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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html; d4 _" P$ ~. a2 G
" @8 e% |; h6 VEDMONTON — 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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, Q: p$ f* @! ?- ]+ Y9 i0 R: HEvery indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday. d- a% I, h" Y! R
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.
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$ d0 C j( a6 u- A! j( Q U- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent., \$ b7 u r1 J! z3 @- v
' r1 W( u1 F+ d# `' |+ W' T# a6 @- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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$ h$ }# M% |4 M4 a. ^! V- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.3 n" N2 v; x' \* k1 H' _; G* K9 O
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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4 L6 h% A8 Y: r- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.: S, ?/ U& s& f H+ `
3 K* b( i4 S1 i( c; h6 }* X1 oFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.0 ^! }8 A& e, C R# F7 \2 B
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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.1 u s& L3 `9 d8 `! r8 b
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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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{. E' a- x" N% H8 X+ gSales 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.% d( i0 @, k# ], ^
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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.”) d4 } {) B' b+ w7 @4 }1 I5 |
/ X& l6 j/ m3 j) }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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