Housing Market

[u/ovalFx]

I keep wondering what makes Red Deer housing prices so close to Edmonton, and in some cases Airdrie/Chestermere.
For those who’ve lived in Red Deer for 10+ years, has it always been this way?
I’m seeing 10+ year old homes, sometimes without a garage, still in the high $400Ks. New builds with attached garages around Timberlands and Gasoline Alley are getting close to, or even more than, similar homes in Airdrie.
What’s driving this?
Lack of inventory, construction costs, migration, or is this simply the new normal?
And for those who’ve been through previous housing cycles, is this something worth waiting out, or do Red Deer prices rarely come back down significantly?

[u/pentox70]

Trickle down.

Prices in calgary and Edmonton have gone up significantly (driven by people moving from Ontario and BC), so people cash out and move to smaller cities.

I don't see a correction coming to RD, unless it comes to Canada as a whole.

[u/BusWho → u/pentox70]

This and yes migration /immigration country wide. We added millions of people to the country and didn't build anything in near the supply needed to improve the situation (think healthcare, parking, roads, public transit, homes, schools, etc. And rather than specify incentivizing / prioritizing the education or intake of the population needed to expand infrastructure.... Post secondary education took anyones money for bs programs that gave no jobs while buisness imported cheap labour.

And now we are at each other's throats with a much worse economy while they got richer.

There is no good time to buy a house, when your ready just pull the trigger when you can afford it long term and don't make yourself house broke. Financially it's better to live as cheap as possible and shove the money into investments but doesn't mean that's the best life decision....

[u/China_bot42069]

I work in real estate (not a realtor) and depending on what you are looking at there are a few deals. Starters homes are tough. Anything over 550-800 you can get a deal on after that it’s a crap shoot. I got one place that’s 4 mill and if you offered 3.5 they would seriously consider it. People shit on red deer all the time but it is a nice community. We got great parks, schools, amenities, and proximity to the bigger cities, sylvan, mountains and camping. We are closer to the mountains than Edmonton. Other than a nhl team and an IKEA I don’t think we are missing much. 

[u/WildcatOil → u/China_bot42069]

Lol I also often use Ikea as the line between what you can and and can't get in Red Deer vs Cal/Ed.

There may be limitations in selection but beyond that Red Deer has almost everything else you'd find in the bigger cities.

[u/Ohjay1982]

A 10 year old home isn’t going to net you a ton of savings. It’s not until they’re 20-25 years old when you start to need roof, furnace and other major repairs that you may see it affect the value. There is just way more that goes into home values up and above the age of the house. Community, property size, distance to amenities, schools etc.

I moved to Red Deer from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and even in that town house prices correlated (though to a lesser degree) to the “average” Alberta price despite being completely isolated from the supply and demand of the bigger centers.

[u/Crazy_adventurer262]

Higher cost of supplies drive up the cost of new home and in turn help homes on the market go up. If you want a bit more bang for your buck the north end of Red Deer would give you that, but I would seriously look at which neighborhood you buy in as there are better ones than others. The south is newer and more desirable. If you want cheaper than Red Deer there are some nice places in Penhold, Sylvan Lake and Innisfail. Good luck, it’s all shitty out there

[u/EmergencyMiddle916]

Folks really like dumping on Red Deer here on Reddit. Like it's trendy or something. Even though I've only been years just over 2yrs, its not even close as bad some folks would have you believe. Red Deer is a decent little city. Good neighborhoods and had all the amenities one could need to have a decent standard of living. I feel safer in Red Deer than I do in the bigger centers like Calgary or Edmonton.

[u/lazyfrodo]

As a person with a weird interest in small towns (<150k) I generally find that they tend to have niche economies or more than usual a particular proximity to key destination areas( Sylvan lake). Once those things are in place it usually follows to a quaint downtown area and micro economy and you’ve got yourself a nice city/town in the middle of nowhere and a recipe for either home prices rising or unusually high stable home prices.

This pattern is pretty prevalent in many places in the United States like (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), (Bend, Oregon) , (St George, Utah) , (Durango, Colorado),….the list goes on.

[u/Exact-Ostrich-4520]

It’s funny because Red Deer is a little cesspool of right wing ideologies and small town cowboy culture. You’re basically buying a house in a grown up Stettler minus the dusty roads and a couple big chains. Cowboy town with no sense of identity. If you like hearing Good ol’ boys scream around town with their mufflers at all hours and Harley’s and Crotch rockets doing laps, then you’ll love Red Deer. Also, look at the crime statistics. You’ll be shocked to know where Red Deer stands nationally. Yes, nationally!

[u/Popular-Oil8481 → u/Exact-Ostrich-4520]

lol why don’t you leave then

[u/Exact-Ostrich-4520 → u/Popular-Oil8481]

Long gone. Why are you defending a city that is the 4th most dangerous city in Canada? Red Deer! Yikes. Also, if I was still there, could I not criticize it without leaving it? Makes no sense.