Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 19-23 2010
Saskatoon real estate sales continued to push towards the high end of the range of unit sales that we’ve been seeing lately. Eighty-eight single-family homes and condominiums traded hands through the course of the week, seven fewer than last week, but right on par with the same period last year.
After posting two consecutive record weeks for this calendar year, new listings of Saskatoon homes took a tumble and fell to their lowest level in the past five weeks with just one hundred and thirty-six properties offered for sale, a decline of thirty-two units compared to last week, but still exceeding the number of houses and condos listed during the same week in 2009 by four.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
In spite of strong sales and weaker listing activity, the inventory of Saskatoon residential listings continued to grow gaining thirty-four units over the previous week to finish at 1,214. Still, total active listings sit roughly two hundred and fifty units lower than they did at this time last year. This week, the majority of the gains were counted in the condo category, which moved from 416 to 436, while single-family homes picked up just ten units over the week to finish at 717.
2008 and 2009 numbers provide little insight into what we might expect this year as the two could hardly be more different. The inventory started to grow late in 2008 and didn’t peak until September. The following year, we see inventory taking off earlier but peaking at lower numbers in early May. This year, inventory began to grow early like it did in 2009 but the growth line is clearly sharper and looking quite a bit more like 2008’s line.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Cancelled and withdrawn listings amounted to thirty, but as usual, the majority of them (twenty-four) came back on the market during the same week bearing a pretty “new listing” banner with days on the market reset to zero. Additionally, a whopping seventy-one price changes were recorded with sixty-five of those moving lower and six edging higher. The inventory that saw increases were mostly new condos in the low $200’s, and two single-family homes priced in the mid $400’s.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home pushed slightly higher on a week-over-week basis gaining thirty-two hundred dollars to $299,399 and picking up gains of fifteen thousand dollars compared to the same week last year. The six-week average inched up just eight hundred dollars from last week and finished twenty-seven thousand dollars higher than it was at this time last year to close the week at $291,153. The four-week median selling price of a Saskatoon home was $279,900, lower than last week by two grand but twenty-thousand dollars higher than the number recorded during the same week in 2009.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
After an unusually large spike in overbid activity last week, above list price sales took a dive and accounted for just three of the eighty-eight sales reported. The average overbid went in the opposite direction increasing by close to four times to $19,112. It was driven higher by one sale that went over by $45,000. Given that it was a new home, on the market for close to one hundred days I expect that the price probably included additional improvements that were not included in the asking price. Ten sellers managed to get their full asking price. Seventy-five negotiated with their buyer to the tune of $7,410 on average.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart.
Highlights from the news this week
Entry-level housing project abandoned (local)
Is there a housing bubble in Canada?
Mark Carney signals interest rates to rise
Canadians may be hit with a half point rate rise
Canada’s economy will lead G7 growth: IMF
New twist in competition watchdog’s battle with Realtors
In a heated market, some advise buyers to step back
Bank of Canada expects economic growth to slow
Possible rise in mortgage rates pitting couples against one another
Inflation rate falls to 1.4%
Prosperity comes to the Prairies
A map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate areas is here.
An overview of data collection and calculation practices for our statistical reports is here.
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
9 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:33 PM
I find this CBC report disturbing –
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/04/26/con-luxury-home-sales.html
If these rich people are paying cash, they won’t care if values drop. Maybe it is an example of the rich getting richer and the rest falling further behind.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:51 PM
This sure is making its way around the internet today.
A roller coaster based on Vancouver house prices.
http://vancouvercondo.info/coaster
April 29th, 2010 at 3:33 PM
The rich buying up houses makes me think of stories that food had to be poured into the sea while the poor had nothing to eat more than 100 yrs ago…
OK, something else.
When it comes to “floor area”, wouldn’t it be clearer to say “floor area above grade”? I see some listings counting the basement square footage into the floor area. Not sure if the agent/owner is lack of knowledge, ignorant, or does so on purpose. e.g. MLS® Num:367630.
When it comes to “basement”, I often see “concrete”, while I would expect to see “finished/unfinished”, “half/full”, “slab/craw space”, and/or the square footage.
I think accurate information can save people time. Or am I just being picky?
April 29th, 2010 at 4:04 PM
Hi Cindy,
House size is supposed to be above grade as per the rules of our MLS. The one you noted appears to quote size on three of four levels, and you’re correct that the third level is clearly below grade.
Most of the fields on a listing come with options to be checked, so much is out of the agent’s control.
Agents are pretty bad for under-utilizing what they have to work with though. We often see grand homes described in two or three sentences in places that would easily accommodate paragraphs of text.
April 29th, 2010 at 5:13 PM
To add to the above discussion of providing clearer information to potential buyers I had another thought.
When listing a property on MLS has anyone ever posted a drawing of the layout of the house? I mean like a simplified blueprint or something. Something that could be drawn with dimensions of the rooms. Maybe this would be against copyright laws of the builder or something. I feel like that idea would add a lot of information to a potential buyer instead of a couple of really bad pictures of a select number of the rooms in the house.
April 29th, 2010 at 6:35 PM
Hi Bryan,
In some larger markets there are companies that provide floor plan services but I don’t believe they’re available. Certainly there is software one can buy to assist with this but no, I don’t think anyone is doing it here right now. I’m going to be making some changes in my own business if the coming weeks. Perhaps this is something we’ll try. Certainly, I can see how it would be helpful to buyers. Thanks for the suggestion.
April 30th, 2010 at 9:45 PM
Hey Norm, enjoy reading your blog. With regards to Bryan’s suggestion about having the floor plan, why don’t you check out:
hotpropertyincapetown.com
for an example that illustrates this excellently. Agent obviously puts in oodles of work into each listing – very impressive.
Cheers
Debbie
April 30th, 2010 at 11:42 PM
Thanks very much Debbie. I’ve been looking around a bit at floor planning options. I kind of like this one which can render 3D as well as some pretty funky 2D stuff.
May 1st, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Bryan, cool suggestion! It may also save agents a lot of time. I know if I am interested in a property simply by looking at the floor plan. I also think its one of the more important elements. It is easier to paint or renovate if one does not like the finish of a property. Changing the floor plan? Options are usually limited.