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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 . 9 _! Y: O: D* p c3 ]7 @" {: F$ n
1 |/ v7 x& G$ z) T* _* N# l/ [& JThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. ) K% g; Z) A7 b, n
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A 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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0 D& z: o) V/ l1 p5 f/ J“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.
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. ! }: E0 u4 n: `" R
9 A; e, i0 | Q$ O+ h7 p7 j“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.”
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9 Z- R- X0 a6 e& W- D, ~. bThe 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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" w5 d! h! U, K! V, n. K) rIn 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. % W: U3 U+ n3 X7 d9 [* p+ J! N
. a' Y+ O- L' T. l) I& K8 BAn 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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. S- p+ Z( k* G6 F, Y) g“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 6 v* X; r7 j6 R
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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 2 |# e0 r7 M/ [. z7 Q# E7 N
2 W+ J5 Z8 w5 Q6 a3 wRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 4 K# m! w8 Y) f" I. U5 x
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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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