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Saskatoon real estate week in review: June 3-9, 2012

It was another strong week for both sales and listings. Saskatoon real estate agents reported a total of 106 house and condo sales to the MLS system, up seven from the previous week and ahead of the same week a year ago by 15.

New listings came on the market at an even faster pace with 183 house and condominium properties making their debut. That’s up 28 units from the previous week and well ahead of the same period last year when just 130 Saskatoon homes were listed for sale.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Many of those “new listings” were likely old listings that were cancelled, re-packaged and advertised as something the market hadn’t seen before. I say that because the numbers don’t otherwise add up (and because it’s time that I squawked a bit about the old cancel/relist trick). At the close of the week, the total inventory of active MLS listings in the residential category stood at 1212 for a weekly gain of just seven properties suggesting that a good chunk of the 59 listings that were cancelled or withdrawn from the system made an appearance in this week’s and last week’s numbers. In any case, the final tally came in lower than the totals counted at the same point in 2011 by 208 homes. Today’s Saskatoon real estate inventory shows 728 single-family homes and 418 condominiums as “active” on the MLS system. Last year at this time those two categories stood at 819 and 524 respectively.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Absent any sales that topped the half million dollar mark the average selling price of a Saskatoon home took a pretty good slide this week dropping nearly thirty thousand dollars from the previous week to $320,547. The weekly median price slid lower as well losing nearly 25K to settle at $317,500. The six-week median price slipped for the fourth consecutive week to finish at $335,487. That’s a bit more than five thousand lower than it was last week but up about eighteen thousand dollars on a year-over-year basis. The four-week median price managed to remain steady at $325,000 for an annual gain of twenty seven thousand dollars.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The number of listings that sold at their full asking price increased to 21 this week, while the number that traded above asking price slipped lower to just four. Those fortunate sellers averaged about $7,000 more than they had asked when they placed their home for sale on the Saskatoon multiple listing service. The remaining 81 deals required some back and forth at the negotiating table and netted buyers an average discount of $9,041.

Other action on the Saskatoon MLS this week included nine homes that reached the end of their listing term and expired without a sale and 66 price changes.

Click the image for a larger version of the chart.

Highlights from the news this past week

Living Showhome a unique experience – Star Phoenix
Why housing may be less affordable than the indexes suggest – Globe and Mail
One housing bubble down; one to go: Rosenberg – Financial Post
Housing market jitters keeps lid on Genworth’s share price – Globe and Mail
Big six banks could weather housing storm: Fitch – Financial Post
Saskatoon house construction starts stable in May – Star Phoenix
Affordable housing project breaks ground in Blairmore – Star Phoenix

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.

Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.

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