More info 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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
Saskatoon real estate agents reported a total of sixty-three single-family home and condominium sales to the local MLS system, an increase of eighteen properties over last week and a gain of seventeen when compared to the same week last year. Each of the previous few weeks recorded year-over-year declines in unit sales for the Saskatoon area.
New listings in the same categories plummeted dropping by more than half of the previous week’s volume to finish roughly thirty percent behind the same week in 2009 as just fifty-eight homes were offered for sale.
After three consecutive weeks of gains that saw total active residential listings climb by about one hundred and thirty properties, inventory levels softened slightly and slipped to 734 homes. That number is down from 751 last week, and well off of the 1,134 homes available at this time last year, but still more than double the number of homes for sale at this time in 2008 when levels reached historical lows for the month of January. There are currently 412 single-family homes for sale and 281 condos, down from 416 and 290 respectively at the close of the previous week.
In single-family homes, inventory remains tightest in the $200,000-$300,000 range where you’ll find a total of eighty-six houses showing a for sale sign. With January sales at forty-six units, there’s a little less than a two-month supply. Conversely, house buyers have some serious options above the $400,000 mark with just nineteen sales in January and 180 properties available.
In Saskatoon condominiums, you’ll see similar supply trends in the same price ranges. Between 200K and 300K, we see twenty-seven January sales compared to eighty-one active listings. Above $400,000 there is a selection of forty-three units but not single sale recorded during the month of January.
Just seven MLS® listings were cancelled or withdrawn from the multiple listing service this week and not one of them returned disguised as a new listing. An additional sixteen home sellers adjusted their asking price, with all but three moving lower.
After reaching their lowest point in nearly a year average sale prices continued to push up for the second consecutive week reaching levels more typical of the Q3/2009 action. In spite of the upward direction that the average took the year-over-year gains that we’ve been seeing over the past seven weeks vanished. The average sale prices for Saskatoon houses and condos hit $290,133 this week, a gain of nearly $20,000 over the previous week but pretty much level with the same week in 2009. The six-week average managed to slip about a thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis but remained about two thousand dollars higher than it was last year at this time. The four-week median climbed two thousand dollars from last week but finished lower than the same week last year by six thousand dollars.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average underbid jumped back from the low $7,341 of last week to $11,280. Buyers who managed to negotiate a discount off of the asking price saw an average price drop of 3.6%, up from the unusually low 2.4% recorded last week.
Four sellers managed to wrap up a deal above the asking price with the average sale recorded at $3,550 above list.
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 Vidorra
The following chart shows the changes in affordability levels in some of Canada’s most active real estate markets over the past five surveys. Click the image for a larger view.
I was a bit surprised to see that affordability at a national level really hasn’t changed significantly in the past five years. Canada’s “median multiple” comes in at 3.7 years, up from the lows of 3.1 in Q3/2007 but just slightly higher than the 3.6 years in Q3/2005.
Vancouver "wins the gold medal"as the most severely unaffordable housing market in the world requiring 9.3 times to median household income, an increase of almost a year in just twelve months time.
See the entire Demographia survey for 2010 and past reports for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
Once again, new listings recorded strong numbers at one hundred and twenty-three homes, a gain of thirty-six compared to the week before and thirty-seven more than were listed during the same week of 2008.
Total active residential listings moved higher again for the third consecutive week and reached 751 properties, up fifty-six units from the week before, but sharply lower than the 1,192 Saskatoon homes available at the same time last year. This morning, there are 416 single-family homes and 290 condominiums offered for sale on the Saskatoon MLS® system. Those numbers are down from 710 and 406 respectively compared to the same time in 2009.
Sixteen MLS® listings were cancelled or withdrawn from the multiple listing service this week. Nine of those homes quickly re-appeared disguised as a new listing. An additional twenty home sellers adjusted their asking price, all but a few moving lower.
After sliding lower for three consecutive weeks, the return of some upper end buyers moved the average selling price of a Saskatoon home higher to $269,289, nearly twenty thousand dollars higher than it was last week and twelve hundred dollars more than it was during this same week in 2009. The six-week average continued to slide lower and reached $276,660, lower than last week by roughly seven thousand dollars, but ahead of the number recorded during the same week last year by about twenty-six hundred dollars. The four-week median sale price edged forward reaching $257,000, up four-thousand dollars from last week and lower than it was during the same period in 2009 by five thousand dollars.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
The average underbid fell back to $7,341, down from $8,997 last week, for an average discount of 2.4 percent of the asking price, a full percentage point lower than it was last week when Saskatoon home buyers managed an average discount of 3.4 percent.
