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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 . + r+ n6 T1 l; ?& Y( B
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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. ! s# O7 o; a5 u" E
8 p& ~9 } f1 L7 SA 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. * R( s) O+ d# _/ x9 `/ `1 z
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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. * u% p: A& ~5 p
0 H9 }8 O6 p q* T" j! y. N& vAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton. 9 k- {$ U3 g% I/ @: M( W
. ^$ Q# d/ }3 b: OBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. * S3 r6 _- p2 t0 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.” 4 L$ m! o. ~- [* M" |. q! X
7 M9 N( Z$ F1 CThe 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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5 a& `0 A5 d. W5 @4 O 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 $397,857. & E% \3 ~$ o c% G* k% ^
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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. 0 a" g7 m* @% r9 T
; P! v9 v( Y, D“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. 6 v9 j0 n( {; m. C! F3 z
& C. B6 \6 x- e, {' f1 W- HRoyal 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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