New data released this week on housing starts and home prices on the resale market continue to paint a picture of Alberta as a hotbed of new construction and a relatively affordable place to buy a home.

New construction - Going strong

On the one hand, housing starts* in Alberta continued to roar along in August. At almost 48,000 (seasonally adjusted annual rate), starts were 19% higher than the five-year average. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, starts in the province were 23% higher than the same eight-month period in 2024.

On the other hand, starts have been coming down from the all-time monthly record of almost 69,000 set in May and dipped below 50,000 for the first time since January.

Coming down from the monthly peak was expected with our forecast for the year sitting at about 55,000. Despite the cooling over the second half of the year, we still expect 2025 will be a record high for annual housing starts in Alberta.

It will slow, but the pace of new residential construction should remain hot next year. We expect housing starts to come in at just under 49,000—the third highest on record.

There is little mystery to the strong run of starts in the province with recent spikes in population combined with ongoing demographic growth fueling demand for more housing. By the same token, the relatively slower rate of population growth will give the construction sector a chance to catch-up and, in turn, reduce the pace of new builds.

The strong YTD numbers in Alberta stand out against the picture in Ontario where starts were down by 22% and B.C. where they were essentially flat. Other strong performers include Quebec (+26%), Saskatchewan (+47%) and the three Maritime provinces (+22%).

*A housing start is defined as the beginning of construction work on the building where the dwelling unit will be located. This can be described in two ways: 1) The stage when the concrete has been poured for the whole of the footing around the structure. 2) An equivalent stage where a basement will not be part of the structure. 

Benchmark prices - Relatively affordable in Alberta

As has been the case for a very long time, the cost of a comparable home* on the resale market in Edmonton is, on average, less expensive than in Calgary (the gap as of August was $150,000).

The same holds true for the price of homes in Calgary and Edmonton compared to Vancouver and Toronto, with the latter two markets much more expensive than in Alberta’s two largest cities (see the chart below). The affordability gap is smaller but still noticeable compared to Ottawa. It is the other way around for cities like Winnipeg and Regina.

**The Canadian Real Estate Association calculates the average price of benchmark homes in various markets using the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI).Calgary and Edmonton are the only markets in Alberta for which HPI data are available. 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: Born in 1984, the oldest player on the Toronto Blue Jays roster for the 2025 season is Max Scherzer.

Today’s trivia question: Who wrote the best-selling book “At Home: A Short History of Private Life”?