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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 . ( U6 M2 f. q6 R5 v
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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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, x: B! t* l$ h9 H+ \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.
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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. 2 h0 V6 d3 q2 C a
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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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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. 9 w! r& C% M3 D. O1 q
7 z2 P: A) D1 }7 h7 N$ R- |, J“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.”
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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. & S! \3 ~1 S* a2 A! V9 O
# \ k4 k5 N% AIn 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.
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An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 8 ?* R, C% @7 W; W- E/ A6 C
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“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. ! [* h: w o" _4 l! Q4 W6 y: {" _* P) Q
9 @$ p, ?- a: ~% aAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007.
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+ q5 [8 R2 `9 qRoyal 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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