Selling during the redemption period is the route most Alberta homeowners with equity actually take. It uses the asset you have to clear the debt, and returns whatever is left to you.
What the Fort McMurray market means for it
We do not publish a price figure for Fort McMurray. We do not have one we can stand behind, and a made-up number is worse than none when you are deciding whether to sell. A current opinion of value on your specific property is part of the free assessment.
An urban service area within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, 435 km north-east of Edmonton. The economy runs on oil sands production, natural gas, pipelines, forestry and tourism, with Syncrude, Suncor and Canadian Natural among the major operators. It grew from a fur trading post established in 1870 into a petroleum hub after the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant opened in 1967.
How it works
An ordinary sale. You list, accept an offer, and it closes through lawyers. At closing the mortgage is paid out of the proceeds along with arrears and costs, and any surplus comes to you. The lender is generally satisfied by being paid — that is what it wanted throughout.
The timing problem
Preparation, listing, a buyer, their financing, then closing. Each stage has its own pace and none of them accelerates because you need it to. A comfortable sale wants months rather than weeks, which is the whole argument for starting the moment you know the window exists.
Pricing under a deadline
Listing high and adjusting later is the most common way homeowners lose this race. Most of a listing's attention arrives in its first fortnight; a price that turns buyers away during that window spends the one resource you cannot recover.
Fort McMurray knows sudden upheaval better than most places in Canada. The 2016 wildfire forced out upwards of 88,000 people — the largest wildfire evacuation in Canadian history — and destroyed roughly a fifth of the homes here. A community that rebuilt from that does not need lecturing about hard years. What it does need is straight information, because household finances here move with the oil price whether anyone plans for it or not.
General information about the Alberta foreclosure process — not legal or financial advice, and nothing here guarantees an outcome. Every file is different.