From Peak Seller Conditions to Metro Divergence – Alberta’s Residential Market from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025
Alberta’s housing market from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025 reflected the impacts of rapid population growth, shifting supply conditions, and notable differences in performance between Calgary and Edmonton. The period began with very strong sales and a tight seller’s market, gradually shifting to more balanced conditions by early 2025, with Edmonton emerging as a comparatively tighter and stronger market than Calgary in various respects, according to reports from Edge Realty Analytics.
Sales
Alberta home‐sales reached their high point in Q1 2024 with a 31% year-over-year (y/y) increase. Each quarter that followed showed progressively weaker quarterly gain. Q2 and Q4 dipped, with a slight Q3 rebound in between. By Q1 2025 both quarter-over-quarter (q/q) and year-over-year y/y) figures had turned negative, ending the earlier upswing.
Source: Edge Realty Analytics
Edmonton displayed increasing demand in late 2024 and early 2025, including record-high activity levels outside of a brief 2022 surge, while Calgary saw marked deceleration by Q1 2025.
Listings
In Q1 2024, new listings in Alberta dropped sharply q/q (-12.3 %) but were actually up y/y (+4.7 %), while active listings fell both q/q (-10.2 %) and year-over-year (-17.0 %). By Q1 2025, however, active listings had rebounded, rising 10.1% q/q and 11.3 % y/y with Calgary’s rising surging 70% y/y to four-year highs even as Edmonton’s stock remained at decade-low levels, down 20% y/y.
Source: Edge Realty Analytics
Source: Edge Realty Analytics
Prices
Home prices across Alberta rose steadily on a year-over-year basis throughout the entire period, with gains ranging from 5.0% to 9.9%. While the overall price index saw modest quarterly fluctuations, dipping slightly in Q2, and rising in the remaining quarters, the regional patterns were more dynamic. Edmonton’s price growth began to outpace Calgary’s by early 2025, with a 12% year-over-year gain in January, compared to just 2.7% in Calgary.
Market Balance
The sales-to-new listings ratio reflected shifting market conditions. It peaked at 86.2% in Q1 2024 and declined to 66.1% in Q2 and 67.6% in Q3. A brief tightening occurred in Q4 (72.9%), but the ratio fell again to 68.0% in Q1 2025.
By early 2025, Edmonton’s market was significantly tighter than Calgary’s, with a sales-to-new listings ratio above 70%, while Calgary dropped below 60%.
Population
Population growth remained elevated for most of the period, especially in 2024, when quarterly increases held at or above 0.9% and annual growth reached 4.4%. Although growth slowed in Q1 2025 (+0.3% q/q, +2.0% y/y), Alberta remained a national leader in net migration.
Construction
Dwellings under construction increased in four of five quarters, with year-over-year gains ranging from 4.0% to 14.7%. Calgary experienced particularly strong growth in homeowner-oriented building, while Edmonton’s construction volume stayed comparatively subdued despite mounting demand.
