WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
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Realtor Lynn Truong sold this $420,000 home in Amber Trails to push Winnipeg over the $3-billion mark in annual home sales for the first time.
Winnipeg’s total home sales for the year passed the $3-billion mark earlier this month, only four years after first hitting $2 billion.
The dramatic increase wasn’t the result of a clearance sale at Waverely West or Sage Creek or anything like that.
RAISING THE ROOF: Winnipeg house prices on the rise
$104,202
Average price of Winnipeg home in 2002 (the first year sales reached the $1 billion mark)
$206,313
Average price of a Winnipeg home in 2007 (the first year sales reached the $2 billion mark)
$254,807
Average price of a Winnipeg home in 2011 (from Jan. 1 to Dec. 29)
It was all about rising real estate values in Winnipeg.
Officials believe the ongoing buoyant market is attributable to a solid economy, rising immigration rates and a goodwill overhang from high-profile projects like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the return of the NHL
Lynn Truong listed the Amber Trails home (that was bought by an immigrant family) that pushed total sales over $3 billion for 2011. The 2,500-square-foot home in the northwest corner of the city sold for $420,000.
She’s only been an agent for six months and has already had some success.
“This neighbourhood is hot,” said Truong, who said she gets lots of referrals from the Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Winnipeg. And a hot neighbourhood means rising prices.
“One of the most striking things about the result this year is that we will not beat the actual number of homes sold in 2007 (the first time sales totals topped $2 billion),” said Peter Squire, residential market analyst for Winnipeg Realtors.
In 2007 about 13,100 homes were sold (including condos, multi-family units and a few vacant lots and mobile homes). This year the local Multiple Listing Service, which includes sales activity for the entire capital region, will be very close to the 13,000 mark.
The point is that average home prices in Winnipeg have gone up by about 25 per cent since 2007.
“It was a good year for Realtors and for Winnipeggers in general,” said Ralph Fyfe, the association’s president. “In 2011 Winnipeg was truly blessed. There was a healthy economy, a good real estate market, a good football team, the return of the Winnipeg Jets. What more could you ask for?”
And it’s not like 2011 was a one-time-only surge. Winnipeg home prices have been rising steadily for about 10 years.
In fact, the average home price in Winnipeg has increased by more than 10 per cent annually for seven years from 2003 to 2010.
While the double-digit increase has cooled off a little over the past two years to about seven per cent, the Winnipeg market remains attractive.
Across the country there is plenty of talk of a real estate bubble in markets like Vancouver and elsewhere, where there are 20 per cent-plus price increases. But local industry officials discount any concern about an overheated market here.
“We have tight inventory,” Squire said. “Demand is still outstripping supply.”
And the thinking is the rosy conditions have some staying power. The city’s population is expected to grow by another 15,000 immigrants next year, unemployment rates continue to be among the lowest in Canada, and interest rates are expected to remain very low through 2012.
“We are the beneficiaries of great conditions,” Squire said. “With the stock market unstable people are looking for a safer haven for their money. Real estate in Winnipeg is about as safe a haven you can find anywhere in the country.”
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca