Saskatoon real estate week in review for Sept 14-18 2009
Saskatoon real estate sales took an upward turn again but stayed well below the peak numbers that we hit just four weeks ago. Eighty-five houses and condominiums were reported sold last week, up from fifty-seven the week before, and doubling production compared to the same week last year when just forty-two Saskatoon homes were sold.
New listings followed a similar pattern, bouncing back from just eighty-five in our last report to one hundred and eleven this past week. During the same week in 2008 there were one hundred and seventeen homes listed for sale. Since late March, new listings have consistently been well below the same week of the previous year. This is the closest we’ve come to a “same week last year” listing number since that time.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Active residential real estate listings saw some small gains this week after falling pretty steadily over the past five months. By the time the dust had settled from Friday’s activity a total of 1091 properties were showing an active status, up just seven units compared to the previous week, but down well over six hundred homes when compared to the same week in 2008. Last year at this time, inventory was just approaching its peak for the year. Still, it seems a little strange to see the sudden change on this graph, especially at this time of year. It will be interesting to watch what happens with the inventory in the weeks ahead.
Canceled and withdrawn listings continued to slow with a total of just twenty-six processed over the week. Sixteen of those homes made a return appearance to the Saskatoon MLS system as a new listing. Sixty-three sellers adjusted the price of their home in hopes of attracting a buyer during this final week of summer.
Average selling prices slid back to earth after a couple of weeks that were unusually high. The average came in at just $273,393 and more buying action in the lower price ranges pushed the median sale price for the week to $256,000. The six-week average selling price for a Saskatoon home took another small dip falling to $284,937 from $286,240 the previous week, to finish below last year’s number by roughly three thousand dollars. The four-week median selling price was pushed lower, falling eight thousand dollars from the previous week to $265,000, off from $272,000 for the same week last year.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average underbid fell from $11,430 last week to $10,359 this week, while the average discount, expressed as a percentage of the asking price fell to just 3.3 percent, down from 4.6 percent the week before. Nearly seventy percent of this week’s sellers managed a sale within $10,000 of the asking price, and another twenty percent finished within $15,000.
Map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate areas
Data collection and calculation for our statistical reports
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.
Remember, our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate
17 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Thanks Norm, interesting data. Where are we at for total unit sales (YTD) as compared to what we did in 2008 (full year)? Are we on-track to exceed last year’s numbers despite getting off to a slow start earlier in the year?
September 20th, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Jason,
Last year we were at 2875 sales by this time. This year we’re sitting at 2918. Residential sales totaled 3529 in 2008.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:28 PM
To contribute to a blog a person has to have an interest, vested or otherwise. Generally those with potential for future financial gain or loss are the most likely to contribute. In a static market opinions become more muted as there’s not much to talk about. It appears that 2009 compared to 2008 could not be moving more sideways. However could this be a long slow moving bubble, everybody is focusing on interest rates and what will happen when they rise, consensus is that market forces will eventually force the governments hand and they will have no alternative but ro raise rates, but is this really true. It seems the only downside for the government is bottomless deficits which is really debt that all of us are responsible to repay. Somewhere down the line it can only translate into a lower standard of living for the entire population of the country. But even still the government is not forced to increase rates, so it seems. Mark Carney said he is not raising rates for a year, if he can say that, then why not keep rates where they are for 5 years or ten or forever, what about using rates to control inflation, I guess the government could initiate price controls to control inflation, but by now you probably get the message. the government has already intervened and robbed us of a free market economy which over the long term will make for a much less prosperous economy, not just for you and me, but for everybody.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Rick,
“Lower standard for the entire population of the country”. That depends on whether the population is using debt to have a higher standard than it can truely afford. I feel a lower standard of living is on it way, but it is the true standard that the population can support with the means earned. For those that live responsibly, it should not be a problem, and may turn out to experience an increased standard of living.
Right now the government’s action is just delaying and digging the hole deeper for those doped up on low interest debt. The mass majority will suffer a perceived lower standard of living to what they have now.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Steven, “I feel a lower standard of living is on it way, but it is the true standard that the population can support with the means earned. For those that live responsibly, it should not be a problem, and may turn out to experience an increased standard of living.”
Well said, well said.
“Right now the government’s action is just delaying and digging the hole deeper for those doped up on low interest debt. The mass majority will suffer a perceived lower standard of living to what they have now.”
I suspect that by late 2010 the issue of revenue shortfalls will be front and center (on a Federal, Provincial and municipal level). And here’s some foreshadowing of that future:
Tory waste-water policy will punish taxpayers: cities
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2014108
September 21st, 2009 at 9:58 PM
I bet that Saskatchewan consumers are in for a bigger wake up call than most, while the rest of the country is saving up and cutting done on spending, Saskatoon residents seem to be splurging with complete disregard for the 1,000′s of lay offs this past year, the commodity crash, and a recent small upturn in unemployment
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Nick, that’s a distinct possibility, and the retails sales numbers for the first half of the year would certainly seem to back that up. I do get a sense, though, that a small (silent) minority – in addition to reducing their spending and overall cost of living – have actively worked on paying down existing any debts. As this has not been the popular trend (there’s certainly a lot of peer pressure to ‘enjoy the party’), I suspect this demographic will languish in the shadows for the time being. Further to this, the rest of the country is apparently ‘gets it’, though:
Canadian retail sales slip unexpectedly
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=2019519
“OTTAWA – Retail sales fell unexpectedly in July, led by lower prices at gasoline stations, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. Sales declined 0.6% to $34.2-billion during the month after rising in five of the first seven months of 2009, the federal agency said. Most economists had expected sales to rise 0.7% during the month following a 1% increase in June. ‘This is a disappointing report, to be sure,” said Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist at TD Securities.’”
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Has anyone heard anything more on the TD Bank’s HELOC rate increases from prime plus zero to prime plus one percent? (44% rate increase)
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Here you go, Jason:
TD rate boost: Should customers cheer or jeer?
http://tinyurl.com/nqvzef
TD is apparently one of the last lenders to be increasing rates on secured lines of credit… it must be the timing of the increase that’s rubbing people the wrong way. The recession is *so* over, right?
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Crikey, thanks for the update. Yes, the recession was *so* like 2009 (yesterday’s news, right?) How are you enjoying home ownership?
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:32 PM
Nick,
“while the rest of the country is saving up and cutting done on spending, Saskatoon residents seem to be splurging with complete disregard for the 1,000’s of lay offs this past year”
Do you have any actual evidence or numbers you can point to for this? I have heard that other housing markets are going nuts while ours is pretty much flat-lining so if anything I would say we are more conservative than the rest of the country.
Rick,
A lot of vague general comments there. Do you care to tie any of it to an actual prediction? Are you predicing inflation or deflation? Housing prices will go up or go down. It seems all you are saying is that in the future things are going to be bad. Hardly constructive.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:22 PM
Consumer spending slows in Saskatchewan.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Jason,
“Has anyone heard anything more on the TD Bank’s HELOC rate increases from prime plus zero to prime plus one percent?”
The TD HELOC rate is 3.25% (prime plus 1%) and has been since at least late August.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:55 PM
James Grant, the editor of “Grant’s Interest Rate Observer”, an influential financial journal according to the Globe and Mail, has been a bearish commentator. Quoted in the Globe from the Wall Street Journal in a special article this weekend: “Not famously a glass half-full kind of fellow, I am about to propose that the recovery will be a bit of a barn burner.” Imagine that!
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 PM
Peter
I would’nt follow my own predictions or anybodys else’s for that matter. If I had faith in predictions I’d be acting apon them, if predictions were reliable, I would’nt be wasting time contributing to a blog. Let’s look at it this way, the local real property market is expensive,, in my opinion, others may think it’s not. As long as prices stay high I won’t be buying, however there are markets which again, in my opinion are cheap, there I will be buying. Rather then predicting I’m just looking at markets as they are, where there expensive I’m sitting on the side lines, where there cheap I’m buying. What are these differing markets going to do in the future I don’t know. I just seems to be more logical to buy cheap then to buy expensive.
Inflation or deflation, house prices going up or down? who knows, who cares! Deflation buy, Inflation sell, same goes for house prices.
Ok in the future I think things are going to be good, is that constructive enough for ya!
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Thanks, Jason- I’m enjoying it quite a bit. The garden is a great place to be with the weather as it is… it makes it tough to go to work!
I’m not sure what’s going on with the TD HELOC information, but the G&M article seems to reflect mail-outs some customers started getting earlier this month, stating the following:
“Starting on November 16, 2009, your Line of Credit – Real Estate Secured Variable Annual Interest Rate will be TD Prime Rate + 1.00%. As of the date above (Sept 16, 2009), the TD Prime Rate was 2.25%, and is subject to change.”
I haven’t seen one of these notices directly, so I don’t know, but the article does seem to indicate there will be an increase in the rates come November.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:21 AM
Sorry Crikey. I overlooked your comment above, and the associated link about the TD Heloc. All I can say for sure is that Trish and I signed for one on August 29 and the stated rate at that time was 3.25%. Perhaps they started signing new applicants at the higher rate before they popped the increase on existing customers.