Carl Phin & Kim McLeod

Residential sales activity reported through the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Alberta numbered 3,170 units in February 2016, down eight per cent from a year earlier.

Nationally, home sales activity rose 18.7 per cent from year-ago levels in February 2016.

The provincial average price for homes sold in February 2016 was $388,037, up 0.6 per cent from a year earlier. The national average price, by comparison, rose 16.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis to $503,057.

Monthly residential average prices were up from year-ago levels in South Central Alberta (+11.9 per cent), Central Alberta (+4.3 per cent), Calgary (+2.1 per cent), Medicine Hat (+0.9 per cent), and Lethbridge (+0.9 per cent). In contrast, average prices decreased year-over-year in Edmonton (-0.5 per cent), Alberta West (-5.3 per cent), Grande Prairie (-9.2 per cent), Fort McMurray (-11.4 per cent) and Lloydminster (AB) (-14.9 per cent).  

New listings on the MLS® Systems of...

By Tamara Gignac

CALGARY — Albertans know all about the B-word: boom.

For much of the past decade the economic pace was blistering, led by massive projects in the oil sands. The result was scores of high-paying jobs, a red hot real estate market and an influx of thousands of new migrants.

The party was good while it lasted.

But in 2008, Albertans were blindsided by another B-word: bust.

A collapse in energy prices, the result of the U.S. financial crisis, took the steam out of Alberta’s once-buoyant economy.

The oil patch shelved or cancelled billions of dollars worth of projects, jobs evaporated virtually overnight and ordinary Albertans struggled to pay their mortgages.

But after sputtering for much of the last three years, Alberta appears poised to regain its position as Canada’s economic juggernaut.

All signs suggest prosperity is sweeping the province. Unemployment is low, cash registers are ringing and the energy sector is once again on a hiring spree.

It begs the...