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Saskatoon real estate week in review–November 23-27 2009

Saskatoon real estate sales continued on a downward trend this week at a predictable rate for the last week of November. A total of forty-seven houses and condominiums were reported sold to the Saskatoon multiple listing service, a strong drop from the sixty-one properties last week, but up from the same week last year when just thirty-seven homes were sold.

New listings of detached houses and condos also headed south but at a much slower rate falling just two units from last week to sixty-seven listings, a drop of ten units when compared to the same week in 2008.

Typically, we can expect MLS sales and listings to continuing trending down through the month of December until they reach their low point for the year during the final week of the month.

The inventory of active Saskatoon real estate listings (entire residential category) slipped again falling nine units from last week to eight hundred and seventy-three, and remaining well below last year’s level of fifteen hundred and thirty-four. Single-family detached homes are at five hundred and fifteen and the condo inventory sits at three hundred and four.

You’ll notice that our active listing chart is clearly showing that year-over-year declines in listing inventory is getting a little smaller each week in terms of real numbers. I found it interesting that the percentage decline is actually growing. When we compare year-over-year declines against peak inventory in 2008 we were off by thirty-seven percent. As of this week, the inventory of Saskatoon real estate listings is down forty-three percent compared to the same week last year.

Cancelled and withdrawn listings fell off by more than fifty percent on a week-over-week basis to just nineteen homes. Seven of those were immediately listed again, most at a new price. Twenty-six sellers adjusted their asking price this week.

The average selling price of a Saskatoon home bounced back from last week gaining more than thirteen thousand dollars to reach $268,971, roughly twenty-five thousand dollars lower than it was during the same week in 2008. The six-week average continued to be pushed lower falling a little more than five thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis to $272,568, more than twelve thousand dollars lower than it was at this time last year and reaching its lowest point since spring of 2009. The four-week median also slid lower by about twelve thousand dollars compared to last week to finish at $263,000, down seven thousand dollars from the same week last year.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The average underbid came in slightly higher than last week moving from $9,113 to $9,876. As a percentage of the selling price, homes that sold below list price went at an average discount of 3.7%, higher than last week when it was 3.4%. Clearly these numbers were skewed by a small number of large discounts including one property that was listed at nearly $230,000 yet sold for just $165,000. More than fifty percent of homes sold this week went for a discount of five thousand dollars or less, and a full eighty-one percent sold within ten thousand dollars of the asking price, which I believe would be the highest percentage this year.

Map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate areas
Data collection and calculation for our statistical reports

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate