The numbers for Edmonton Housing are out this morning for January and February and it looks like Edmonton Home builders may be finally realizing that the market is a little softer than anticipated.

CMHC report which I have attached to this blog shows that new home starts this year, so far, are down 1100 units. It also shows that new home starts are down as well with 1900 starts in the ground. The number that is almost 100% higher than last year is that  un-absorbed units which are sitting at 1066 units. It’s interesting how they define absorbed in the report in that it is a property that is no longer for sale but may have been rented out.

So if we take the 1066 units and add it to the 6800 mls units reported a few weeks ago we get 7866 approximate units for sale in Edmonton. That’s a lot of property especially with sales on the MLS down 10% over last year add another 1900 under construction very few of which will be speculative builds I hope.

Single family prices have slide some this year with about a 35000 dollar correction in the prices on single family homes this first two months. We recently learned that builders are giving away the farm so to speak to move product, upgrades are free in a lot of cases and we even saw furniture allowances included in deals lately. Just as a point lenders will discount the mortgage by the amount of the “allowance” in any contract.