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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 2008.4 L7 ^" Y; _& ^$ K9 s/ I" b
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.5 O* Y/ i& o* Z$ b& x! i/ b2 d% [2 o
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent./ |, k$ O7 G& b3 u$ C: `& G
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.
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2 A/ ~# e5 o4 l2 N2 P- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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* z5 \! {# y" @5 ? W- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.8 e3 i0 l6 @) H2 C- a5 E
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He looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.7 B6 P, z! Q+ s6 v# `' v
: B6 E: R. }. c L9 ^, W4 _9 ^Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.' z/ e: k p- e$ c
) z; i5 S, V+ U- lSales 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 $299,222.0 _1 U2 r# H+ G4 o/ B
' i6 G+ r# k, W& O3 ], I9 T3 J“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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! M! X: u" o+ l4 S# A; lHe 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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