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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 . 3 D+ @' y& ^: Q+ Y8 ]+ }% o2 e& D& E
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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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8 r; d. A: v3 Q3 i( y. mA 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. 2 ^8 y" u5 ^: d) S0 Z
5 ~8 z4 V, P: l3 o& p- ?9 k“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. - M- w$ o: k0 |/ G( Z
2 J5 H$ N) H* B2 X% b4 ]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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. {" {( Q. Q; p) V; K* k! }But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. * k- x5 ~* h. ~" k) t2 t, B u
- G0 H" ] L" P9 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.” " R$ |0 H8 c: ]' ?
! ?7 _ P& k: t& i1 J% eThe 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 ($374,143), Royal LePage said in its survey of Canadian house prices.
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+ `: p- [) b% n4 F- i' {$ v* WIn 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 $397,857. % m9 m! C7 o+ q2 R) K' q# v( a
! N& j" r$ ~. S& @5 vAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 7 I3 b/ s9 e* u) Y+ W$ i
l- }5 H% V$ }* z. i9 K$ _ o“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. ! x4 }$ k2 u$ ^7 |% c# C! G
# x9 w* u1 v# G6 h2 g# ~Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. ; ^! l7 r1 v( `5 Y9 Y1 J. a
0 j- c. H @/ e; r. Q: ~Royal 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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