Comments on: Housing affordability in Saskatoon shows modest year-over-year improvement

By: Saskatoon housing affordability shows slight year-over-year improvement: Demographia | TeamFisher.com

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:45:02 +0000

[...] Most Canadian markets managed to record some improvements on a year-over-year basis. The greatest changes were seen in Calgary and Edmonton, both of which moved into, or significantly towards, the moderately unaffordable territory. Both markets shaved a half-year off of the median income multiplier that Demographia uses to measure affordability. Nationally, we saw an improvement in the median multiple of 0.3 from the survey released a year ago. [...]

By: Norm Fisher

Norm Fisher — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:38:50 +0000

DM, Thank you. I think the story is so full of misrepresentations that it's nearly laughable. Take this one for example. "While American consumers are using their phones to scope out houses they drive by, the best Canadians can hope for is CREA's low-tech mobile website, which provides the phone number of the relevant agent for a property. And that only works if you know the property's six-digit Multiple Listing Service number, which someone whizzing past in a car would not. A more feature-rich version is expected to be in place by summer." Then have a look at Find and view all Saskatoon MLS listings in your iPhone. (This tool is available in pretty much all major markets in Canada) Feel free to browse the datatbase of Saskatoon MLS listings here, or I could point you to about 150 other websites where you could find the same information. If there's a single person who doesn't know how to find info on private sales there's a great website at www.saskhouses.com that has a large percentage of them. It has never been easier to disseminate information and it's pretty much impossible to keep a secret nowadays.

By: DM

DM — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:44:26 +0000

An article you might find interesting..I’d like to here your take on this sometime (tech and opening up of info)..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-battle-to-unlock-the-housing-market/article1450088/

By: Lando

Lando — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:47:12 +0000

When you buy a house on one of the new area lots it seems you don’t get much actual land for the price.
And when you buy a condo you get NO land.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:12:08 +0000

Norm – “isn’t permanence supposed to be characteristic of land. ”
Seems to me that stuff being made is pretty ‘rock’ hard. Got a few dents in my skull that serves to prove that point.

Jeremy – RE critical mass question
- It occurs the nano-second your neighbor starts looking like lunch.:)

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:50:33 +0000

Larry, the lesson of your rodent cannabilism story directly contradicts the established wisdom of the age old children’s song “the more we get together the happier we’ll be”. So, you’re saying at a certain critical mass the song suddenly changes to “the more we get together the chubbier we’ll be?” Now I’m so confused… With Saskatoon growning every year I now feel a sense of urgency to discover what this critical mass is before it’s too late. On a side note, could this be the explanation to parliamentary behavior? Too many politicians?

By: guy_in_regina

guy_in_regina — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:18:31 +0000

There’s only one thing on the planet that’s more abundant than land… salt water.

Land near downtown of a major urban centre… ok – it’s limited.

captcha: assures all

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:13:19 +0000

Hmmmm, is that why Vancouver land is so expensive – b/c there’s a time limit on it as the ocean rises and everyone is scrambling to get a piece of it? Or perhaps that should decrease the value? I mean you’d think sask land will be around at least a couple million years longer than Vancouver land…. that gives me a great idea, invest in all the sask land I can and eventually it will be west coast land and it’ll be worth millions! Although my descendants will probably moved on to other planets by the time that happens so they won’t care anyway…

By: Norm Fisher

Norm Fisher — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:42:22 +0000

Urban sprawl in some cities means going 40 stories up.
Touche.

…you must know that on those islands there is land being made everyday.

I suppose that’s technically true, but isn’t permanence supposed to be characteristic of land? They say that land will sink into the ocean in the next 80 million years or so. I’m a long term thinker.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:59:08 +0000

Urban sprawl in some cities means going 40 stories up.

As to no more land – with tongue in cheek and with a view to the locale of your recent break you must know that on those islands there is land being made everyday. Of course, much like Vancouver RE, it’s too hot to handle.:)

By: Norm Fisher

Norm Fisher — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:50:27 +0000

Thanks Larry. Our council has expressed concern about “urban sprawl” and those concerns are evident in more recent neighbourhood plans. We are seeing parcels getting smaller and houses getting closer together. Land man! They’re not making any more of it, you know?

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:22:44 +0000

Can’t speak for your fair city but the nutbars that run this one seem to be reading material that justifies continued ‘EcoDensity’. It’s a charter in this city that says paint it green but pack em in. It’s our attempt at a civic social doctrine to help us live closer together better.
I don’t think there is a flatlander amoungst you who would consider a 270 sq. ft. + – apartment renting at $675 as something livable without driving you insane – even on one of Vancouver’s sunniest days. Methinks most of your two holers on the back 40 are larger than that!
The author of the demographia report specifically makes a point of saying the data most city fathers are using as a foundation for their decisions is based on an incorrect premise.
They might want to ask why parking in these high density green city cores goes for $40,000 a stall.
Reminds me of a long ago experiment where they just kept adding mice to box. For a while everything was friendly – all the little mice got along. At a crucial point however, that next mouse caused all hell to break loose. Cannibalism ensued until the level of density was reduced to an acceptable level.
With that gruesome thought I’m off to get my Red Rider BB gun and some black and white self stick circles.

By: Norm Fisher

Norm Fisher — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:39:40 +0000

Hi Sarah,

Incomes in Regina have always been on the higher side. In fact, Regina is in the upper 30% of all Canadian markets surveyed for this report, and roughly eight percent higher than Saskatoon. House prices appear to be 11-12% higher in Saskatoon when looking at the averages and the medians. One of my colleagues in Regina suggests that they have more “lower end” homes and that these make up a larger sale of the sales, and therefore bring down the averages but I don’t know if his perceptions are accurate. His family is from the Saskatoon area and he believes that similar homes, in similar areas trade for similar dollars.

By: sarah

sarah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:08:37 +0000

Interesting that Saskatoon is so much less affordable than Regina.
Regina should benefit from any provincial advantage Saskatoon has,
and have a similar economic situation.

I would think Saskatoon being that much less affordable than Regina either means that Reginans make substantially more, that housing in Saskatoon is substantially over priced, or both!