Resale home buyers swarmed back into the Edmonton-region market in June, setting a residential sales record for the month.
Home sales for the month reached 2,552 units, surpassing the 2007 record of 2,203 units sold and tallying the third-best month ever for residential sales in the region`s Multiple Listing Service history.
Only May of 2006 and 2007 had higher sales than last month.
June residential sales were up 37.8 per cent from the same month last year, and up 18 per cent over the previous month.
"In the Edmonton housing market, it seems that the recession is over," said Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, which released its June and second-quarter MLS results Friday.
First-time buyers and others jumping on rock-bottom mortgage rates drove much of the sales activity, he said. "When mortgage rates looked like they might start to rise, many potential buyers locked in historically low rates and then went searching for a qualifying home."
MLS sales in the first six months of 2009 totalled 9,741 residential properties, compared with 9,567 sold in the same period last year.
Despite the record month, the market isn`t returning to the boom mode, starting in 2006, in which soaring prices fuelled feverish speculation, Ponde said.
"This time, we are driven by sales, and not by prices. Buyers and sellers seem to have found the pricing middle ground in the last months.
"Prices are not spiralling up as fast as sales."
Sellers appear to be pricing their homes so that they sell for about 97 per cent of the list price, he said.
Average prices rose slightly with one-month increases of 0.6 per cent for single-family homes to $369,859 in June from $367,672 in May and $351,870 on Jan. 1. Condominium prices rose an average of one per cent to $247,071 in June from$244,734 in May and $234,286 at the start of the year.
Read the full article here.
Home sales for the month reached 2,552 units, surpassing the 2007 record of 2,203 units sold and tallying the third-best month ever for residential sales in the region`s Multiple Listing Service history.
Only May of 2006 and 2007 had higher sales than last month.
June residential sales were up 37.8 per cent from the same month last year, and up 18 per cent over the previous month.
"In the Edmonton housing market, it seems that the recession is over," said Charlie Ponde, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, which released its June and second-quarter MLS results Friday.
First-time buyers and others jumping on rock-bottom mortgage rates drove much of the sales activity, he said. "When mortgage rates looked like they might start to rise, many potential buyers locked in historically low rates and then went searching for a qualifying home."
MLS sales in the first six months of 2009 totalled 9,741 residential properties, compared with 9,567 sold in the same period last year.
Despite the record month, the market isn`t returning to the boom mode, starting in 2006, in which soaring prices fuelled feverish speculation, Ponde said.
"This time, we are driven by sales, and not by prices. Buyers and sellers seem to have found the pricing middle ground in the last months.
"Prices are not spiralling up as fast as sales."
Sellers appear to be pricing their homes so that they sell for about 97 per cent of the list price, he said.
Average prices rose slightly with one-month increases of 0.6 per cent for single-family homes to $369,859 in June from $367,672 in May and $351,870 on Jan. 1. Condominium prices rose an average of one per cent to $247,071 in June from$244,734 in May and $234,286 at the start of the year.
Read the full article here.