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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. * x& Y6 s+ [4 s R' N: I0 a/ q
& L8 W3 O0 N: Y, V/ oA 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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6 _6 N8 F6 K, U5 S5 p# u“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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* T, P% a- @6 M7 O4 }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. 4 E$ R a9 K& e) i
' h" e) y/ H. m) ZBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. ! T6 M9 Z+ | \1 _4 X. Z( ?
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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.” , b% \4 R" ?2 A
0 T2 t! Q1 S1 CThe 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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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. $ r$ |# b* r: g z
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An 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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1 ]# G, j" a. {) y% f& L4 A& n“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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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. / T9 |& @- e8 Z, Z8 {% V
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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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