The prices of real estate property in Fort McMurray have nosedived after prices of commodity dropped by almost 50 percent.
Fort McMurray is an oil town and when commodity prices rise, all is well especially for its real estate sector. But when commodities steeply declined in prices, trouble began brewing for homeowners at Fort Mac. According to The Huffington Post, data compiled by the Fort McMurray Real Estate Board on average home prices show that rates are not doing so well compared to last year from the months of January until October. Single-family homes have dropped their prices from $768, 464 to $685,835 that translates to 10.75 percent decrease. It even got gloomier in September when the prices scraped bottom at $682,738 from $774,007 in 2014 -- an 11.79 percent drop.
Aside from price drop of homes, another area affected by the slowdown of commodities market is the sales of real estate in Fort McMurray. The Real Estate Board reported that the number of single-family homes sold in October has dropped 44 percent compared to last year and annual sales also declined by 41.42 percent.
But people in Fort Mac are not worried. Marian Barry, a former president of the local realty board said, "You work around [the downturns], you accept them, you work a little differently perhaps, back in the mid-80s was when we saw a similar situation - and in '07 and '08 as well we had a little bit of a downturn, too."
Meanwhile, in a report by Calgary Herald, the decline in oil prices has been hard on the housing market of Fort McMurray as the MLS price on average was recorded at $117,000 lower than usual in October. The Canadian Real Estate Association released a report that indicated that the sale price of homes last month was at $468,199 which is lower by 20 percent compared to last year.
