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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 . : M" x% C" M K0 z: N. g& [) y6 F
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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. ! z5 l% f; Z# s1 r& {% A! a
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A 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.
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“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. 4 E2 U6 N1 x0 X
6 ?9 ^1 w2 X5 vAs of the end of Wednesday, there were 11,184 homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton. ; b( C7 T; l) i
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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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- f6 {8 ^' e# a5 F( _“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.” & w. P: }$ K9 W# R+ |
* ~2 u7 T* H" d) k# UThe 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.
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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. 2 q+ t; l2 n* s, R1 \+ Q" E7 D
3 d% |6 \8 _3 oAn average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period.
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“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. : d" j% n% U6 Z' F9 F& y4 Q
1 g: @0 L$ }6 Z, |Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. 6 \$ {# ]9 N6 {. s. E
+ \9 w1 R- z' \* a4 oRoyal 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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The 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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