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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 . % Z' M- k; c' q G6 @6 j" ~; U, H3 @
* c+ s2 |; b5 D9 q7 ]" e# { ]$ e; h! G: [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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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. 6 i( [! ` H+ ?# |! J6 M/ T+ v. G
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As 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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1 e! m" {+ y7 @, D5 I8 JBut Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. 7 ~0 v+ S+ N# {4 p- s
6 f0 {( \/ _0 ?! E“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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0 [' r% V; h9 m7 SThe 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. * X8 Y/ p# D: d1 n8 b
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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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“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said. & o) b8 h/ y6 h
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Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007.
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, e* c* e" f( Q( ~/ `/ iRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 5 Z& t3 z# S) ^7 z! k- {3 D; B |( }
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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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