After a decade low in 2023, Lethbridge, Alta., rebounded last year to sit among the highest home building centres in Canada.
Even so, Lethbridge is short of houses, but last year saw a nearly 200-per cent increase in new housing starts.
It’s a positive trend some expect will continue into 2025.
“We are seeing population growth. Our inventory still remains low, despite having higher starts in 2024. So, we’re going to have to increase that inventory level. I think there’s confidence in the market, the interest rates are coming down. I think there’s a number of different factors that indicate to us that it’s going to be on par, at least, with last year,” said Bridget Mearns, executive officer at BILD Lethbridge.
She says this positivity can be celebrated, though it needs to be understood in its full context.
“If you’re doing a comparison to 2023, it’s going to look massive. But that’s more because 2023 was significantly lower, in fact the lowest starts we’ve seen at least in a decade. So, doing that comparison isn’t probably good, but we did see an upward trend in housing starts and that is good news, that means our economy is healthy.”
As housing starts rocketed upward to 715 total units in 2024, prices levelled out.
“We did see sort of a less incremental growth than we’ve seen in the past, which was quite significant since COVID. But material costs are still unpredictable, so those definitely affect the cost of new homes.”
This rapid rise in housing starts is not happening coast to coast to coast, with a two-per cent increase nationally.
“For example, in Ontario and B.C., we’re looking at more of a decrease in 2024, whereas centres likes, well the Prairies and especially Alberta, starts were up by 32 per cent last year. So, that’s quite a contrast when you look at it at a provincial level,” said Kevin Hughes, deputy chief economist with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“And again, we’re talking mostly here apartment structures, which is, in Canada now, more really the norm of what is being built.”
Red Deer saw an increase of 87 per cent, while Edmonton jumped 39 per cent and Calgary was up 24 per cent last year.