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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html, p6 B9 M- \: \9 y# O- W
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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.& {( y$ D, A$ t" Z
! [* @4 D/ \; d- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.# z& z/ p4 e \
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.
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- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.
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o% f! ]/ N2 n: G- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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2 Q# y* \( s+ [) O- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.7 T& H W+ V6 K3 @; y
' p8 Z! z1 Z! v: TFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.
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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.+ X& g$ c& \# p5 E+ w) q4 Q6 T
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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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_3 Y$ w1 @# L9 h; o0 @3 q& E& tSales 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 $299,222.4 R" R0 P9 Z( l* h' |# A3 R- Q {
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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.”4 D, w: | d! ~" p/ n7 V# J }; `, ?
" T- v+ E& m' z9 M! IHe 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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