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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 . 6 H- e5 A2 [5 _, o6 i
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That’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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: p+ `7 u+ t6 }' y* sA 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. 8 y4 R9 C0 L: { e9 o+ a* L
7 A' q# ^ @& i! W4 V“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. 8 ~( \8 y( ~, k: d m. b) c" w7 A
" u1 f& N2 G- S' W* J7 f1 zAs 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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3 t5 q& V" }5 w; [But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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“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.”
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- V* t) ~# v/ oThe 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. 3 G0 p+ U" Q- _' O) q
$ \1 v" `8 r: X+ a lIn 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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) \1 b% }1 G. R3 D7 g0 x! nAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period.
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3 o% g- ]8 M' c5 K$ e: 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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: c5 `( V/ G$ n3 P* U0 _: rAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 2 G5 R$ `4 w5 U
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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. $ B/ ^7 e) v, v/ Q) ?1 R" E
: X$ Q4 b# E/ ]& gThe 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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