Alberta cabin, cottage prices spike in 2023 as Canada's recreational property market cools

Alberta led the country for price growth on cabins and cottages in 2023, with a national real estate report suggesting the increase is partly fuelled by one community near Edmonton with especially tight supply.

Royal LePage's 2024 recreational property report, released Wednesday, shows the median price of a single-family recreational home in Alberta was up 4.7 per cent in 2023, year over year.

Prices for the same types of properties in B.C. were essentially flat, and in Ontario, they decreased by 5.2 per cent.

Alberta waterfront property prices declined slightly in 2023, but they dropped more than eight per cent in Quebec, Ontario and B.C.

But Alberta's biggest jump by far is at Wabamun Lake, about 50 kilometres west of Edmonton, where the cost of single-family recreational properties spiked 53.5 per cent. That brings the median price for 2023 to just above $675,000 — nearly $250,000 higher than 2022.

Tom Shearer, broker-owner at Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate, said a few more expensive, modernized homes sold last year at Wabamun, and that's part of what's pushing that number up so quickly.

But he said there also haven't been enough new listings to keep up with demand, including from an influx of people relocating to Alberta and jumping into the real estate market.

"A lot of people that are moving to Alberta, and Edmonton specifically, are coming from Ontario, where they are passionate about their their ability to get out of town in the summer time and go to a lake," he said.

"So, I think there will be more competition for finding that beautiful lakefront property where you can hear the loons calling in the background."

Just north of Wabamun Lake, the median price of single-family recreational properties at Lac Ste. Anne declined 11.5 per cent, according to Royal LePage. At Pigeon Lake, southwest of Edmonton, the same category of homes saw a 13.8 per cent increase in 2023.

Real estate agent Charlene Anderson specializes in lake homes in communities west of Edmonton.

In her view, 2023 was a fairly standard year for recreational property activity, with a continuing trend of rising prices, especially for cabins at Wabamun Lake.

"There's generally always more than demand than supply … [Prices] have been steadily increasing since 2012."

Recreational properties are often a second, seasonal home for people with income or borrowing power to spare, or a place to retire.