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Home sales double in Lethbridge this year to record levels

Jul 7, 2021 | 12:13 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge’s real estate market is “exceptionally strong” in 2021.

Cathy Maxwell, CEO of the Lethbridge and District Association of Realtors, says the city is absolutely in a seller’s market.

In the month of June, 265 residential properties were sold, compared to 192 in the same period last year.

Year-to-date is where things truly get interesting.

Maxwell reports that 1,597 real estate transactions were completed in the first six months of this year, more than double of 2020’s 714.

While it might be easy to assume that the beginning of the pandemic last year artificially made this year’s numbers look better by comparison, she says that is not actually the case.

“January and February 2020 was a great start – we’re like, OK, here we go, good year. March still ended up pretty good, but of course, as we know, the middle of March is where it was declared a pandemic. April, we did see a dip, but May, June, and on into 2020, it was record numbers.”

She could only point to a couple of reasons as to why 2021’s home sale figures are so high – historically low interest rates and some families spending the last year and a half building up their savings.

For the first half of the year, the average sale price in the city was $323,000, an increase of about seven percent year-over-year. The $200,000-$300,000 price bracket was the most popular followed by $300,000-$400,000.

That adds up to the total real estate value for the first half of 2021 being $618-million dollars, about 87 per cent higher than in 2020.

The record sales have naturally lead to a much smaller supply of homes.

In 2019, Maxwell says there was anywhere from six to seven months of inventory available. Now, that is down to just two months.

“I’m feeling the energy in people and confidence in the market – we’ve got low lending rates, so my crystal ball is that we’re going to see a really strong third quarter.”

Between all residential property types and listed prices, Realtor.ca currently shows 570 properties for sale within the City of Lethbridge’s boundaries.