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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 . 5 p. }7 `9 O' e" ]6 l# T
7 D! Y8 Q7 w y2 G9 k+ d: {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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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. & b+ C+ \# j. ]+ G/ |
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“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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8 Q! i5 |( H- Z$ ~) @But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. . Y3 P, J6 s6 |9 b- k: z
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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.” ; n$ M( P5 E4 |" w" h
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The 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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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. & o8 T" O9 B6 O- A7 e7 G7 n
$ H' j# P& |0 X' d* ~( b, q! gAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. ! d# d1 @! {* l
: G0 Q4 ?! l# ~8 x/ o7 n. w6 L U“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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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 8 [8 \, v9 U8 B# |- Q/ c& s k
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Royal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end.
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$ n: K# {+ C8 f7 s9 ^( p HThe 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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