 鲜花( 1)  鸡蛋( 0)
|
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 .
7 ?" p6 g4 P2 V5 t! }0 z+ T
$ L, S! ~4 `6 sThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
. _: M! @6 R% T5 O
8 |" @, D! w& I1 H4 ~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. 4 l( ?6 i& `; i7 A/ r1 J1 H6 @0 k
3 B( A5 @1 @! E8 e
“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.
! k: k) R7 N; A& \0 w
1 C* D5 b& I9 W( z0 E9 j2 Q0 HAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton. ; x. T! a8 }; R' ^6 s4 ?: W/ ]
% c+ D4 C8 t- j- Z2 X% V( p
But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. 5 }! E0 A5 @' `) G
& s0 ] m0 W9 G* T. K* u2 r
“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.”
# K( a7 q' m6 E1 ?4 @, B4 W
* a3 U" F! N' G0 S/ U- T% rThe 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. " t8 @0 [" I" ~1 `; ~: Y
3 y) W6 T- i. u1 cIn 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. 9 P6 o- Q2 g( \+ k2 b
. n0 _, t. H+ H5 C; k p7 V' F" y
An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period.
" d0 Y9 ?9 H+ H9 {' K4 v5 {, j, }' w I: b6 U7 Q% P
“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said.
% o2 q" c9 P, |
# p9 s( x9 n' J- p' F+ R$ U. U! {Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 5 F0 g1 |+ U6 P2 X. i- _
# x" e4 I* o ^% jRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 6 V4 _, F" X: E
J: T$ w3 A: P LThe report predicts home sale transactions to decrease by 11.5 per cent to 461,000 unit sales by year’s end. |
|