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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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EDMONTON — 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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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.* X, a, e& ^% R
- L1 C( X% H$ I+ ~1 t7 o3 q4 q- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.+ o2 B) C& u& }3 N F
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.! U6 e! w- ^. y [$ [; f
}0 J2 M7 l( P- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.) t7 o6 E( D4 L+ l, R8 e, q
% P4 Q) [- {6 S* V- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.6 r% ?$ j8 I1 ~
7 @0 \/ H L/ x6 ?( \$ |7 f- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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- U' J0 L" A. rFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.7 \% Z; ]2 X9 e! S
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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.5 A) v5 i- G% d+ o- s8 I4 a6 E
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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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Sales 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.
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2 S: O) U4 {# x+ Y“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.”
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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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