By Kellah Lavoie

PA housing market levels off

Oct 7, 2010 | 6:23 AM

The housing market is slowing down.
Kevin Wouters, president of the Prince Albert Real Estate Board, said he just returned from a national real estate conference and the market is down everywhere.
“It’s certainly not just a Prince Albert thing,” he said.
In September the sales in the city were down six per cent from 2009. Listings were down too. The numbers are not drastic — only 30 listings — Wouters said there are still lots of houses on the market.
He said it’s not a downward trend, even though the numbers have been down for the past few months.
“We’re fairly level. Year to date the house prices are just about the same this month as they were last month,” he said.
He said what did sell last month were high-end houses — houses worth at least $275,000. There were 19 of them sold, which Wouters calls “brisk.”
“Top-end houses do usually move a little bit better in the fall,” he said.
“People are back from school and they are moving and that type of thing.”
He said the average house price is even five per cent higher than this time last year.
“That just means that there are more, high-end houses moving than there have been,” he said.
In August there was an abundance of less expensive houses selling with the average price below the $200,000 mark. In September the average price for a home was $214,500.
klavoie@rawlco.com