March is typically the month where we see the spring sales start to ramp up quite a lot. We had 135 sales in February, which is a jump from January where we saw 104 sales. Although, if we look at the past few February sales, we had 90 sales in 2020, 162 sales in 2021, 289 sales in 2022, and 99 sales in 2023. It’s easy to assume that 2021 & 2022 were fast paced sellers markets, 2020 & 2023 were slower markets, and here in 2024 we’re sitting somewhere in the middle. Well thats not exactly true, because just sales numbers don't give us the whole picture. In order to have a true representation of the market, we also need to have our inventory numbers in there as well.
In 2020 we had 355 listings going into February, in 2021 we had 283, in 2022 we had just 91, in 2023 we had 137, and here in 2024 we had 136 listings going into February.
When inventory is about 2-4 times higher than sales, like in 2020 there, that is what a balanced market looks like. The closer those two lined get, you start to cross into a sellers market, and when they flip you’re in an extreme sellers market. So, you can see in 2022 they were flipped, and thats the year we saw prices up nearly 30% year over year. All of the other years on here, our sales line is below our inventory line, but you can see here in 2024 we’re very close to crossing again. Inventory from 2023 to 2024 is very similar, but our February sales are quite a bit higher than last year, which could mean more demand headed into the spring than we saw last year.
We are sitting with just 1.19 months of supply overall right now, which is down from last month and puts us deeper into sellers market conditions. Our average days on market also came down to 28 days, down from the 38 days we saw in January. Our overall benchmark price went up 1.5% in February, which puts us back at new high prices for Airdrie after a couple months of our benchmark price moving down and sideways.
PRICE BY STYLE
Looking at our styles of homes for prices. Starting first with our detached homes, in February we had 82 detached sales and 97 new listings, which gave us an inventory of 101 homes to start March with. This leaves us with just 1.23 months of supply and firmly within a sellers market here. Being that deep into a sellers market, we saw our detached benchmark price move up 1.8% in February, up to $621,100.
Now for semi-detached homes, or duplexes. Here we had 12 sales in February, and 12 new listings, which left us with 11 listings to start February, and a months of supply of less than one month at just 0.92 months. With such a low months of supply, you can expect that prices went up here as well, which they did. Semi-detached prices are up 1.7% in the last month, now at a benchmark price of $485,100.
Moving onto townhomes, here we has 30 sales in February and 54 new listings, leaving us with 30 active listings to start March with, and a months of supply of exactly 1 month. For townhome prices, they stayed exactly the same over the last month, with a benchmark price of $361,700.
Lastly, let's take a look at our condos, which have been the highest performing segment of our market over the past year. Here we saw 11 sales, and 19 new listings in February, which left us with 18 active listings, and a months of supply of 1.64 months. So, with the highest months of supply of all the housing styles, it looks like condo’s may be starting to take a breather as compared to the other styles. 1.64 months of supply is still very much inside a seller's market, where we can expect prices to continue moving up. We saw them move up 1.2% up to a new benchmark price of $279,000.
PRICE BY RANGE
Starting with the $100,000-$200,000 range, where we really only have 1 apartment complex in Big Springs trading under $200,000, and in that complex we had 2 sales in February, and currently we have 2 active listings.
So, moving onto the $200,000-$300,000 price range, and in here will be a large portion of our condos here in Airdrie. In this range we saw 12 sales in February, and currently we have 17 active listings, 9 of which are conditionally sold at the moment. So right now we have 1.4 months of supply in this range which is firmly in a seller's market.
Looking at the $300,000-$400,000 range now, and here you’ll have anything from higher end condos, townhouses, duplexes, and some older modular homes and detached homes. Here we had 9 sales in February, and currently have 15 active listings which gives us a month of supply of 1.66 months, and again puts this range in a seller's market.
Now onto the $400,000-$500,000 range. In here you’ll find townhouses, duplexes, and detached homes. Here we had 26 sales in Feburary, and we currently have just 22 listings, which gives this range just 0.84 months of supply, and so far is the only range thats sitting in an extreme sellers market of under 1 month of supply.
For the $500,000-$600,000 range, here we had 47 sale in February, which makes this the most active price range in the city, and we only have 23 listings in this range right now. Which means we have less than a half a month of supply!
$600,000-$700,000 we really started to see activity fall off through 2023. We had 25 sales in this range in February, and currently have 35 active listings. This gives us 1.4 months of supply, and puts the 600-700 range still firmly into a seller's market.
Moving up into the higher ranges now, into the $700,000-$800,000 range. Here we had 14 sales in February, and we currently have 29 active listings. Which puts this range just above 2 months of supply, which is right on the line between a seller's market, and a balanced market.
$800,000-$900,000 we had 6 sales in February, and we currently have 10 active listings, still sitting within a sellers market at 1.66 months of supply.
For our above $900,000 price range here in Airdrie we had 1 sale in February, and currently we have 19 active listings! So above $900,000 is where the market pretty much tanks into very much a buyers market.
Check out my YouTube video below where I go over everything in this blog post and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more Airdrie related content!
- Brad Walker
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