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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html$ A, x' d; B: k& W8 L
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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.7 N6 j6 E) Y$ z$ y& X2 V" a1 ~# W
]9 T. ]8 Y+ L2 M- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.
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- Value of total sales for the month was $265 million — down 42.4 per cent.8 S) s2 b# y0 K- X! I
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- The single-family home average selling price fell 7.1 per cent to $352,689.& F8 n. X1 S Y" C
- D, w1 F& A/ p, p: C- 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.
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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, i* @# e2 O+ L, r( JFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious." L7 g8 a% }) m; s) ^- X& j1 u3 g
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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.7 I6 e6 Z& Z5 f! b6 L V6 n
6 T0 ` n& P+ ?4 W' T }Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.- }, ?3 b7 A1 x. f
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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 $299,222.5 q2 K" f: c4 I" K# W9 ^
! X4 |1 `; n7 `% V: e e: d“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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