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The slumping oilpatch is continuing to hit the Fort McMurray housing market, where the average MLS sale price of a home plunged by more than $117,000 in October.

Data obtained from the Canadian Real Estate Association indicates the average sale price last month was $468,199, down 20 per cent from a year earlier. Sales also fell by 41 per cent to 85, with year-to-date sales down by 44.8 per cent.

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“While we have this current environment of lower oil prices, Wood Buffalo was on a longer-term trend of having fewer and fewer sales every year. What that reflects is we’ve had slower overall employment growth each year for a number of years,” said Braden Batch, of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., who covers the region.

“It’s not just that the current environment is down totally because of oil prices, but it’s certainly had an effect and exacerbated some of those trends.”

CMHC’s 2015 outlook predicted annual sales in Wood Buffalo would decline by 45 per cent this year and a further 5.3 per cent in 2016 before rebounding in 2017. It also forecast the MLS average sale price there to dip by 5.5 per cent for 2015 and by 3.5 per cent in 2016.

Don Campbell, senior analyst with the Real Estate Investment Network, said demand and confidence have dropped in the Fort McMurray housing market due to a slowdown in oil exploration and expansion, expected low oil prices throughout 2016 and the “current trepidation around new provincial legislation.”

“The Fort McMurray housing market has historically been tied not to current conditions but expectation of future conditions and this is proving out once again,” he said. “Confidence and confusion about the future of the job market in the Fort McMurray region are driving housing market down more quickly than simply the current market conditions.”

The oilpatch downturn is being felt in real estate markets across the province, with year-to-date MLS sales down 21 per cent from last year.

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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