This Winter Is Heating Up!

Ask any Realtor and they'll tell you that winter is a time to prepare for the next year. Plant the seeds on the sales they plan to make in the spring because real estate comes to a near grinding halt over the winter months. But not this year.

Royal Lepage Real Estate Services reports that the last quarter of 2007 saw the Canadian market slowing down only a little rather than the full on braking that has come to be expected in last quarter.

Edmonton can expect a moderation and balancing of prices and that is ok by me because I'm looking to significantly increase our investment portfolio and overpriced homes need not apply.

"In Alberta, where Edmonton’s prices were rising at a 50 per cent annualized clip early in 2007, the breakneck rise in recent years "has moderated demand," the Royal LePage report said.

Edmonton and Calgary now have "a surplus of inventory," it added, and "while demand is strong, the increased supply has impacted the resale market and homes that are not priced appropriately will take longer to sell."

Soper said the Alberta econ-omy needs time to adjust to the "frankly unhealthy increase" in home prices between late 2005 and early 2007." Royal LePage president Phil Soper

Realtors' Association of Edmonton president Marc Perras predicts Edmonton-area home prices are to rise four per cent over the next 12 months while a CMHC market analyst, Lindsay Kendall, predicted that Edmonton prices for all forms of resale housing will rise 6.5 per cent in 2008 to $360,000.

Now, I like to manage expectations and prefer to factor in a conservative rate of appreciation at 8% per year- which is a safe average in an up or down market.