'Literally sight unseen': What's fueling Edmonton's red-hot market for houses?

It's a great time to try to sell a house in Edmonton, with low inventory and out-of-market buyers driving bidding wars.

"I think it says a lot when people are buying houses literally sight unseen," said realtor Ryan McDonald.

In the Alberta capital, there’s usually 3,000 to 4,000 houses on the market at any given time, but on Friday that number was about 1,400.

Houses that do get listed are not lasting long, McDonald told CTV News Edmonton.

He pointed to a house that was recently listed on a Tuesday, and by Friday, there were eight offers.

"I think it's probably three or four days on average. Some of them are selling on day one. It's also near 100 per cent list price, on average," he said.

According to data from Royal LePage, Edmonton housing prices increased in 2021, with the median price of a single-family home sitting around $469,900 — an increase of 11.6 percent.

However, the Alberta capital is still affordable relative to the rest of Canada, where housing prices soared by 17.1 percent in 2021, for an average of $779,000.

New Edmonton homebuyers Mike and Erin Hartley in an interview with CTV News Edmonton.

"Going out to Edmonton, the price is a lot lower. Even though they are going fast, they're not going up. You're not buying for hundreds of thousands over list price," said recent Edmonton homebuyer Erin Hartley.

She and her husband Mike are moving from Ontario to be closer to family. They ended up buying their place after watching a virtual tour while out east.

"I think seven or eight per cent over the list price is what we ended up paying. Whereas here, we're going to list it, and it'll probably go for about 35 per cent or so over the list price," Mike Hartley said.

If you want to land a house, McDonald said, be prepared to make a strong first offer.

"I would say you can't be cheap. It's not possible right now for most places to get a deal," he said.

Better bargains are likely to be found in condos, which was the only housing class to decline in average price last year, the Royal LePage report said.

Condos decreased in value by around two per cent to an average of $193,600.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson