Alberta home sales to rise 3.5% next year, real estate group predicts

Homesales will see a modest uptick in 2017 but prices will stay flat, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The national group's updated resale housing forecast predicts sales in Alberta to rise by 3.5 per cent next year while average prices drop by just point-eight of a percentage point.

• Alberta sees provincial out-migration for 4th quarter in a row

"The forecast rise in Alberta's sales in 2017 mostly reflects slow sales activity in the first quarter of 2016, a repeat of which is not expected," the CREA report says.

CREA chief economist Gregory Klump says even with all the layoffs in Alberta recently, there has not been a mass sell-off of homes.

"What we've been seeing is that listings have really been held in check and there isn't that oversupply situation that would lead to the kind of price declines that are associated with a massive oversupply of homes in the face of weak demand," he said.

Home prices in Calgary dropped by four per cent from 2015 to 2016, according to CREA's November numbers.

Klump says the continuing rebound in the price of oil will likely help lift the Alberta economy in the new year.

• MORE ALBERTA NEWS|Protests against African trophy hunting spur court injunction application
• MORE ALBERTA NEWS|Direct flights between Calgary and Mexico City coming June 1, 2017