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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 K: e' X' {7 S' Y+ e; Q1 G! u
$ V$ D& k8 L3 ]' WThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. ' Y5 V" J7 G1 X$ o
9 c7 R+ X: K5 p* QA 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. 7 w/ h$ c! }9 p6 {
$ H0 y: _7 y2 b% p. ]+ iAs 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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( V) q1 A$ J* R" E% `But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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& {' A: @; U, _5 Z. w“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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' W6 V) |& m g6 j/ _; o9 v' YThe 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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8 v3 g2 M! H8 k0 z: {0 h# eIn 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. " n: i( h x3 G( l" j: u
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An 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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- u! s* j4 @8 i1 i. m“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. ; A# G5 w! a) Q6 N+ Y+ g
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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. * Y8 b1 U; J: u' s0 i: g% g
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Royal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end.
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; V/ z0 A$ K& C5 HThe 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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