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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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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.% C+ {9 ^1 x4 [: Q# m) G$ l( r
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.
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5 H5 S7 F' w8 T* H$ Z9 X5 c7 C- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.
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' T( o7 n4 j( q- j. i" Y+ n3 ~- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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4 J* U1 O+ Y' i+ ~6 c- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.' f9 x1 P3 [4 |; \% B# _
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.. w$ }! P2 O8 ?, I: I
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He looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.
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# f/ a D$ @* @) sMultiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.9 n8 Z% Y7 W& u# T* l1 \
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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.
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“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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He 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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