Alberta’s resale housing market slowed in January, as increased inventory and cooling migration gave buyers more breathing room amid ongoing economic uncertainty. 

Seasonally-adjusted* unit sales slipped by 3.4% compared to December and by 15.8% versus the previous January. The cooldown in activity has been occurring for a while with year-over-year (y/y) sales falling consistently since February 2025.

More choice (the months of inventory** measure went from 2.4 in January 2025 to 3.4 in January 2026) has meant that buyers can take more time to decide. As a result, the sales-to-new listings ratio has fallen over the last year from 69 to 59 and, in turn, from a seller’s market into more balanced territory.

The situation, of course, varies from community to community. Looking at the two largest markets in the province, the slowdown in residential sales was more intense in Calgary last year with annual activity down by 14.1% compared to a drop of 5.8% in Edmonton.

The pattern of resale activity in other Alberta markets has been more sporadic, with some markets posting annual increases (e.g., Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie) and some decreases (e.g., Lethbridge and Medicine Hat).  

Turning to resale prices, the general direction has also been downward.

The average price of a benchmark*** home in Alberta peaked in January 2025 at $524,200. A year later in January 2026, it was down to $507,900 (-3.1%). The same underlying factors—slower population growth and increased supply—affecting the drop in the number of sales are also at play here. Although down from its peak, the benchmark remains 10.7% higher than where it was three years ago.

In Calgary, the benchmark peaked at $585,500 at the end of 2024 and has since fallen to $565,400 (-3.4%). As with the province as a whole, the end result is lower prices in the short-term, but a benchmark that is 10.3% higher than at the start of 2023.

In Edmonton, the benchmark hit its zenith more recently at $424,800 in March 2025. The price fell to $416,800 last month (-1.9%), but was still 13.6% higher than in January 2023.

Stronger levels of new construction in Calgary, particularly in the multi-unit category, help explain the decline in resale prices as the overall supply grew faster in Calgary than in Edmonton. At the same time, Edmonton experienced a burst of population growth that saw it expand more rapidly than Calgary last year for the first time since 2018. Lower average prices in Edmonton also means it has an affordability advantage over Calgary that we suspect has been helping to spur sales.

As with unit sales, we see the pullback in benchmark prices as a rebalancing process rather than a sign of a major correction.  

*All data in today’s Twenty-Four have been adjusted for regular seasonal variation.

**Months of inventory measures how many months it would take to sell all currently listed homes assuming no new listings enter the market and the sales pace remains constant.

***Benchmark prices are generated by the MLS® Home Price Index model. Calgary and Edmonton are the only sub-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: There are nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Today’s trivia question: When is the next leap year?