Home sales across Canada reportedly stalled in March due to the impact of tariffs and the threat of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, but some real estate agents in St. Albert said that this isn't the experience in the city.
Nationally, home sales fell 9.3 per cent in March 2025 compared to last year, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. But numbers from the Realtors Association of Edmonton show a slight increase for the Greater Edmonton Area (GEA).
In March 2025, there were 2,494 residential unit sales in the GEA, a 36.9 per cent increase from February, and a 1.3 per cent increase from March 2024. The average list price in St. Albert the last 90 days for a detached, single family home was $441,698, St. Albert real estate agent Ian Robertson said in an interview.
Brian Cyr, a real estate agent in the St. Albert area for around 15 years, said it's possible that one of the reasons that people aren't listing their homes is because of market anxiety and the effect of tariffs, but it's not something tangibly affecting the market in the Edmonton region.
"January, February, March were very active months in our marketplace," Cyr said. "What's happening out here is that homes are selling really, really quickly. And if someone's looking at purchasing a home, they know that our market is hot. And if they want to make a buying decision they have to do it. They can't tap dance around it."
Robertson agreed with Cyr's assessment that what was being seen on the national level isn't necessarily what's being felt at the local level.
"Have the tariffs impacted us here right now? I would say no, not that we can see. But part of that is because of all the people coming into the province and the shortage of homes that we have available right now," Robertson said.
Over the past several years, Alberta has seen an influx of new residents moving from other provinces like Ontario and British Columbia.
"We're expecting 100,000 people to move in here. A part of that is due to the economy, part of it is due mostly to affordability in a bigger centre," Robertson said. "Our inventory levels are still historically low right now and that's what's driving our price increase right now is the amount of people that are coming in versus the amount of homes that we have on the market."
Cyr said the lack of inventory had a greater impact on home sales in St. Albert and Edmonton than uncertainty around tariffs did.
"The biggest factor affecting our market is supply and demand," he said. He added that one of the bigger trend changes is people delaying listing their homes until they find a home to buy, affecting the inventory that's available.
Robertson added that it's nice the election is over as they head into what he expects to be a busy spring market, which will hopefully bring some form of assurance and signs that the trend will continue.
"We don't think this is a blip right now just because of the amount of demand coming in," he said. "We think our market still has room to run."
