Edmonton Neighbourhoods Show Wide Range of Home Value Increases

Property assessments just mailed out in Edmonton show that people that invested in homes some five years ago didn’t do so badly in the profit department. If you bought your home in Whitemud Creek, you saw roughly a 21 percent increase in value. If you happened to set down roots in Rossdale or Beverly Heights, that profit margin increased to 55 percent. That’s even more than the 28 percent profit you would have seen investing in some of Alberta’s finest crude.

Some 326,500 people got the annual notice from the city, with the amounts based on values as of July 1st 2010. The average difference in price between this assessment and that from last year for single family homes was down 1.7 percent. But that also varied by the district. As an example, Secord saw an average 10 percent increase in value, while Canora saw a roughly 10 percent drop.

Look at the different neighbourhoods over five years and the disparity increases. In that period the average home value rose by 41 percent. In the northeast, eight of 12 districts saw increases of over 50 percent. Don Campbell, a real estate analyst, noted that housing in this area is less expensive and attractive to newcomers. The lower prices also have plenty of room to go up, particularly if they undergo extensive renovations. The newer neighbourhoods are already selling at market rates, so there is not as much wiggle room for those prices to rise.