Edmonton bucks national real estate trend amid tariffs

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While house sales dropped across the country in February, Edmonton’s continued to climb, showing no sign of tariff trouble.

“We’re not seeing an impact from the tariffs on our Edmonton market. We’re not hearing any concern from buyers,” said Darlene Reid, board chair for the Realtors Association of Edmonton (RAE).

A report from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released last week showed a noticeable decline in Canada’s housing sales since U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs. The report suggested that buyers hung on the sidelines of the market last month due to concerns about the ongoing trade war with the United States. However, while the national trend declined, Edmonton’s market saw some gains.

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“The moment tariffs were first announced on Jan. 20, a gap opened between home sales recorded this year and last. This trend continued to widen throughout February, leading to a significant but hardly surprising drop in monthly activity,” said CREA’s senior economist Shaun Cathcart in the report.

The change amounted to a national drop of 9.8 per cent month over month and was most pronounced in the Greater Toronto Area and the “Great Golden Horseshoe” region (western end of Lake Ontario), according to CREA. Last month also saw a decline in the number of homes listed across the country by more than 12 per cent, with a 0.8 per cent dip in the MLS home price index.

“The uncertainty of the last few weeks seems to be causing some buyers to think twice about big financial decisions right now,” said CREA chair James Mabey in the report, adding “for others, a softer pricing environment and now lower interest rates will be a buying opportunity.”

Examining the data, Edmonton buyers seem to be following Mabey’s latter point.

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“Edmonton has definitely remained very resilient. Our home prices are still moving up,” said Reid.

RAE’s February report shows that last month saw a total of 1,825 unit sales in the Greater Edmonton Area, which was a 14.3 per cent increase from January and roughly a seven per cent decrease from February 2024. The activity spurred a more than two per cent increase in total residential average prices, which meant a 10.5 per cent increase from the same month in 2024.

“We’re seeing homes sell a little bit faster. We saw the average days on market drop just a little bit (down to 37 days from 50 last year). So I know nationally, everyone’s talking about housing sales slowing, but we’re not seeing that in Edmonton,” said Reid.

It’s not just buyers who are jumping in. Last month also saw an increase in new residential listings of 2,723, which was up 13.2 per cent from January.

Normally, the listings don’t start flooding in until the spring, but the rise last month shows confidence from sellers who expect to be able to get offers, and Reid said they’re right to think so.

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“This weekend, (I got) calls from my colleagues — they’re all in multiple offers. People put out a listing and, within hours, they’re getting five (or) six offers,” said Reid.

As the market continues to hum, the data shows a growing shift in the type of home that buyers are chasing as prices move up, evidenced by an impressive 23.4 per cent leap in sales for the row/townhouse category from January.

Reid predicts the market will continue to heat up heading into spring, warning that although the tariffs don’t seem to have affected activity in the market, their effect on prices could be inbound.

“Nobody knows what the impact of the tariffs are going to be, but the prediction is that houses, the costs of them, the materials are going to go up,” said Reid.

Still, while the tariffs could make prices go up to build and buy, so far it hasn’t deterred Edmontonians from jumping in.

“We are definitely seeing a very strong market, and it does not appear that any talk of tariffs has hindered our market at all.”

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