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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. 8 q1 W% K2 ^% M) h
8 k4 V {/ {: U9 [7 A2 }) sA 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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% t- N) r( c+ E2 D0 S; S1 n“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. " \, K1 d p- Y" V4 G2 x" Z
7 k1 Y# l3 B; p3 [' b# {" BAs 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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) a# G- H' o; Y3 ? Z/ YBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. ! v$ W; d$ ~) x
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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.”
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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. ) q3 e7 P3 k# M) Q# m
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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. * A/ c; P6 o1 k# O' `
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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. , n9 K, W, W5 S, e6 y
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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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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. $ k/ V$ W, D/ x. N! z4 G
; B W; D. t' }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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