Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 20-26, 2012
Over the past week, sales of detached houses and condominiums continued at a pace that’s typical for this time of the year. Saskatoon real estate agents reported 95 firm deals in those two housing categories to the Saskatoon multiple listing service®. Those numbers are down ten units from the previous week, but up 15 from sales recorded during the same week last year.
New listings of houses and condos came in at 150 properties for a week-over-week decline of just four homes but ended sharply higher than the 114 Saskatoon homes that were listed on the MLS® over the same period of time a year ago.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Quickly approaching the time of year at which the total inventory of Saskatoon homes available on the multiple listing service® tends to peak for the year, MLS® inventory failed to gain much traction again. The numbers grew by just 11 units over the course of the week to close at 1214, about 15 percent short of levels seen at the same point in 2011. Assuming that this trend continues, it appears that the current inventory line on our chart will break the bottom line to reach its lowest level for June in five years time. Today there are 733 single-family detached homes and just 399 condominiums bearing an active status on the MLS® system. At this time last year we had 823 houses and 509 condos available to home buyers.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home remained strong as it lost just one thousand dollars compared to the previous week and closed at $348,424. The weekly median took about a ten percent increase over sales recorded the previous week to reach $345,000. Meanwhile, the six-week average price trailed lower again, dropping just under one thousand dollars to $341,341 to claim a year-over-year gain of about twenty-two thousand dollars. The four-week median price also softened, slipping three thousand dollars over the week to $314,900 for annual growth of just under nine thousand dollars. This brings a continuation of the recent trend in which year-over-year gains to the four-week median price have been moderating. Through April, the annual gains to the four-week median were all $25K, or greater. Since the first week of May, the annual growth has been running at about half of that, or less.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Overbid sales accounted for less than ten percent of our sales last week with seven sellers receiving an above list price offer. On average, those sellers netted an additional $5,012 above what they were asking. Another 11 decided to jump when their prospective buyer offered to pay them full price while 77 of the 95 firm deals reported by Saskatoon real estate agents this week came in below the asking price by an average of $8,118.
Other notable Saskatoon real estate activity this week included 44 cancelled and withdrawn listings, just 9 properties that expired from the system without a sale and 33 price changes.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart.
Highlights from the news this past week
Cooler housing market no catastrophe – Globe and Mail
Mortgage brokers warn about new refinancing rules – Globe and Mail
U.S. housing recovery spells hope for economy – Globe and Mail
How are housing markets in Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa holding up? – Globe and Mail
Toronto, Calgary lead home price gains in April: CREA – Financial Post
The dirty tricks sellers play to push up real estate prices – Globe and Mail
Rising mortgage debt is rendering Canadian households ‘stretched thin’ – Financial Post
Could you survive a 40% plunge in house values? – Globe and Mail
Is there ever a bad time to invest in rental property? – Financial Post
Expensive housing? Not by a 20-year comparison – Globe and Mail
Sellers free to set asking prices as low as they want – Globe and Mail
Maybe debt isn’t so bad after all – Financial Post
Why you shouldn’t become a condo speculator – Financial Post
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
4 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
May 27th, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Hi Norm,
I gather the average price of a home sold is up about 6% year over year in Saskatoon at the present time. This means that on average people are buying more expensive homes and it may mean they are also getting more house for the money.
I remember some time ago you made a comment that in terms of a specific property on the market in fall 2008 that same property had just sold below its 2008 value in 2010. Is that type of scenario still out there or are we now seeing a rise in $ value on what is being paid on specific properties.
May 27th, 2012 at 6:10 PM
Hi Tim,
With regards to the increase in the average sale price, there have been some gains, mostly in single-famiy homes valued at $400,000 or less. Most of the gains that we’ve seen have come in the past 90-120 days. There is some skewing of the average based on popularity of certain price ranges. Homes selling above $500,000 account for 8% of total residential sales, year to date. At this point in 2011 that same range accounted for 5.7% of sales.
We are still running into the odd situation were a person is having to sell for a bit less than they paid in 2008. Almost any wood frame, walk-up condo that sold in 2008 is a bit under water right now. Single-family homes under $400K are probably a bit ahead right now.
May 30th, 2012 at 2:21 PM
It’s great how you include graphs and charts in your blog posts!
May 30th, 2012 at 2:51 PM
Thanks Matthew.