Today, I have a relaxing 35-40 minute door-to-door commute for work and my home is perfect for my needs. If I had to purchase today, even with the changes in the market in the last 3 years, I would still consider my home a good deal, particularly with the current economic situation in this province.

Small town living isn’t for everyone, but I am very happy with my circumstances. I’m originally from Alberta, and had always planned to retire there, but I now intend retire in the Saskatoon area. I like the province and the people.

Any opinions?

Hardly objective!

And it’s nice we’re mentioned in one story,

but remember, commodities are down, and by an objective study, Saskatoon is more expensive to live than most places in Canada, some with good job opportunities (Regina, Edmonton, Winnipeg) all Less Dangerous according to Maclean’s.

Doesn’t mean Saskatoon is doing bad,

but one news story based on a what the premier has to say – the day before Maclean’s announces us as the “Most Dangerous City in Canada” is just that.

Maybe next month they can interview the premier of Manitoba, with its slow but steady population and economic growth over the past several decades. Or the premier of Alberta, where Edmonton still offers Highers wages and more affordable housing than Saskatoon – in a bigger, more metropolitan and safer city.

captcha: No logging

http://tinyurl.com/awbgja

captcha: Schmitter 674-2560 (I’m tempted to try it

You want people to leave Ontario for this?

The houses aren’t even cheap!

now what will be the butt of our jokes?

Sales in those communities were off nearly 55% in February so there aren’t enough unit sales to give any reliable averages. Typically, those communities which are close to Saskatoon (Warman, Martensville, etc) follow city trends fairly closely.

I’m encouraged by your analysis of the numbers, but I am still concerned about the future for smaller communities surrounding Saskatoon (50 Km away, or less). Are you seeing similar trends for the “bedroom” community housing market?

Try running a stock search for “ishares” and you should get a couple of hundred results of various index funds. Fairly easy to sort through on GlobeInvestor.com. I don’t own any of these but I understand management fees are very low and they actually trade like stocks. I’m led to believe that you can buy and sell them at their value this minute instead of whatever they’re at at the end of the trading day.

Wasn’t thinking sector specific, just want to be broadly invested in North American big cap stocks, with the hope of a good run over the next 12 months.

“Sounds like you’re after an “index fund.” Your contact at RBC can probably help.”

Thanks Norm. That sounds right. I self direct them online, so I’ll just have to grab one.

Good question. This is what the $400K+ home sales have looked like over the past six months.

February 25/211 = 11.8%

January 22/213 = 10.3%

December 17/162 = 10.5%

November 21/181 = 11.6%

October 23/215 = 10.7%

September 33/246 = 13.4%

February was near highest but there aren’t really wild swings in any months. We did have a $1 million+ home sale in Feb which would have impacted the average by about 5K, but there was also one in January and three others in the months listed.

Mark,

Sounds like you’re after an “index fund.” Your contact at RBC can probably help.

As I recall, there were a number of $400K+ properties sold last month- I’m not sure if it was an unusually high number for the month or not. How much do you think this contributed to the rise in the average price, if at all?

Thank you!

http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Sask+bucks+another+national+trend/1358093/story.html