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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 2008.0 Z$ C4 x M" d: D8 D
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.% q' l* v( z6 y Y
. x/ s7 ~1 t0 } o6 D! Z$ a( j7 T- 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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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.$ }% j# f* i3 N6 c6 K5 Q+ j$ N
' U$ Q* R: r Q& @) }5 s* y- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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) t# z0 R4 a$ U6 ]& G$ q# y; E2 [- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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7 F' ~! g$ b$ ~9 r; kFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious." F0 z$ c8 w" x0 C
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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.* i5 F0 O7 A+ r$ \! y
9 P; g* t7 }, PMultiple 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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" y3 M: Z5 K, z! h" pSales 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.! T: R' k' ~0 p8 U
+ R1 j' b5 t3 {+ Y/ 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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* u* P( A4 f! ?* KHe 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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