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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 . ! [$ H5 i' D6 i5 \
: T; f( G. J% q l( o* KThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
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- ~2 B# B% Y* P1 CA 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. 2 `9 J+ D1 `9 S1 i$ x
& c# f# ?5 G. E/ T“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. & M* L. _( @( q3 S: D, r
) g) n* V' g# `) ?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.
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. ! E1 P9 \7 n5 F. T' g, E
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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.” % A P7 k) R: L8 r: e ]1 j: m
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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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' e# l2 Z" ]+ R; C9 C% _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 $397,857.
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6 x5 ?- b$ V) v5 OAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 9 b& L) ?" T# U. U s
" L$ N% p& K+ A$ n) c“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 3 d& ~; x L1 W8 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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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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! Q5 Y. X1 }0 N5 uThe 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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