Saskatoon residential real estate sales soften in June: SRAR
The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for June of 2010 today accompanied by this release.
The second quarter of 2010 ended with 1,863 residential unit sales (year-to-date), on par with June of 2009. The unit sales number for the month of June declined by 17% with 364 properties being sold as compared to 441 properties last year.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average selling price in June was $295,963, up 7% from June 2009 when it was $276,194. This increase indicates strong activity in the mid to upper price range of homes. The $300,000 to 350,000 price range continues to experience the greatest sales activity.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
REALTORS® listed 676 homes in the month of June, a similar number to last year when 669 homes were placed on the market. Year to date listing numbers are on par with 3,838 properties being listed for sale. Consumers had 1,412 homes to select from at the end of June.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Sales activity in the smaller communities around Saskatoon (e.g. Martensville, Warman, Dundurn) remained very balanced with 101 units selling. That number was up 3% from June 2009. The average selling price was up 1% at $254,203 and the year to date average selling price in these areas is up 4% to $252,788. Listing numbers were down 4% with 246 properties being placed on the market for sale as compared to 257 in June 2009.
Similar market activity is expected in the third quarter. New home sales are brisk, interest rates remain attractive, job creation continues to increase and regular in migration is taking place. In addition consumer confidence in the local economy also remains strong. All of these are necessary components of a healthy real estate market environment.
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
6 comments so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
July 5th, 2010 at 6:12 PM
Hi Norm,
It seems that during the past three years the average number of listings is up substantially from the previous two years. My questions are:
Has 1000 plus listings become the new normal for Saskatoon?
How many of these listings are coming from new homes?
Does the amount of new home construction in recent years contribute significantly to the higher number of listings?
July 5th, 2010 at 8:51 PM
It’s really interesting to see how listings have remained almost completely level over the last month. I wonder if listing activity for the remainder of the year will be more similar to 2008 or 2009- given that they were both mighty odd years, historically.
Having the 5-year average on the Residential Unit Sales by Month helps with historical comparisons, Norm. Do you think something similar could be added to the Price and Listings graphs?
July 5th, 2010 at 10:51 PM
Tim,
“Has 1000 plus listings become the new normal for Saskatoon?”
It would seem so and 1400 units doesn’t feel nearly as scary as it did when we were running 500-700 nearly all of the time. Still a big whack of stuff at the upper end that is keeping prices from climbing in that range but up until recently we’ve been experiencing a shortage of product priced 100K on either side of the average.
“How many of these listings are coming from new homes?”
There are 141 properties (roughly 10%) categorized as new today.
“Does the amount of new home construction in recent years contribute significantly to the higher number of listings?”
Certainly did in ’08 when the market very suddenly fell off a cliff. For the most part, I am under the impression that new inventory is turning over fairly well and that there are no significant bottlenecks there.
Jen,
Hard to know but I get the sense that it’s going to start declining. Did you see the active listings chart for the end of last week? http://www.teamfisher.com/images/teamblog/active_listings070310_small.jpg
I could probably do a five year average for inventory but I’m not sure how I would accomplish that with prices. Any ideas?
July 6th, 2010 at 9:29 AM
“Did you see the active listings chart for the end of last week?”
No, I hadn’t- thanks. I’m not sure why, but the listing activity is not what I would’ve expected. I suppose I’m looking at more Western cities (Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver) where the listing activity is still rising and wondering why we’re different. Even with sales activity down here about 17% YOY, looking at Edmonton and Calgary (where YOY sales are down around 40%), and Vancouver (down 30%), I’m thinking we’re fairing comparitively well… so far.
I also thought that it was a bit odd that the SRAR would go to the trouble of mentioning this, but then not mention the median selling price:
“The average selling price in June was $295,963, up 7% from June 2009 when it was $276,194. This increase indicates strong activity in the mid to upper price range of homes. The $300,000 to 350,000 price range continues to experience the greatest sales activity.”
It may have been a bit easier to get a more accurate picture with the median here, no?
“I could probably do a five year average for inventory but I’m not sure how I would accomplish that with prices.”
Perhaps it’s too early in the morning for me, but I’m not sure why it couldn’t be done in just the same way as inventory and sales? Time for more coffee for me, probably.
July 6th, 2010 at 11:45 AM
“I also thought that it was a bit odd that the SRAR would go to the trouble of mentioning this, but then not mention the median selling price:”
I think this is kind of a fill in the blank release. I’m not sure why but they don’t normally quote the median. I will take that to someone as a suggestion. The median sale price in June of 2010 was $280,000, up from $271,600 in 2009.
“Perhaps it’s too early in the morning for me, but I’m not sure why it couldn’t be done in just the same way as inventory and sales?”
It’s probably me as you are clearly sharp as a tack. Let me think about that over a cup of coffee of my own.
July 8th, 2010 at 1:32 PM
Jen, I think we’ll see 2010 end with more listings than 2009 (but not necessarily 2008 unless we see a lot of economic chaos). I’ve set my sights on 2011 for when we’ll see some radical movements in inventory levels and pricing.
Who Linked To This Post?