Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 24-28 2010
A short week brought declines in both listings and sales to the Saskatoon real estate market. Local agents reported just seventy-three firm house and condo sales this week, a decline of nine from the previous week and well off of the one hundred and thirteen sales reported for the same week last year. With just one more business day for our MLS® in May it appears likely that unit sales will fall below those generated last May. So far this month we have 328 home sales compared to 369 for the same month last year.
New listings of Saskatoon homes tumbled further dropping nearly a third of last week’s volume to just one hundred and nine, down from one hundred and twenty-seven for the same period in 2009.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Still, active residential real estate listings managed to move higher for the seventeenth consecutive week to break the fourteen hundred mark for the first time since the week of June 22-26 2009. Total active listings continue to close the gap on last year’s numbers but still remain slightly lower than the 1502 homes Saskatoon home buyers had to chose from at the same time last year.
The current condominium inventory moved ahead of last year’s numbers finishing the week at 503 units, a gain of just three compared to the same week in 2009, but higher just the same. As of this morning, there are 822 detached houses for sale, down roughly ten percent from the same week last year when 910 of them showed an active status on the Saskatoon MLS® system.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Cancelled and withdrawn listings declined from last week with just thirty-two homes showing activity in those categories. Twenty-three of those returned to the MLS® on the very same day with their “days on the market” reset to zero. Sixty-three MLS® listings adopted a new pricing strategy this week.
Properties priced below the average took an unusually high share of activity this week and pushed the average price of a Saskatoon home lower by more than fifteen thousand dollars compared to last week to just $279,533, its lowest point since the week of March 1-5. The six-week average continued to form a downward curve as it dropped twenty-four hundred dollars from last week to $296,432. That measure still sits about fifteen thousand dollars higher than it was for the same week a year ago. The four-week median was up an equal amount on a year-over-year basis, but showed a drop of four thousand from last week and finished at $285,000.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Overbidding was not a popular approach this week as just three home sellers managed a deal above their asking price, and those that did settled for fairly small bonuses averaging just $183. An additional six sellers accepted an offer at full list price while sixty-four of the seventy-three sales reported this week came in below asking by an average of $7,237, or an average percentage discount of 2.5.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart.
Highlights from the news this week
Canadian home prices expected to drop as costs rise
Overvalued homes, higher mortgage rates drop hot resale market
Home ownership costs rise across Canada
Canadian homes overvalued: CIBC
Rising household debt threatens recovery
Realtors rush to ease correction fears
Bank of Canada should hike interest rates: OECD
Thefts at open houses a new worry
US style correction unlikely in Canada: CREA
Canadians need not fear US style correction: CREA
Price gains slow across country: National Bank of Canada
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.
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
16 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
May 29th, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Properties are so ridiculously outpriced in Saskatoon, there is no way I would be willing to pay anywhere near the asking price on 90% of the listings out there. I feel sorry for anybody who would, I just laugh when I see what people are hoping to get. They ain’t getting it from me or anyone I know!
May 29th, 2010 at 7:40 PM
All eyes will be on the Bank of Canada Monday.
May 30th, 2010 at 10:30 AM
“All eyes will be on the Bank of Canada Monday.”
I think I read that in a fortune cookie once.
Seriously though, before the whole PIGS/Eurozone fiasco, I would’ve thought a .25 was a sure bet. Now I’m not so certain. Perhaps Canada is more impacted by BRIC, and it’s not really an issue. We shall see Tuesday (not Monday, dear Jason).
May 30th, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Yes, I stand corrected (I lost track of what day it was what with all this RAIN we’ve been getting)… I would hazard a guess of a minimum of 50 points, with a good possibility of 75 or even 100 points. Remember: it’s PIIGS (can’t forget Ireland in the mix!) In the words of Hugh Hendry: “I would recommend you panic”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuysYXlJ43I
May 30th, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Jason,
As much as I may share Mr. Hendry’s concerns, I can’t imagine there’s ever a good time to panic.
“One can relish the varied idiocy of human action during a panic to the full, for, while it is a time of great tragedy, nothing is being lost but money”
John Kenneth Galbraith
May 30th, 2010 at 3:48 PM
“Twenty-three of those returned to the MLS® on the very same day with their “days on the market” reset to zero.”
Norm, has there ever been any talk from the regional associations about eliminating this practice? My own opinion is that it’s deceptive to the public. If a property was on the market for a month (then had a price change), then another month (and another price change), then in my mind it’s unfair to tell the buying public that the property has been on the market for zero days when it gets re-listed for a third time.
