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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 . + m0 L; |; Z+ i( M5 b2 n! S
( P( g: m/ X/ t# _3 L1 cThat’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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3 t$ w. w# u' F/ Y8 JA 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. % @7 |& K, B* E" D
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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. c4 n$ U3 w( n' M' J" \
' U6 A% C0 k* dBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. . P' X( ~" z3 c( _, x, L
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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.” 9 h0 B v" W6 ~$ y5 L
) A1 H. ] o; D; R& XThe 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. " {" J5 m" [# k- _; U" F8 ^5 ^( @2 P
N/ G- I4 r' N1 o) ^6 kIn 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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1 j R( k2 H q* B8 m. N: _* LAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. : w# D* x' d* y) {( y
3 D0 ~* O+ L5 F3 a, ?“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 5 _+ g i. o4 T; p- P, k2 {
' T6 b7 d5 J. BAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. $ D1 t$ J9 C4 u7 K m
6 H' ~9 l* Z( J- e) s1 y/ m, s5 IRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 1 t8 S1 t0 ?7 n0 w$ `7 E {
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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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