Edmonton’s housing market is “more balanced and sustainable” as it enters 2026, the chair for the group representing the city’s realtors said Thursday. Darlene Reid, chair for the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton, said home buyers and sellers can expect to see a shift towards a more moderate real-estate market that favours neither side, a trend that started last year as new housing inventory and the number of listings increased. “Edmonton continues to stand out for its affordability, steady population growth and expanding housing supply,” Reid told media at the Edmonton Expo Centre, where the association presented its annual housing forecast on Thursday morning. “That combination supports stability, choice and opportunity for buyers and sellers alike as we move through the year ahead.” The association’s forecast is based on year-end statistics and analysis. “Edmonton has some great advantages; one is with development costs,” Reid said. “Edmonton’s development cost is around four per cent when you compare that to markets like Ontario, (where) development costs are 36 per cent, so Edmonton has a lot of advantage to keep our house pricing down with development costs and our great economy here.” Among the key numbers for 2026, the realtors’ association forecasts: Stability and affordability are watchwords Reid uses for 2026 and the Edmonton real-estate market. “We’re still predicting some price increases, just very moderate increases, so pretty much stable from last year,” she said. “Even last year, we saw the inventory (go) up, the number of sales went down, but our price still held and even went up a little bit, so we’re predicting the same. Population growth does impact the demand, so we’re expecting less demand, but we still are predicting prices to continue to rise slightly.”