For whatever reason, people associate time-on-the-market with negotiating leverage (this house just hit the market, I better check it out! vs. This house has been on the market for months, I’ll probably lowball them).
I can’t help but feel that this practice misrepresents a relevant piece of information for potential buyers. And as long as it’s possible, it’s difficult for Realtors who also feel uneasy about the practice to say no, if they guy across the street is ready and willing. And if it were eliminated, sellers would be forced to price their homes more realistically in the first place, which would be good for the listing Realtor anyway.
May 30th, 2010 at 6:57 PM
lawtalkingguy,
I completely agree. It is just wrong to put a listing forward as having been 0 days on the market when it has been on far longer. I’ve seen properties come and go four and five times. It’s disgusting really.
Our associations are always taking about accuracy of representations and “integrity of the data,” but for some reason that I don’t understand they all seem willing to let this one slide. I’ve been complaining about it for a long time to no avail. It may be difficult to get a change until members of the public start to complain.
Besides the obvious misrepresentations that go on 30-50 times a week the practice also messes with the data. What’s the average selling time of a Saskatoon home? Nobody can answer that question.
As I understand it, at the present time our system is incapable of counting “cumulative day on the market.” I also understand that this is a problem that will be solved at some future point. Mean time, it’s also my understanding that a “MLS Rules” committee will be bringing recommendations to a provincial technology council which, if adopted, would prohibit cancelling and relisting. Cancelled listings would have to be off of the MLS system for a period of time before they could be relisted.
If a person wished to complain about this practice you could do so by making a general inquiry through the contact page on SRAR’s website. http://www.srar.ca/contact.php
May 30th, 2010 at 11:57 PM
I kinda like the falsehood beliefs behind relistings. Really nothing is being hidden. I’m not a realtor and I can find relistings easy. I tweet about them all the time at http://www.twitter.com/DrakeVenture. I’ve had my realtors tell me that a house got relisted, changed realtors, etc etc. The house I live in had been relisted multiple times and I targeted it for purchase because of the seller’s behavior.
There’s nothing wrong with the system. But there maybe something wrong about your realtor!
May 31st, 2010 at 12:31 AM
“I kinda like the falsehood beliefs behind relistings. Really nothing is being hidden.”
If this were true, then we wouldn’t see the tactic being used dozens of times per week. The fact that it happens as often as it does shows that sellers (and their agents) believe something is indeed being hidden.
May 31st, 2010 at 7:01 AM
Better transparency would be nice, but for now, I can study market with info such as this blog. I sold my rental in 08 and recently sold my primary residence, currently I am renting. In just a few short years, my houses had pretty much doubled. It was an easy choice to sell the rental. But my primary residence was a different story. I see a decent drop in prices here, not US style, but enough of a drop to sell and rent. Numbers wise it makes sense for me, but the emotional aspect not so much. Shorting a stock is easy, but shorting the housing market is tough and you will question yourself quite a bit. Real estate can be a great investment, but timing is the key.
I will continue to read this blog, thanks
May 31st, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Hi, Gene,
You are great that you seem to have always done the timing quite well. When do you plan to become a home owner again?
May 31st, 2010 at 9:32 PM
Gene,
Congrats on some pretty perfect timing. Thanks for reading.
June 1st, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Gene,
I have thought of doing that in the last while as well. But mortgage rates are so low that most payments go towards the principal. I also have two little rug rats and I really hate moving. Selling then renting could definitely be the wisest decision for some people but not all. Money is not everything. But I think you will do just fine.
June 1st, 2010 at 2:25 PM
“I have thought of doing that in the last while as well. But mortgage rates are so low that most payments go towards the principal.”
…only if you were smart enough to trust decades of history and choose a variable rate (smacks self on head repeatedly).
So, today the Bank of Canada raises the benchmark rate 25bp and bank of Montreal REDUCES their posted fixed mortgage rate by 10 bps. Did not see that coming.
June 1st, 2010 at 5:26 PM
Only 25bp’s… is the Bank of Canada concerned about causing a housing crash?
June 1st, 2010 at 6:31 PM
Jason,
“Only 25bp’s… is the Bank of Canada concerned about causing a housing crash?”
I expect Carney would prefer to avoid a housing crash. Perhaps those who have suggested that it would be a slow climb over a long period of time are correct?
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