July sales spike 14% over last year as sellers drop prices to reflect market
EDMONTON – July home sales spiked 14 per cent over the same month last year as Edmonton’s cooled-down market showed signs of roaring back.
Buyers purchased 1,784 homes in July, compared to 1,565 in the same month last year, according to Edmonton Multiple Listing Service numbers released today.
Only MLS sales in July 2006 — 2,230 — were higher.
Realtors Association of Edmonton president Marc Perras noted that the turnaround in sales came in July, a month where activity usually drops.
“Sales have been steady for the past four months and have not dropped off as they usually do in July,” Perras said.
One big reason for the double-digit jump was that July is the first time that sales this year have been compared against a “normal market month” after last summer’s correction, Perras said.
“We’ve been saying all along this year that our sales are actually reasonably strong.”
But Perras also credited July’s upswing to Alberta’s robust economy and sellers who finally dropped their asking prices in a strong buyers’ market.
He noted that an analysis of June’s sales showed about half of that month’s sales had taken price reductions before selling with the prices coming down an average $28,000.
“I think that we still have some people thinking that their properties are still worth what they would have been worth a year ago, and we’re getting to the point that sellers are realizing that, ‘my property might not be worth what I thought it was.’ “
Prices, however, are “still relatively stable without any evidence of dramatic up or down swings.”
The average residential price dropped 1.8 per cent from last month to $335,100 — down 5.53 per cent from the same month in 2007.
The average price for a single-family detached home was $379,224, down a half-per cent from last month on stronger than usual July sales of 1,176 units.
Compared to July 2007, the average selling price for the single-family detached home dropped nine per cent.
The single detached home’s median selling price — middle figure in a list of all sales prices — fell 8.35 per cent year-over-year to $362,000.
The average price for a condo fell 3.25 per cent from last month to $253,850 on slowing sales of under 500 units. Compared to last year, it dropped nearly seven per cent.
Duplex/rowhouse homes rose 1.2 per cent to $316,832 in July with sales of 68 properties.
All figures are based on Edmonton-area sales through the Multiple Listing Service. They do not include private sales by owners.
Perras said Alberta housing prices peaked earlier than the rest of the country and have levelled off while prices elsewhere are still falling.
“I think in a lot of Canadian markets, they’re just starting to experience their correction where we went through ours last year,” Perras said.
Despite a pickup in sales, Perras said the buyers’ market continues because of a glut of homes for sale that remains entrenched despite a strong July.
Listing inventory has fallen to 10,501 properties as of July 31, down from a high around 11,500 earlier in the summer.
Average days on market for a home this July was 55, compared to 35 in the same month last year.
Bill Mah | The Edmonton Journal
