ATHABASCA – Edmonton’s cooling real estate market has had less of an impact on Athabasca County, thanks in part to the plethora of lakefront properties realtors have to work with.
Tamara Yurchak works at Athabasca Royal LePage County Realty, and she said her and her husband’s business has been healthy through the first half of 2024. While less volume has sold, an increase in the median sale price has seen more money change hands than at the same point last year.
“As we get into these last two months, particularly when you’re going to look at the numbers, its primarily recreation,” said Yurchak. “Lake properties, anything with waterfront, those tend to be higher priced and that’s where you’ll see a bit of a bump.”
According to Yurchak’s numbers, Royal LePage sold 20 units this June, compared to 21 in May, and 28 in June 2023. Despite the smaller numbers, the average sale price was considerably higher, rising to $375,645 in June — an increase of just over $52,000 from May.
“Things are also selling a little quicker. When you look at lakefront property, people don’t generally list them in the winter,” said Yurchak. “They wait until the season and then they come up and they sell quicker.”
In the first six months of 2024, Yurchak reported 93 units sold, for a total of $37.7 million, up from 2023, where 106 units accounted for $36.4 million in sales.
“Right now, we’re at a very healthy, stable market,” she said. “Prices are appreciating for sure. Maybe not to the same value as the big cities, like Vancouver, Toronto, those kinds of places. But our prices are slowly trending higher.”
All of Yurchak’s data came from the Alberta West realty board, which covers different sales than the Realtors Association of Edmonton (REA).
Keith Madsen, an Edmonton-based realtor with ties to both Athabasca and Boyle, said the different boards can paint different pictures based on what sales are reported. He agreed with Yurchak’s conclusions though and said a lot of the interest he was seeing was coming from out of province.
“Because of how affordable Athabasca County is, you’re seeing a little bit more out of province interest in properties,” said Madsen. “You’re definitely seeing more traffic, more consistency and more buyer confidence from how I’m looking at it.”
Madsen, who described himself as less of a “stats guy” than many of his peers, said his feeling was Athabasca County seemed to be its own real estate island.
“I found prices didn’t increase a drastic amount during COVID-19. Lake properties, yes, but normal properties, no. It wasn’t anything like Edmonton experienced,” said Madsen. “It’s the same thing now, with interest rates going way up, it’s slowing down other markets to an extent. With Athabasca, it didn’t necessarily have that same effect.”
