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By Liam Verster

Housing Market

Grande Prairie housing market remains stable despite drop in sales last month

May 15, 2020 | 1:00 PM

The housing market in Grande Prairie remained quite stable through April, despite the month long economic shutdown due to COVID-19.

Lesley Craig, the President of the Grande Prairie Realtors Association, says the restrictions put in place to combat the novel coronavirus did have a big impact on the amount of sales made in April 2020.

“We had 91 sales (in April 2020), compared to April 2019 where we had 202 sales, and that was in the activity of a normal spring market. We saw a reduction of about 55 per cent in the number of sales, but this year is nothing like a normal spring market due to the COVID-19 restrictions.”

She adds that, though sales were down, the market hasn’t really been dealt a blow. There was only a two per cent increase in new listings in April, which helped keep the average price of a home fairly flat.

“April 2020, the year-to-date price was $306,719, which is very stable because we typically float right around the $305,000 mark when we look at average sale prices.”

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Meanwhile, the market has been on the upswing since the beginning of May. To date, there have been 34 confirmed sales in the Grande Prairie area, and 49 other properties have conditional offers on them. If those sales go through, then the number of homes sold by mid-May would be about 80 per cent of the sales in the first half of May 2019, when 103 properties were sold.

Craig says, while they are currently trending up, she can’t be certain if and when the market will return to normal, especially if the price of oil doesn’t improve.

“If the price of oil remains low, and our job activity stays low, then our area may not recover quite as quickly as some other areas that don’t rely on that for their employment. So, we could see just a little bit of a longer recovery period.”

Craig says housing markets across Alberta were affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, and Grande Prairie was right about in the middle of the pack. Fort MacMurray was the hardest hit, seeing 80 per cent less sales compared to the same month last year. Alberta West was down 63 per cent and Calgary was down 60 per cent. Edmonton and Medicine Hat were on par with Grande Prairie, falling by 55 per cent, followed by Central Alberta at 47 per cent decrease, and Lethbridge, which fell by 43 percent. South Central Alberta was the least impacted by the lockdown, but still saw their sales decrease by 32 per cent when compared to April 2019.

Meanwhile, open houses are still banned and local realtors have been doing virtual tours and video calls to show off the properties to potential buyers. They have also been doing rigorous cleaning and sterilizing routines when showing a house, in order to ensure the health and safety of both the buyers and sellers.

Craig says while Alberta slowly reopens, they will probably have more ability to show properties and hold open houses, but for now they are continuing with the precautionary measures and virtual tours, while following the COVID-19 guidelines.