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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 . 1 n7 |# y( K6 B) {& Q, X
& Q/ ^ G/ g+ y; r3 B+ T1 V' eThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
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0 y+ {4 n9 c9 hA 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. : f+ W9 u0 @" N( C8 b* q
: ?2 h- Y9 w! C4 q( D# u“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. : G# k; f j# R0 {
$ |# f% z7 U! s4 g7 ?* h5 G% eAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton.
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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' x* x& F9 }0 t3 D“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.” 5 x/ x: p/ |1 S9 p
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The 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. 4 R1 [) V/ r( r' l5 P" O
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In 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.
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0 g2 |9 a6 ^( I# m+ OAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 2 u9 e! v1 d9 `! ^
# X3 M! M) J0 N; s; c% g3 T3 g; y“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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1 V3 }6 D# _* [0 K+ ^, r7 UAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007.
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Royal 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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2 U& w8 a7 t% W; H8 bThe 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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