A report by Canada’s Mortgage and Housing Corporation has stated that the real estate market in Edmonton is beginning to feel the impact of low crude oil prices. Home re-sales for this year have slightly low if compared to 2014. That said, the CMHC predicts that housing starts in the area will drop by 13.8% over the next year.
Here is what Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Christina Butchart had to say with regards to the matter at hand.
“We don’t know for sure when oil prices are going to firm up, but we’re thinking perhaps in the second half of 2016 is when the economic fundamentals might strengthen up a little bit and that’ll translate to a bit of strength in the housing market at that time,” said Butchart.
There have been a number of reasons which have been brought up so as to explain why this is actually happening and three of them have managed to appear in almost every conversation and that is lower employment growth, a more selection on the re-sale market as well as a high vacancy rate. This means that the real estate market in Edmonton has shifted and rather than the market winning, the buyer is the one who stands to benefit a lot.
“If you look at right now the selection of homes, it’s definitely increased quite a bit in the market. In the last couple years, we didn’t have a huge amount of selection,” said Butchart.
