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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 . - g9 z8 o6 Y6 @6 D7 k0 j
$ |( V3 g! C. a, n/ e' IThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. & O1 g6 G# C% `2 y8 a* A2 P
/ G2 J5 r" o `" p$ F- w1 [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. ! W7 `, \/ P: n9 ^1 d' g: b* K
2 R2 b: d1 Z8 X1 u# LBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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“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.” 7 C2 q/ d$ u0 I! O: ]* R
) n, s F: m) Q5 L, m7 R* a$ TThe 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 ($374,143), Royal LePage said in its survey of Canadian house prices.
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. V$ e; D- H, t: y2 b$ hIn 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. : r3 [) s- g o9 r: G, i2 p
( ? b3 s- c1 b0 t! m0 v! KAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. ) ^+ j: Q4 Q6 `. D. l
\2 I; D9 f m& p“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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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. ( x3 |, H( _: R9 V1 h- j
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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.
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7 e' I5 V& P: @3 ?6 {' zThe 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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