How the real estate went from boom to buyer’s market in a blink of an eye

The experts explain city house prices
Bill Mah, The Edmonton Journal

Published: Tuesday, May 06

EDMONTON - If you were selling a “typical” home this time last year, chances are it lasted 22 days on the market before someone bought it.

You got $413,488 for it.

That was then. This is now.

Selling a typical home these days? Chances are you’ll wait, and wait, for 52 days before selling.

And the payoff? About $28,000 less for your single-family detached house than if you’d sold it last year — an average of $386,033, according to monthly figures for April released Monday by the Realtors Association of Edmonton.

Condos, duplexes and rowhouses also dipped in average price, and thickets of “For Sale” signs seemingly stand outside every multi-family development.

So what happened? What’s a seller or a buyer to do? Where does it go from here?

We asked three Edmonton housing experts for answers: Richard Goatcher, Edmonton senior market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation; Pat Adams, a condominium builder and president of the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association; and Marc Perras, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton.

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http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/local/story.html?id=476af5ab-d874-4da3-805f-ec424077f3c9&k=31125