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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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/ R" M x( Z3 L+ j4 f% ZEDMONTON — 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.+ R3 x8 @$ z& ?9 [4 I
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.' o$ A4 d! |) w1 L2 j& _
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- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.! Z/ z9 r) q$ f
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.& F$ ~) \4 M4 y5 d. R% Q7 @
: n9 s( u7 r/ U/ i1 K- 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 $238,535.
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. f) S+ }9 V. {; m+ \. i" q- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008." d2 j! I& S; x# k- i7 b e( G _
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.
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He looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.
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+ p1 F% X- B$ \( U. M# w. DMultiple 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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( }' \6 V# H6 y0 c1 x# U8 M1 y4 A* `“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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