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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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( N G2 g$ h2 D* gThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. + o3 S( ~6 C- G# X, E1 i* t/ ~2 S- n
* d8 R& x: o- @; N- x DA 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. , F6 e7 {5 e: s: T
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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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0 Q- O( g* u# @/ UAs 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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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. & U% M4 U8 m! ?
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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.” ' B9 H1 f( u& b% i' ]% Q7 {. R9 G+ D
" _- _0 h, T2 y, y1 F+ t/ xThe 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. 6 T" |" E* q+ b2 o
; a7 h/ M, Y% H( k7 Q. I) P3 xIn 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. 0 v( Y; [4 C/ b# D5 U
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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.
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“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. $ i) `; Z3 x) `1 _7 v% L# o
% c4 E: i9 {$ @" H# U: h+ Q9 uRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 9 e ?' Q+ i l' M0 o/ ~
- T6 s5 ]6 Z! {. y- ]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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