 鲜花( 1)  鸡蛋( 0)
|
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 .
6 h+ X1 K8 Z4 Q; X/ c2 b4 ~+ B+ |" Y1 Z2 O7 M
That’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. 3 G/ p" o8 W2 N; T: u* l" p( V
/ k9 `7 @$ h2 n2 }
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.
9 \- L9 y' J/ K3 U! M7 X" m' N% I- J9 S* }( M4 E! }: z# n7 R( U
“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. * {( ~6 N+ V# {2 N; u* c
" M3 ^, J7 J" {1 n/ RAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton.
1 h3 J1 a5 d* Q, k, ?
F" Q, p6 u3 f/ B, u/ P6 {1 O5 f1 NBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. ) r) X/ T! M- L# o: F
7 x* m) Z$ x: C/ L“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.” + N( O/ o% q7 E* H2 _, c) i# z& N
, i- c9 `9 `2 z v; I/ i+ {
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 ($374,143), Royal LePage said in its survey of Canadian house prices. ' ^$ n$ b2 s4 O
" c5 ~0 d3 k Q
In 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. 5 |6 T4 i# ~' c2 {! m, i' x
1 @+ C q; r1 z. A" U1 P% U
An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period.
7 C' U8 h5 O# M/ p
( j( l/ d0 P/ [; f" K& H“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. 0 j' O- G( t) i- k1 e5 I. z$ V8 R0 T w
* v0 o8 @6 w7 _" w% m$ a9 ~& RAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. ( r$ q7 a/ \2 p5 C% i! {5 p
, D) o4 k/ v& t# _* O
Royal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end.
! y6 g- I5 Y! n
' Z* n, {& m8 x9 [The report predicts home sale transactions to decrease by 11.5 per cent to 461,000 unit sales by year’s end. |
|