 months of inventory recorded last year.

“It means the market is fairly balanced right now.”