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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html' E. D0 E* s7 p4 c% J0 p
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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 2008.5 z& j8 X. S% j; W9 j
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.- M7 b; a) M( T: v3 r% }6 L# L5 Y
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.- w. h9 n% V& l: p$ v, d1 k
( z2 `) u; R _$ f. z. c6 I9 t8 B' b- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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& I$ a3 e: X+ ]4 @For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.& }6 q5 x. }% o" X
. l- ~" o8 p' t; y1 @He looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.
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# z; o ^( C$ q/ Z2 Z3 _Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.
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) v2 F+ E- g6 H" [4 ^; G5 USales 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.
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+ n& l: r/ e6 } N) s& `“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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He 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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