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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
New listings, on the other hand, picked up a bit of steam and increased to eighty-seven properties, up from seventy-five last week, but still down compared to the same week last year when ninety-three Saskatoon homes were offered for sale on the multiple listing service.
With new listings more than doubling our sales volume active listings pushed higher again to reach 695 units, up from 665 last week, and well above the year end low of 619 properties. Year-over-year, total active residential listings remain sharply lower than the 1191 units which were available at this time last year.
On a week-over week basis, the inventory of single-family homes remained steady at 388, while condo inventory pushed higher from 235 units to 259. The remaining gains to the inventory were mostly seen in duplexes and semi-detached homes.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home moved lower for the third consecutive week, falling roughly nine thousand dollars from last week to $249,861. The six-week average saw similar movement in the same downward direction to finish the week at $283,509, about thirteen thousand dollars higher than it was for the same period last year. The four-week median tumbled the hardest falling seventeen thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis to just $252,850, lower than the same week in 2009 by a little better than twelve thousand dollars.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
The average underbid gained about six hundred dollars compared to last week but still fell short of the ten thousand dollar mark at $9,628. Lower list and sale prices saw the average discount rise to 3.7%, up from 3.1% last week.
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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
Listing activity picked up from the previous week, but like unit sales, finished well below the levels recorded the previous year. Seventy-five new listings were offered for sale on the Saskatoon MLS system, a huge jump from just thirteen last week, but way below the one hundred and thirty-four homes listed for sale during the first week of 2009. Those single dots at the left hand side of the graphs represent this week's activity. By next week, it we'll have lines again, albeit short ones.
Following twelve consecutive weeks of declines, active listing inventory of Saskatoon homesheaded for higher ground moving from just 619 properties at the close of the previous week to a total of 665, down from 1,188 for the first week of 2009. Single-family homes for sale moved from 353 on January 1 to 388 by today. Condo inventory edged up from 220 to 235 over the course of the past week. Historically, the inventory typically remains fairly steady over the next three to six weeks before it starts to climb again as warmer weather sets in.
The old cancel and re-list game started up again as a total of twelve sellers said goodbye to their assigned MLS number, and nine opted for a new one. Eleven sellers adjusted their asking price, all in a downward direction.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home continued to show some softness as condos captured a near fifty percent share of sales and buyers above to $500K mark remained absent from the action. The weekly average fell to $258,782, making it one of a half-dozen low points in the past twelve months. It finished nearly ten thousand dollars lower than last week, and twenty-six thousand dollars below the same week in 2009. The six-week average moved up to $292,932, a gain of just one thousand dollars over the previous week, but nearly twenty-five thousand dollars higher than it was at this time last year. The four-week median fell nearly seven thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis, but continued to show year-over-year gains of roughly ten thousand dollars.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
The average underbid fell again to $8,182; it’s lowest point in months in real dollars. The average discount, as a percentage of the asking price remained steady at 3.1 percent.
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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
In Saskatoon, standard condominiums sold for an average of $217,000, up 5.9 per cent from the same period last year. Detached bungalows sold for an average of $310,500, up 3.5 per cent year-over-year, and average standard two-storey home prices increased by 3.0 per cent year-over-year to $338,750.
“At this time last year, Saskatoon’s real estate was hitting the bottom of the market,” said Norm Fisher, Sales Manager for Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate. “Resale activity is up across the board, and higher house prices are supported by lower inventory and increased demand, especially for entry level properties.”
“Condos are big movers. In 2009, interest rates went down and entry level homes came into high demand. Condominiums less than 1200 square feet are up dramatically in terms of unit sales in the last half of 2009,” added Fisher.
Canada’s residential real estate market is forecast to remain unusually strong through the first half of 2010 as economic conditions across the country improve and the stimulus impact of low interest rates continues to stoke demand, according to today’s Royal LePage Market Survey Forecast and House Price Survey.
“The Canadian real estate market enters 2010 with considerable momentum from an unusually strong finish to the previous year,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive, Royal LePage Real Estate Services. “The stimulus effect of low borrowing costs has contributed to a sharp rise in demand that has driven activity levels to new highs. This demand, coupled with a typical seasonal under supply of homes for sale, should cause home prices to continue to appreciate significantly during the early months of the year. Improving supply as the year unfolds and easing demand as the cost of home ownership rises should moderate home price increases in the second half of 2010.”
