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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/H ... /1248520/story.html: W/ P4 _0 {2 j- |8 Q* o" j- m" l
j% q8 O, K$ x7 a8 OEDMONTON — 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.. z# O" f7 s* m
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Every indicator fared worse than it did in January of last year, showed Multiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday.1 r4 q' B+ l3 S& q
3 u. \) e# r1 M4 x- 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 $352,689.4 N- r% ?# s' [* L
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- The average condo selling price dropped 7.5 per cent to $238,535.' z# J- H$ d. }8 C) P0 U; q- o
; w: m8 Z& Y* R6 u+ I- In the single-family market, there were 502 houses sold, down from 767 in January 2008.
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+ T l/ ^6 h8 I2 B4 k- 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.
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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.
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! i2 B1 N' I, P6 D" X, |. }" E2 lMultiple Listing Service figures released Tuesday showed 730 residential properties sold in the Edmonton region in January, up from 608 in December.
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* L: K- m' t5 I, MSales 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 $299,222.
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“Nobody rings a bell when prices hit the bottom,” he said. “The bottom is evident only after several months of rising prices. One month does not make a trend but the market is certainly welcoming to home buyers.”
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9 E+ x; K/ Z, {$ `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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