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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.
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, J/ z# E1 K, L( }# }% E' J5 z- hA 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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3 }! k1 v" T& J2 Q3 ~$ 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. 5 Y( [5 S; z: c8 ]3 e
2 P2 g: b1 U! x' ^+ o8 {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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) z/ S6 u+ N- T4 V4 ?: u; ~But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. * w# I9 A' ?. A1 F' t& u6 m
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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.”
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5 H# i* a' s4 Y" h" }# W6 zThe 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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" B2 p. D. F( W' IIn 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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An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. j& s4 _! F6 \: z
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“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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: o8 K2 Y2 i6 p" h" c; q5 n# GAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. + o. \4 K4 J& e# n" U" K
, h1 B1 x" c9 N& t3 {) L' NRoyal 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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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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