Home for sale sign. (Supplied by The Canadian Press)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge’s real estate sector saw modest growth in 2019, likely to continue in 2020

Jan 9, 2020 | 10:56 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Lethbridge and District Association of Realtors says 2019 was another solid year for the sector with modest gains all around.

CEO Cathy Maxwell reports that 2,488 residential properties were sold over the last 12 months, which is up about one percent from 2018.

Average home prices grew by approximately 3.93 percent to $272,000.

This means that total real estate transactions reached $676-million in Lethbridge, marking an increase of around five percent.

She adds that there is about seven months of inventory currently on the market.

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“If the sales continued at the pace that they have been and no new listings came on, it would take us seven months to get through all the listings that we have, which, we have about 4,000 listings right now.”

According to Maxwell, this means the city is leaning towards being in a buyer’s market. A balanced market means there is around five months of inventory.

Looking ahead to 2020, she is predicting more or less of the status quo.

“I think that we will see a similar type of market that we saw last year. Lethbridge is very consistent. I think we might see a little bit of a decrease but still fairly steady because the whole province’s economy is down.”

She believes one of Lethbridge’s strongest assets is its diverse economy, meaning the real estate sector here tends to be less volatile than in some other communities in Alberta.

The Government of Alberta, lead by the United Conservative Party (UCP), is planning to release its second budget in early 2020.

Maxwell says she will have to wait and see what it has in store before making any more firm predictions for real estate in Lethbridge.