Residential investors planning to scoop distressed properties in Alberta will find slim pickings as foreclosures are lower now, eight months after oil prices crashed, than they were a year ago.
Across the province, 453 homeowners are in the foreclosure process, compared to 519 in the first quarter of 2014, according to figures provided by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
Edmonton has the highest number of residential foreclosures, at 181, but this is down from 215 in the first quarter of 2014.
In Fort McMurray, a city of 78,000 at the centre of the Alberta oilsands, just seven homes are in foreclosure this year, down from 11 in the same period last year.
BIV was provided with a list of 115 of the 165 home foreclosures in the Calgary region, but a realtor who deals in such court-ordered sales said the number “is not a huge” amount. In fact, Calgary home foreclosures are up by just a single listing from a year ago.
Calgary realtor Stephen McDonald of CIR Realty, which handles foreclosures, counted a total of 55 judicial listings of residential property and 60 bank owned listings within a one-hour drive of downtown Calgary, as of May 13. The remainder are homes in foreclosure but not yet listed for sale.
The total distressed sales equate to less than 0.03% of the current 5,400 listings on the Calgary Real Estate Board, which is line with national mortgage defaults reported by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The list of Calgary foreclosed properties are mostly detached houses with asking prices ranging from a low of $160,000 to a high of $1.5 million.
The list includes condominiums, including a $3.4 million, three-bedroom condo on Second Avenue SW, Calgary. There are also land parcels in foreclosures, dominated by listings in the Windhorse community in the suburban Rockyview, where 14 parcels are listed, priced from $410,000.
