A sense of optimism was in the air at 40th annual Red Deer Home Show at Westerner Park over the weekend
Organizers with BILD Central Alberta expected to see about 10,000 people come through the doors.
BILD Vice-President Andrew Wiebe says attendance was definitely up over last year.
“Talking to both guests and exhibitors here at the show, it just feel like people are excited to maybe do some renovations or even build. You really get a sense that spring is here and there’s work to be done, so that’s exciting,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple tough years in Red Deer, and the economy hasn’t been as good as we’d like it to be, but it’s been really nice to feel that people are looking at just picking themselves up by the bootstraps in this industry and making it work.”
BILD President Derek Fredeen says one of the themes at this year’s show was Innovation.
“People are really looking for the new innovative ways to renovate, and see what new products are out there. This is just a one stop shop opportunity for them to come see what’s new in our industry,” he said.
“There’s lots of new technologies from flooring, to how we build things with code changes, and people want to be educated on what it’s going to cost as far as pricing goes on hew homes and renovations.”
Fredeen adds that right now is the perfect time to buy material because of the discounted rates they’re going for.
According to the latest statistics from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Red Deer saw 11 housing starts in February, compared to 13 in Feb. 2018. There were a total of 272 housing starts in the city in all of 2018, while there have been 38 thus far in 2019. There were 331 in 2017, 375 in 2016, and 692 in 2015.
