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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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That’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. - o6 u0 h7 ^# w* i
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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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“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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As of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton. % `2 p6 E# n @ b" g; u" f; ^% @# B
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. 6 R9 Z, S4 |9 t& D+ G
' h! Z% V1 V" `) m+ K U“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.” " I( x1 f, H" z# [9 x3 O
7 [. l7 ~6 p6 U8 gThe 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.
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& L' ^; _' ^* m+ {4 j" {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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An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 4 r: T9 c; f$ T, T
: o6 Z" ]( `4 k: M% {$ P7 x5 L$ n“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. ) i3 r9 v; x; d. Z4 N. |! G
! B. o; K5 K; W V* n5 J1 _Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007.
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Royal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. $ ^& z- R# Y$ `3 H2 T
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The 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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