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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html9 M3 ]4 U- u: j! s/ V! p# D
; K/ A9 P( F& D+ E4 j* k* C1 `/ IEDMONTON — 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.. _. u: ^( @, k
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.$ {1 Y7 Z- }6 n3 [( f' q
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- 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.
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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 $238,535.
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- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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3 n8 q2 t& T6 ~- p2 M( o( r; t& EFor all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.* d, F# L, s% C5 b' P$ i. ~
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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.3 g+ j; Q% X8 ~# N
1 F$ b& h; I0 Y# U, eMultiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.8 S$ J+ \( A; s! O1 Z) k
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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 $299,222.3 m% D9 i, B0 n5 t! ^# r7 J
' B8 W' M9 L2 n7 D9 Q1 o$ ^! Z“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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