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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 . ; e3 E* A* g5 N% v# Y5 V) F4 t: g. T
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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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) C0 ^9 Q0 \4 n( Z# Y4 F2 RA 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. 3 u3 ?7 ~' z: F& x H
6 a2 ]" ~+ x" H! B+ U“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.
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6 G4 Y. C0 O. C: g" `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. # g/ W) T# `7 k2 v% L, i! ~3 c
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But Alberta’s two biggest cities still boast some of the most expensive real estate in the country, it noted.
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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.”
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. d( F5 R! L- O! C; S( l3 FThe 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. , B( O9 j5 M. f) Z
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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. * V" h; m! ^3 k; O
; y/ C& O, `0 c! l4 h- `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.
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5 A, b3 K5 m& xAcross most of the country, average house prices rose, but more slowly than the spikes seen in 2006 and 2007. $ y' \2 D* \0 C' o# p f# w
- q, q; v8 N) wRoyal LePage forecasts the national average house price to rise by 3.5 per cent, to $318,000 by year’s end.
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C$ G) G7 o6 O. S) FThe 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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