The Saskatoon real estate market saw stronger than normal activity this week breaking the one hundred-unit sales mark for the first time this year. There were one hundred and thirteen properties sold, up from eighty-two last week, and ahead of last year’s number, also eighty-two. Reaching their highest level since the final week of April 2008when one hundred and seventeen Saskatoon homes traded hands, sales of houses and condos were up one a year-over-year basis for the third consecutive week. For the first time in as long as I can remember home sales in areas one through three actually came in higher than new listings.

New listings of single-family detached homes and condominiums came in at one hundred and twenty-seven properties, down eleven from last week, and off by fifty-eight homes when compared to the same week last year. Ninety-five houses and thirty-two condominiums were listed for sale over the course of the week. Overall, stronger unit sales and weaker listing activity pushed total active residential listings down by twenty-five properties compared to last week, to 1,502, but they remained up from the same week last year when 1,154 properties were showing an active status on the Saskatoon MLS. As of this morning, there are nine hundred and ten single-family detached houses and five hundred condominiums for sale in the city.

After falling off of a cliff last week for lack of sales in the over $400,000 price ranges, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home bounced back to $289,265 and reached its highest level since late February. This week, there were seventeen houses and condos sold for $400,000 or more. The six-week average pushed forward nearly five thousand dollars over last week to reach $281,148; still almost sixteen thousand dollars lower than you might have paid last year at this time. The weekly median sale price jumped more than $30,000 from last week to reach $277,000 but the four-week median managed to hold steady at $270,000 for the fourth week in a row, and settled $9,500 lower than it was during the same week last year.

Average underbids came in slightly lower than the previous week at $11,411 which represents an average discount of 3.8%. The percentage of sellers who managed to firm up a deal within $10,000 of the asking price declined slightly from seventy-five percent to seventy-two percent and the $10,001 to $15,000 category also saw a decline of three percentage points, while sixteen percent of Saskatoon home buyers settled their negotiation with a discount greater than $15,000.

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.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Saskatoon real estate sales were down this week compared to last, but continued to clip along at a better than average pace with eighty-two houses and condos changing hands, down from ninety-five units last week and well above the sixty-one properties that sold during the same week last year.

New listings of Saskatoon houses and condos came in at one hundred and thirty-eight properties, down three units from the previous week, and forty-one units lower than the same week last year when one hundred and seventy-nine homes were offered for sale on the multiple listing service. It would have been the slowest week for new listings since January if not for twenty-seven “to be moved” buildings located in McNab Park that were listed for sale, and thirteen condo units which were canceled from the system last week only to be re-listed this week.

Total active residential listings managed to push higher closing the week up twenty-seven properties to 1,528. The current inventory of Saskatoon real estate listings includes nine hundred and fifteen single-family detached houses, five hundred and nine condominiums, thirty-four semi-detached homes, thirty-seven duplexes, nine vacant lots, ten mobile homes and nine other things that apparently don’t fit neatly into any of the categories I’ve just listed. Total active listings were at 1,125 properties during the same week in 2008.

Prices took a sharp downward turn this week as the average selling price fell more than $30,000 from the previous week to $257,282. The change appears to be related to one of those strange anomalies that just happen for time to time. This week, there was just one lonely sale above the $400,000 mark, compared to fourteen the week before, so in spite of the fact that houses took a larger share of the sales this week, the average was pushed lower. The six-week average broke a seven week winning streak falling about $3,500 from last week to finish at $276,511 roughly $25K lower than the same week last year. The four-week median held firm at $270,000 for the third consecutive week, lower than the same week in 2008 by just $10,000.

Just fifty-one Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their price this week, not including the nineteen properties that were cancelled and re-listed, most at a new price.

Sellers were feeling the love this week as home buyers said yes to deals that were within an average of $9,124, or 3.1% of the asking price. I expect this is probably one of the highest sales to list price ratios that we’ve seen in some time. Over forty percent of sellers struck a deal within $5K of their asking price, while another thirty four percent settled for a discount between $5,001 and $10,000.

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.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Following a soft week, firm sales of Saskatoon houses and condominiums bounced back to reach their highest level for any week this year with a total of ninety-five units trading hands. You’ll have to look back to the final week of April 2008 when one hundred and seventeen sales were recorded to find a week that produced a higher number of sales. Units increased by fifty percent over last week when just sixty-three home sales were reported and finished slightly higher than the same week last yearwhen eighty-nine Saskatoon home owners saw a sold sign go up. This is just the second time this year that weekly sales were up on a year-over-year basis.

New listings, on the other hand, retreated from last week’s spike falling from one hundred and ninety-six to one hundred and thirty-five units and dropping more than forty percent from the same week last year when two hundred and twenty-nine homes were offered for sale. In spite of stronger sales and weaker listing activity, the total inventory of properties in the residential category managed to hold steady at 1,506, just one unit below last week’s number. As of the close of business Friday, nine hundred and seventeen single-family homes and five hundred condos were showing an active status. Last year at this time there were 1,051 active residential listings on the Saskatoon MLS.

One hundred and eight sellers made an adjustment to their asking price this week, perhaps the largest number of changes that I can recall in any given week. That doesn't include twenty-five of fifty-two canceled listings which re-appeared as new listings, most at a new price.

