The cost to buy a house in one Alberta city dropped by $50k in 2022

Alberta’s real estate market had its ups and downs in 2022, and one city in the province saw the cost of buying a house drop by a cool $50,000.

The drop in one spot might be welcome news to prospective homebuyers, but in typical roller coaster fashion, another city in the province saw its prices rise by $50,000.

According to a new report from HelloSafe Canada, some markets in Alberta heated up while others saw a bit of a cool-off.

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Cowtown jumped over Montreal in the rankings to become the fourth most expensive city for real estate in 2022 thanks to prices growing by 8.1% between December 2021 and December 2022, while prices in Edmonton fell by 0.8% during the same period, landing in seventh place.

According to the report, Fort McMurray is one spot in Canada that saw the biggest real estate prices fall in 2022, marking a 15.1% drop between December 2021 and December 2022.

The hot spot in the province was south-central Alberta, where real estate prices increased the most in 2022, from an average transaction of $189,423 in December 2021 to $240,719 in December 2022 (+27.1%).

That includes Medicine Hat with an increase of 17.9% from $273,998 to $322,990, and Lethbridge with a 10% increase from $316,279 to $347,915.

Despite the price increase in some parts of the province, overall prices in Alberta generally stagnated in 2022 with just a 2.8% increase.

You can check out the full report here.

The study was based on data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), supplemented by data provided by some of HelloSafe Canada’s business partners. The comparisons made were made month to month, between December 2021 and December 2022.