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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. / R3 W6 l8 q+ c9 f
' Q* q& N% a! _' `1 tA 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 J2 Y) I* P3 O4 C“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. 3 i5 g" [" R, T n$ G
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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. ! s9 i) Y! Y) r& R5 c+ K
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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) a& `6 t5 K, R1 V) A“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.” 5 o. r/ l4 ]# B) }
; F1 E8 D( `" O a4 j/ H, 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. 6 X8 i% B2 d7 L0 o" h o
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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 $397,857. 5 w$ q) `* i! C* d
7 n# g8 S) E* s& R7 lAn 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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4 R7 K5 r/ @( E& G" T2 v“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 9 y( t' f0 ]6 s5 K& F0 r# o/ W7 Y
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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.
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8 W, M8 }0 [5 ^. R3 JThe 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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