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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 . 2 S1 e2 e% _) t# Z
5 v3 z6 I; K& ]3 l' c$ I; M* l7 Y; x( hThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. . T) I/ b8 H8 u$ a
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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. 0 ? _3 A* r7 y; F( m* f
+ B' w: Y; v9 V4 W0 D3 Z“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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5 i. { y* C$ j8 ?6 t/ b `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. # r# Q- C0 U$ ^* h$ 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.
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# }6 N. n. }7 R6 b6 _' V" s6 W; T“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.
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" {+ ]5 [0 d3 r1 }. _; e5 IIn 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 $397,857. . k3 j6 l% R$ E3 s
@( ^8 e% |8 }" t& yAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period.
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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. / s4 E7 Y: P( Z& R- s
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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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( G* M, e: m1 W7 KRoyal 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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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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