Saskatoon real estate sales maintain softening trend in October: SRAR
The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for October of 2010 today, accompanied by this release.
As forecast, the unit sale numbers for the month declined by 15% with 262 properties being sold compared to 309 properties selling in October 2009. Year to date, unit sales are down 8% with 3,088 homes having sold compared to 3,356 homes having sold by this time in 2009.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average selling price in October was $293,929, up 7% from the same month last year when it was $274,879. For the first time in a while, the $250,000 to $275,000 entry-level price range experienced the greatest sales activity. Year to date, the $300,000 to $350,000 range still has dominant sales activity.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
REALTORS® listed 455 homes during the month, up 3% from October 2009 when 441 homes were placed on the market. Year to date, listing numbers are up 3% with 6,081 properties being offered for sale. Consumers had 1,219 homes to select from at the end of October.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Sales activity in the smaller communities around Saskatoon (Martensville, Warman, Dundurn, etc.) remained very steady with 77 units selling. That number was down 14% from October 2009 when 90 units sold. The average selling price for the month was down 3% from the same month last year to $243,353 while the year to date average selling price in these areas is up 1% to $255,409. Listing numbers were down 4% with 190 properties being placed on the market compared to 198 in October 2009.
Sales activity is expected to remain steady for the remainder of the year. Interest rates remain attractive and job creation continues at a reasonable pace. Existing home sales may continue to soften slightly given steady growth in the new home sector, which impacts existing home sales and averages.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate
1 comment so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
November 1st, 2010 at 4:51 PM
When the average sale price of a Saskatoon home moved higher in August I provided a breakdown of sales by price range. Using that information, we were able to see that all of the year-over-year declines in unit sales had occurred with properties priced up to $300,000. The effect of a higher percentage of sales above $300,000 and a lower percentage of sales below $300,000 was an upward skewing of the average sale price.
I thought it might be interesting to provide that same breakdown to see how the lower ranges performed in October and how that might be affecting the average today.
I’ll point out that sales in the $201-$300K range seem to have recovered showing very little difference compared to the same month last year. Sales remain relatively weak in the <$100K range, and the $101-200K range which continues to skew average prices higher on a year-over-year basis. If you remove all sales up to $200,000 where they have fallen quite significantly compared to October of 2009, you can see that prices probably are not "up year-over-year." In fact, without the lower end sales, averages for October 2010 would be coming in within $1000 of last year's average.