The January resale numbers came out today… and you know it’s bad when they are looking to Winter ’09 for a comparison other for sales levels. You may remember the 1Q of ’09 was dismal for sales, the worst this Millenia in fact, but of course no mention of that in their schlep. I guess context doesn’t help shine a turd.

Edmonton Sales

The preliminary sales tally comes in at 735. We can expect the revision to be in the 770-790 range… so we may or may not top January ’09′s rather dismal total. In any case, ’tis ugly. Even down from December in fact, though that’s not entirely unusual, and actually also mirrors the inventory situation to a degree. Apparently both buyers and sellers are playing it close to the vest.

Edmonton Inventory
Edmonton Inventory Change

Like I mentioned, and as we can now see, inventory is also down… though barely, and obviously nothing like December. This too isn’t all that unusual for January, the listings don’t usually start to flood back until March/April. Going back to the boom years, we can see in 2006 inventory didn’t start growing until August of that year (well, it was +2 in June, but then it went -3 in July)… but that’s a different world then we’re living in now.

Edmonton SFH Price

Now onto prices. Big month for the SFH median, or at least indicates last months dive was an aberration. We’re just a tick below $350,000. The average also rose over December, but only by $1000 to sit around $356,000. From this was take that the fluctuation of the median in the face of a fairly stable average that it was either an anomaly, or the middle of the market firmed up drastically. Maybe it took it’s New Years resolution seriously?!

Edmonton Condo Price

The news was not nearly as rosy for condo’s though. You may recall last month my mentioning that we were on the cusp of retracting to ’06 price levels… we’ll we ain’t on the cusp anymore. We’re now officially at the lowest point since November ’06. The median took a pretty large MoM drop of $6,000 to $214,000. The average took a more moderate hit of about $2500 to sit at $221,000. Don’t be surprised to see a little bounce in these in the next month or two, especially in the median. When you see drops over 1% MoM, you often see a bit of a rebound, at least in the short term.

Finally, and as always, here are the hard numbers:

Sales* = 735
Since two years ago = +0.7% (+5)
Since one year ago = -16.9% (-149)
Since last month = -6.3% (-49)

Active Listings = 5,633
Since two years ago = -14.3% (-940)
Since one year ago = +15.8% (+769)
Since last month = -1.5% (-88)

Single Family Homes Median* = $349,900
Since peak (May ’07) = -12.5% (-$50,100)
Since one year ago = -1.7% (-$6,100)
Since six months ago = -6.3% (-$10,100)
Since last month = +4.0% (+$13,400)

Condo Median* = $214,000
Since peak (July ’07) = -19.2% (-$51,000)
Since one year ago = -3.6% (-$8,000)
Since six months ago = -7.0% (-$16,000)
Since last month = -2.7% (-$6000)

Residential Median* = $307,000
Since peak (July ’07) = -10.6% (-$36,500)
Since one year ago = +0.7% (+$2,000)
Since six months ago = -1.9% (-$6,000)
Since last month = +2.3% (+$7,000)

Single Family Homes Average* = $356,276
Since peak (May ’07) = -16.1% (-$68,124)
Since one year ago = -3.1% (-$11,471)
Since six months ago = -6.0% (-$22,703)
Since last month = +0.3% (+$1,005)

Condo Average* = $220,994
Since peak (July ’07) = -19.5% (-$53,385)
Since one year ago = -7.5% (-$18,012)
Since six months ago = -8.1% (-$19,337)
Since last month = -1.1% (-$2,460)

Residential Average* = $310,766
Since peak (July ’07) = -12.7% (-$45,373)
Since one year ago = -1.4% (-$4,511)
Since six months ago = -5.8% (-$18,968)
Since last month = +0.7% (+$2,269)

* Preliminary data, subject to revision