Real estate listings risk becoming a ‘glut’

By Collin Gallant on September 11, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

Medicine Hat’s real estate market is marching toward a typical year, officials with the local board told the News Monday, but an atypical situation is brewing with listings rising while sales remain steady.

That’s not only contrary to how and when homes usually come onto the market — in late summer, inventory should be low — but now after several years of tight listings, they have risen in every month of 2018.

“Our sales are hanging in there with what we’ve seen in the past year, but what we’re keeping our eye on is listings,” said board president Tim Seitz. “We’re up quite a bit, and home (sellers) have to be realistic about what they’re asking or they’ll be on the market for a while.”

Sales for homes and other residential properties are reasonably on par with previous years, but listings risk becoming a “glut,” according to Seitz.

With prices recovered and even slightly above what they were in a slow market of 2016, Seitz wonders if there’s some testing of the waters, so to speak, going on by.

“There seems to be a number of properties out there that look that they may be speculating,” he said. “Prices are going up slightly, but the number of the market is up quite a bit.”

There were 757 residential listings on the market at Aug. 31, including 523 homes and 192 condos. That’s a six- or seven-month supply, and 100 or more detached properties listed than seen since the end of a market retraction in 2011.

During the month, 88 detached homes sold for a total of $26.6 million. That’s one fewer than in August 2017, but for slightly more money. It’s also right in line with local sales in the month over the recent past except for a record-breaking run in 2014.

Through the eight months of 2018, single family home sales total 820 for $189.2 million — off about 10 per cent in both value and volume compared to 2017.

While home sales perked up in August, sales of condos and other residential properties slowed slightly compared to last year.

In the class, 33 transactions brought in $5.95 million, keeping pace with the whole-year numbers form 2017.

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