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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html
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9 v: _# X, B! TEDMONTON — 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.
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- o2 Y2 R# k, I; [- Total MLS sales plunged 40.9 per cent.3 P2 r Z: U7 c8 [
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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.& Q) ?9 Z- W/ s+ K) g
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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.
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7 v& ~8 H. U8 F2 e. m- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.- n8 Y3 ?/ T' T/ b5 Z
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- For condos, only 189 sold in January compared to 363 a year ago.
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For all that, Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, sounded optimistic, if cautious.2 {, }% R4 v5 {. J- L2 D" a* Q7 C
; L! y- u7 {6 i) MHe looked on the bright side, the month-by-month comparison — January figures were modestly better than December’s gloomy statistics.4 X# U7 f t, F8 c
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Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.& F# l" Q, d+ X, f p6 B, A
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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.
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# N. L( h5 ^2 m“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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) Y! [/ U) \1 VHe 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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