March 10, 2010- Welcome to March and hopefully the end of the winter months!  I would like to take a moment and talk to you about the highlights of the Edmonton and area real estate market in February and compare it to what we have seen last year.  As a large portion of our market is either single family homes or condominiums, my stats and figures are going to be based on these two segments.

Market Activity...

Starting with homes coming on the market.. February 2010 saw a total of 2478 new listing hit the market.  This is down by 3.4% compared to the 2564 in 2009.  This is still however up 13.8% from January 2010. The length of time that homes listed in February 2009 was seen spending on the market was 61 Days.

Selling trends... January 2010 had 926 homes and condo that sold.  In February we saw a jump of 38.6% to 1283 units.  February 2009 was a much softer month for sales with 1082 units successfully selling – or 15.7% less.  The speed at which homes are selling has definitely improved as well.  IN 2009 only 15.6% of units were selling in 15 days or less on the market.  In 2010 we saw huge jump to 24.9% of listings were selling in the same time frame.  The lower inventory levels have also increased the number of properties selling over list price by 96.7% - that’s almost double!

Along with units coming to market and units sold there are other stats that we look at to gauge the market.

                                    Jan 2010       Feb 2010       Feb 2009                   2009 vs 2010

Day on Market          52                    45                    62                                - 27.4%

Avg List $                   $327,655       $331,280       $328,969                   +0.7%

Avg Sale $                 $318,507       $321,888       $314,394                   +2.4%

List/Sale $ ratio         97.2%             97.2%             95.6%                         +1.7%

With inventory levels at where they are, a huge drop in average days on market and a slightly higher average sale price compared to 2009, I see a healthy real estate market for the coming months.  An increase in average list price to sale price ratio indicates that homes are either being priced better and that buyer confidence in future house values is improving.

RE/MAX Associates still number one!

RE/MAX Associates continue to excel and were the number one choice of Consumers in the area.  RE/MAX Associates account for 42.8% of the transactions recorded by the MLS system in 2009 - an increase from 2008.  This is a major accomplishment as all other major franchises in the area combined for only 39.4% of the market.  This includes Realty Executives, Royal Lepage, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and Sutton.

Shami Sandhu

Broker/Owner

780-439-7000