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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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1 U: l) t! l* k8 Z6 Q& {3 `8 {7 ?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.
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday., E; ^5 h1 H* Q O" m8 g/ Q
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.! s7 E" E5 ?, M; Q2 K8 d6 D
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.
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- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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6 ^4 }5 V V2 Y8 i- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.3 X X. z5 a! ]% Q$ ], d
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.$ \5 @8 r+ L! Y% q5 w; b2 B
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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2 Z1 X. Y1 F! w9 n& jFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.3 t7 `8 u4 Z2 y/ O) ]
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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.* p& a0 G; |; H. t; J# l$ I8 q! c
; a% n. O; m& e' s( xMultiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.! t0 N* L7 w. n+ o
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Sales 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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“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.”6 h3 r6 n7 B. c, g0 a: J b+ m2 t8 n
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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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