Edmonton, St Albert, & Area RE/MAX Real Estate Professional

Builders poured foundations for 206 single-detached homes in April, representing an increase of almost 16% from the 178 units started in April 2008. “This represents the first year-over-year improvement in single-detached activity since June 2007,” noted Richard Goatcher, CMHC’s Senior Market Analyst based in Edmonton. To the end of April, 607 single-detached homes began construction across Greater Edmonton, down from 835 units during the first four months of 2008.

Multi-family starts, which consist of semi-detached, row and apartment units, remained on a downtrend in April. A 26% year-over-year gain in row starts was offset by continued weakness in new apartment activity. Semi-detached, row and apartment starts totalled 149 units in April, representing a decrease of about 71% from the 505 multiple unit starts in the same month last year. Multiple starts have amounted to 509 units across Metro Edmonton from January through April, down nearly 77% from 2,163 multiple starts tallied in the first four months of 2008.

Housing starts in Alberta’s seven largest cities totalled 794 units in April, representing a decrease of 61% from 2,034 units in April 2008. All seven cities reported year-over-year declines.