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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 . 8 Y1 D7 O4 p# x* Q
5 G) F1 ]/ R/ X# ]( c. | aThat’s the forecast contained in the House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released Thursday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services. 1 ]+ c' Q% k$ ~7 S/ q4 L0 y
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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. 2 I6 f: k: J; o# v0 m: d3 t8 t
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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. # P9 S2 i1 I6 u; d
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted. $ n1 X' u( w# L ~ V: V
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“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.” 1 H+ G3 c2 D# T7 P5 r
0 A, [/ [& e7 ^6 Y% A- U1 a3 q8 @5 JThe 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.
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An average condominium in Edmonton was priced at $226,000, down 14.2 per cent from $263,333 in the comparable 2007 period. 9 H6 Z& G+ U( e% ^
( A0 A( R0 X" ^) P“A surge in inventory caused Alberta’s white-hot market to record the country’s only major-market price decreases,” the report said.
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2 b3 u2 C7 P" v# R: }Across most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. % Y! x6 w, y2 f! s1 u
; y1 C! L$ A, ]Royal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end. 6 I/ O( t' p8 o* Q8 B A
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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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