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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. 7 K! r8 x8 c. B% ] b' h& D% N
) T3 k8 R# g. n2 n! J1 BA 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. 9 ~8 x# [. U. V+ e8 ?7 t
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. 9 P' q0 k8 E" x% R. k
1 w! k" c5 Y5 D) P S& G“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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( f9 p, N7 Z8 s1 D, H* B6 L$ R- bThe 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. + U r* f. V' Z W* f2 p& P
: A+ o* C! k6 j0 ?6 D% MIn 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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g3 G; q1 m' P" q& G! k% LAn 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.
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. L% ^1 G0 G" b) d& ~6 h# _Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007.
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- I7 `- P3 o& ~/ ZRoyal 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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9 s* o9 s% U8 d+ F( a: I/ y/ P8 I( R' JThe 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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