Given a housing starts hot streak stretching back two years, slower (albeit still strong) population growth, and the uncertainty generated by tariffs, it’s not surprising to see prices in Alberta’s resale housing market starting to taper.

With this in mind, today’s Twenty-Four looks at recent price trends in the two Alberta markets for which benchmark* home prices are available: Calgary and Edmonton.

Calgary

In the 25 months from December 2022 to December 2024, the benchmark price in Calgary increased 24 times.

Things have, however, been going in the other direction so far this year with the price falling every month since January. As a result, July’s benchmark price of $571,300 was 2% lower than the year before. This works out to a drop of $10,200.
Although the downward trajectory of prices is not welcome news for sellers, it is a relatively modest decline rather than a major correction.

Edmonton

Edmonton’s month-over-month streak of price growth started a little later than Calgary’s with the benchmark price rising in 22 of the 23 months from May 2023 to March 2025.

As in Calgary, prices have started to ease with the benchmark pulling back every month this year since April.

Despite the recent slippage, at $414,500, the benchmark price in Edmonton was still 6% higher in July 2025 than in July 2024 for an increase of $21,800.

Similar to Calgary, the recent pullback in prices has not been precipitous, but it does point to greater balance in the market.

This is supported by a drop in the sales-to-new-listings ratio in both centres. With a balanced market typically seen as one with a sales-to-new-listings ratio between 40% and 60%, Calgary has been in that territory for several months with Edmonton touching its upper end in July.

Canada

Nationally, there has been some slippage in the benchmark price with the July level down by 3% year-over-year, but there is a lot of variation from market to market. Prices in Montreal, for example, have been on the rise this year while they have been falling in Toronto and Vancouver.

Even with the price erosion in Toronto and Vancouver, their benchmarks remain much higher than Calgary’s and Edmonton’s at $979,000 and $1,155,500 respectively.

*The Canadian Real Estate Association calculates the average price of benchmark homes in various markets (including Calgary and Edmonton) using the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI). The HPI is based on the value home buyers assign to various housing attributes, which tend to evolve gradually over time. It therefore provides an “apples to apples” comparison of home prices across the entire country. Each month, the HPI uses more than 15 years of MLS® System data and sophisticated statistical models to define a “typical” home based on the features of homes that have been bought and sold. These benchmark homes are tracked across Canadian neighbourhoods and different types of houses.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Canadian Tire recently purchased the rights to the Hudson's Bay Company's brand name, trademarks, and associated intellectual property.

Today’s trivia question: With U.S. tariffs on copper in the news, what is its symbol on the periodic table of elements?