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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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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. & x9 B1 V: L; b3 m( [
7 R5 E4 j0 [2 \3 @& g“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. : E! [5 I" K s6 v3 {
' q% `6 {6 u4 ]. g- `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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+ D2 A' `5 s6 ^3 vBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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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.” 6 E+ T9 v3 y& m7 E3 I
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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. , v* f0 @7 D! w! i) E0 ?1 g
; \" _1 E, _, UIn 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 $397,857. ' h6 p: ?$ R8 k9 M4 ~% V$ I! a% z7 S# H
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An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 6 Q0 v! E1 _% g7 I& f2 M
. R" k! ~7 {5 Q1 ?“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 1 s' W; V5 Q* l
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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 0 f) [/ P$ X9 g/ t6 X7 j/ p
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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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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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