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EDMONTON – By the end of the year, Edmonton could get something it hasn’t seen for several years — a “normalized” housing market — as homes for sale dry up and prices drop .
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' }! V- B9 R! @That’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. 2 S5 p( l6 N( u
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A soaring number of homes put on the market especially by builders and speculators in the last year softened the city’s housing market during the second quarter, the report said.
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$ D- l' C7 T+ W5 [8 ]8 K1 P1 y“The high inventory levels will dwindle into the second half of the year, and as affordability improves, subsequent market conditions will continue to normalize,” the report said.
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* L: ~( t$ R) GAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton.
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9 t& H; p3 ]/ Y FBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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; S; p" c& |9 Y1 A: z4 _“Despite some mild price erosion during the second quarter in both Calgary and Edmonton, these markets remain strong. Although prices have come down from where they were last year — one of the best years on record — current house prices are far higher than they were three years ago before energy-rich Alberta experienced its boom.” 9 S& Q t$ H9 n) `/ w
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The average price for a detached bungalow in Edmonton in April, May and June was $320,000, down about 14.5 per cent from the same period in 2007 ($374,143), Royal LePage said in its survey of Canadian house prices. 1 i3 X' j+ R+ q8 S6 F% L
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In the second quarter of 2008, a two-storey house in Edmonton sold for an average price of $348,571, down 12.4 per cent year-over-year from $397,857.
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* }' r* Y) H9 P2 {1 y X% UAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. * c- ^. L/ j7 a* t7 {' u
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“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said.
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1 z' W% R7 ~1 ^4 {8 I0 [; s2 A7 YAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. + Y% n9 O, A X9 n4 x
; U4 F% A% A# Y. B# F+ gRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. " |/ _2 O5 r: p' N/ S9 l/ b/ }" j
! U/ W _1 G& a& v3 i+ E; fThe report predicts home sale transactions to decrease by 11.5 per cent to 461,000 unit sales by year’s end. |
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