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Alberta Housing Market: Provincial Home Prices and City Reports | August 2026

Updated

Alberta has no single provincial board release: its two big markets each have their own board, the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) and the REALTORS Association of Edmonton (RAE), and the province-wide MLS® HPI benchmark comes from CREA’s index data. This page sets the provincial figure beside the two cities and works out what Alberta’s registration fees and city tax rates mean at each city’s typical price. The Canadian housing market overview compares Alberta with the other provinces.

Alberta home prices, August 2026

The provincial composite benchmark was $511,500 in August 2026, down 0.8% from a year earlier. The city boards have since published September 2026, and their benchmarks bracket the provincial one: $566,700 for the City of Calgary and $423,100 for the Greater Edmonton Area. A typical Calgary home was priced 34% above a typical Edmonton-area home, a gap of $143,600.

Calgary and Edmonton side by side

September 2026Calgary (CREB, city)Edmonton (RAE, metro area)
MLS® HPI benchmark$566,700$423,100
Benchmark, year over year-0.8%-0.3%
Average sale price$646,198$466,080
Median sale price$574,444$435,000
Homes sold1,6501,959
Listings added in the month3,3543,864
Listings on the market at month end6,4868,062
Homes sold per 100 listings added49.250.7
Months to sell every listing at this pace3.94.1
City residential tax rate, 20260.66499%1.03637%
Annual tax at the benchmark$3,768$4,385
Income needed, minimum down$129,200$98,100
Census median household income (2020)$100,000$96,000

Board releases for September 2026; ratios, tax and income computed here. Tax uses each city’s combined municipal and education rate on an assessment equal to the benchmark. Census medians are for each metro area.

Three things stand out. First, the cheaper city carries the larger tax bill: Edmonton’s rate is 1.6 times Calgary’s, more than enough to outweigh its lower prices. Second, neither city is a seller’s market by CREA’s test, since both needed more than 3.6 months to clear their listings, but supply was moving in opposite directions: active listings were 16.7% higher than a year earlier in Edmonton and 6.3% lower in Calgary. Third, the minimum-down income for Calgary’s benchmark is 29% above Calgary’s census median, while Edmonton’s is 2% above its own. Each city’s report has the detail by home type: Calgary and Edmonton.

Buying a home in Alberta

There is no land transfer tax (all provinces) in Alberta. Under the Land Titles fee schedule in force from October 1, 2026, registering a transfer costs $50 plus $5 for each $5,000 of the land’s value, about $562 at the provincial benchmark and $617 at Calgary’s, and the mortgage is registered on the same formula applied to the amount borrowed.

A home at the provincial benchmark takes a minimum down payment of $26,150 and an insurance premium of $19,414, and qualifying calls for roughly $117,600 of household income (method). Half of Alberta households had more than $96,000 of income in 2020, by the 2021 Census, so that is 22% above the provincial median. The Alberta first-time home buyer page covers programs for new buyers, and the Alberta mortgage affordability calculator shows what an income supports.

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Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 24, 2026 and October 4, 2026. How we check facts.