At the same time, prices continued to move higher as the average selling price of a Saskatoon home came in more than $8,000 ahead of last week to settle at $287,949. The six-week average took its sixth consecutive weekly gain picking up nearly three thousand dollars and reaching $280,090. Still, it remained about eight percent lower than last year’s number of $304,874. The four-week median held steady at $270,000 down just seven thousand dollars from this same week in 2008.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Saskatoon home sellers found a little more love at the bargaining table as the average underbid dropped from $13,278 last week to $11,854 this week. With the increased asking and sale prices this week, that underbid represents a discount of just 3.4% compared to 4.5% the week before. Nearly forty percent of the homes that sold went within $5,000 of the asking price while another twenty-four percent sold in the $5,001 and $10,000 discount range.

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.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Following a few pretty encouraging weeks, sales of detached houses and condos stumbled, new Saskatoon real estate listings spiked to their highest point this year, and total active residential listings reached a new high for 2009.

New listings of detached houses and condominiums broke the one hundred and fifty mark for the first time this year, falling just short of two hundred, as Saskatoon home sellers offered up one hundred and ninety-six new listings to the Multiple Listing Service. While new listings came in sixty units higher on a week-over-week basis, fifty-two fewer homes were offered for sale when compared to the same week last year, which was the peak listing week for 2008. Condos saw the largest increase as the inventory grew from four hundred and eighty-six at the close of business last week to five hundred and twenty-two units today. Detached houses increased from eight hundred and sixty-five to eight hundred and ninety-three over the same period and total active residential listings broke the fifteen hundred mark for the first time this year to finish at 1,507.

Price changes doubled over last week as ninety-five Saskatoon homes sellers adjusted their MLS listing. Additionally, eleven of thirty-seven cancelled and withdrawn listings re-appeared on the system, most at a new price. At the same time, two of our three price measures showed continued upward strength while the third, the weekly average, fell about $500 from the week before. A pretty skinny gain to the six-week average selling price brought its fifth consecutive week of growth and saw it reach $277,295, it’s highest point since late February, but about 8.75% lower than it was during the same week last year. The four-week median took its fourth consecutive week of gains to finish at $270,000, its highest point for 2009, just $7,250 lower than it was last year at this time.

The average underbid was slightly higher than last week at $13,278 or roughly 4.5% of asking price. Once again, a few sellers managed an above list-selling price, but all three were new homes that may have included additional value to justify the increase. Larger underbids were certainly more common as the percentage of homes selling within $10,000 of the asking price slid back to just fifty-two percent. More commonly, that category ranges from sixty to seventy percent, so buyers did some hard grinding this week and sellers seem to have taken it.

Meanwhile, Saskatoon real estate agents continued to report that they’re “busy,” and I have to say we’ve been feeling that way too but if you want to measure performance with the true measuring stick of productivity (sales), you can clearly see that we’ve had three consecutive weeks of declining productivity. It’s true that this year’s sales line on our little graph looks a lot like last year’s, but remember, sales were actually falling off of a cliff last year at this time. May of 2008 brought us just 367 residential units sales, down from 580 the year before, and returning us to what us real estate types like to call “normal” ranges of sales. If there is the slightest bit of heat returning to this real estate market it will have to show up in next week’s numbers as pending deals move from conditional to firm. If it’s another week like this one, we’ll have a hard time putting together a month of May that is close to normal. It’s still early and the numbers could be there, but with just seventy-three firm sales so far in May, we are off to a bit of a slow start.

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.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Following two fairly brisk sales weeks, Saskatoon real estate sales softened some as local agents reported just seventy-seven sales of single-family detached houses and condominiums to the Saskatoon MLS system. This week’s numbers were down by eleven units compared to last weekand fell shy of the units recorded during the same week last year by fifteen homes.

New listings were up just slightly over last week to one hundred and thirty six homes, and well below last year’s number of two hundred and twenty eight. The typical batch of month end expired listings caused the total residential inventory of Saskatoon homes for sale to fall from 1,472 last week to 1,410 this morning but strong renewals and soft sales of Friday brought them back to 1,439 by the end of the day. At the close of business today, eight hundred and sixty five houses and four hundred and eighty-six condominiums are displaying an active status on our MLS system.

Eighty-nine home sellers adjusted their price this week in hopes of attracting a buyer. An additional twenty-eight homes were canceled and re-listed, most at a new price.

The average selling price of a Saskatoon home took a $5,000 decline compared to last week slipping to $280,117 while the six-week average and the four-week median both increased again. The six-week average moved up to $276,929, recording its fourth consecutive week-over-week gain and reaching its highest level since the final week of February. Still, this price measure remained lower than it was during this week last year by just over $26,000. Meanwhile, the four-week median took a slightly larger gain growing $4,500 over last week to finish at $264,450 and reaching its highest level since the first week of March. Once again, year-over-year losses were recorded but at a much smaller number than compared to recent weeks. It’s down $15,750 from the same week in 2008.

Two home sellers managed to complete a sale at a price higher than list and those two sales generated an average overbid of $20,550. Both of the overbid properties were new homes so the agreed upon price may have included additional value. Another seven sellers got their price, while sixty-six others came to the negotiating table and sliced an average of $12,718, or 4.3 percent from their asking price to close the deal.

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.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra