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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html- G3 ~2 ^8 y2 U1 f
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EDMONTON — 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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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday. q" j1 m2 {3 o5 e% q+ M% d
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent." q5 Z9 i. {- G) |* ]
% x+ u: P5 u5 e. G0 M3 N- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.- v$ g! l9 z4 T" H- G. r0 S
1 _" g* e5 `' y- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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+ G; I0 C4 |! T0 q- I. g# O- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.$ ~- r m: {: K3 D( w
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.5 t: |5 f& c* r* I# m. j9 r
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For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.0 ^6 r- ]% p0 [ L
2 g# |. `# O; nHe looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.8 z9 {6 f7 B. `' V. O1 Y$ }: m
/ b0 v, G' ^0 d3 S! x/ m5 bMultiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.- t! F2 [/ t( Z8 N2 c/ v
( Y5 z& g2 K! ?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 $299,222.1 o6 G6 }* k, ^9 M |! X9 n% W
0 M8 ?* L5 q& {4 S0 _' o“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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% V9 T b. }; l1 Y+ `% x* WHe 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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