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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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5 {1 b- n* z" E) g; A% HEDMONTON — Edmonton’s resale housing market sales kicked off the new year by stumbling out the gate — with residential MLS sales down 40.5 per cent compared to January 2008.
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- D Q+ ?8 d# {4 g% NEvery indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.$ L4 ?9 s! C. ?6 S/ k9 F: Y
- o: u; V5 R$ x' d! d+ P- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.! u: ]/ x1 P9 z- r) l4 W
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent., G: o# Q! }: t4 `( A* ?* [
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- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.% [6 G4 M# M9 u
* [! y0 A: ~% @, ~9 `3 y- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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4 S( I2 ?% l- LFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.
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He looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics./ w( {6 t4 k& y/ r: I ^1 t2 t) \& Y
, G7 ?! v: @* O0 U! o' i9 D5 J' \; [Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.) p* k" p1 E4 |( l# J) X
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Sales prices were also up in all categories as compared to the previous month. The average price of a single-family home in January was $352,689 — up a quarter of a per cent compared to December. Condo prices nudged up 1.8 per cent to $238,535 and duplex/rowhouses rose 2.2 per cent to $299,222.
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“Nobody rings a bell when prices hit the bottom,” he said. “The bottom is evident only after several months of rising prices. One month does not make a trend but the market is certainly welcoming to home buyers.”
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He pointed to interest rates which have fallen to their lowest in years, a large selection of homes and recently introduced federal tax credits for home renovation and a change in the amount of RRSP savings that can be applied to a first-home purchase — now $25,000 up from $20,000. |
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