Regions that saw the strongest declines during the recession are now showing marked gains. Those regions include Toronto and the Lower Mainland, B.C.. Vancouver in particular experienced a robust quarter, with home prices rising across all housing types surveyed.
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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
Single-family detached homes (houses) continued on a seasonal downward trend following the same path as last year. Unit sales totaled 137, a hefty drop from the previous month when Saskatoon real estate agents reported 168 houses sales, but well ahead of last December’s sales of just 109. Active house listings declined even faster falling from 503 at the end of November to just 355 by year-end, nearly fifty percent fewer than were available at the close of December of 2008. The drop in inventory levels is even more pronounced when viewed as “months of inventory” available, falling from 6.2 at the end of 2008 to just 2.6 by the close of 2009.
As inventory found its way lower, prices moved higher. The average selling price of a Saskatoon house recovered from a pretty good dip in November and increased from $300,153 to $328,083 over the month, nearly twenty percent higher then it was for December of last year. It’s important to note that the average size of the homes, which sold also increased by ten percent on a year-over-year basis so a good portion of that increase can be accounted for in that factor. Still, the three-month average moved up by more than seven thousand dollars from one month to the next and the median moved nearly seventeen thousand dollars from last month.
The average price per square foot paid for a Saskatoon house also moved back to October levels after dipping in November. The average came in at $253 per square foot, up eight dollars from the previous month and twenty-two dollars higher than the same month in 2008.
Sales of Saskatoon condominiums fell to sixty-two units, down fourteen from the previous month but ahead of 2008 when forty-four properties traded hands. Active inventory dipped from 292 at the close of November to 255 by the end of the year, a decline of roughly thirty-three percent from the year before when 381 condo sported a for sale sign. “Months of inventory” for Saskatoon condominiums fell more than fifty percent over the past twelve months from 8.7 months last December to 4.1 months today.
While larger single-family homes were popular in December, smaller condos won more sales this year. Condo prices moved lower on the month, and on the year, in spite of a significantly improved inventory situation. The average selling price of a Saskatoon condo dropped about thirteen thousand dollars compared to November to reach $228,832, roughly eight thousand dollars lower than last December. The three-month average was stable from one month to the next at $224,593, but down forty-five hundred dollars from December of 2008, while the median selling price gained thirteen hundred dollars from a month ago and six thousand dollars on the year.
The average price paid per square foot for a Saskatoon condominium slid six dollars from November to finish at two hundred and twenty-four, up five dollars from December 2008, and higher on a year-over-year basis for the second month in a row.
Remember, averages and cost per square foot numbers can provide some useful insights into pricing trends but they’re not as useful when engaging in an actual transaction. If you’re buying or selling you should be seeking current information on active listings and recent sales, which are most comparable to your property in terms of location, size, features and amenities. 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
In the month of December Saskatoon REALTORS® assisted 211 buyers to fulfill their home ownership dreams, this number up 31% from December 2008 when 161 homes were purchased. Year to date 3,822 residential units have been sold, up 9% from 2008 when 3,520 homes were sold by this same time.
The average residential selling price remained steady at $291,554, up 9% from December 2008 when it was $266,420. Year to date, the average selling price was $ 278,779, down 3% from 2008.
In 2009 REALTORS® sold $1,065,500,000 worth of residential real estate in Saskatoon. This number represents an increase of 5% from 2008 when sales totaled $1,013,117,000. The highest amount of activity in 2009 was in $300,000 to $350,000 price range followed by significant activity in the $275,000 to $300,000 price range.
Listing inventory continued to correct throughout 2009. Home buyers had 703 homes to select from at the end of December as compared to 1,127 in December 2008. REALTORS® listed 212 properties last month, down 13% from December 2008 when 245 homes were placed on the market.
Sales activity in communities surrounding Saskatoon was also very high during 2009. 47 properties were purchased in December, up 68% from December 2008 when 28 properties were purchased. Year to date 951 properties have been sold, up 9% from 2008 when 869 properties were sold. The average selling price was $258,996, up 15% from 2008 when the average price was $224,421.
At year-end consumer confidence in the local economy remains optimistic, a necessary component for consumer spending. All indicators point to a stable, steady real estate market in 2010. Unknown variables capable of affecting the market place are provincial revenue streams.
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 Vidorra
While most areas produced six-month rolling averages that exceeded the overall averages for the year, indicating that the current trend is upward, the majority of neighbourhoods experienced some decreases through 2009. More often than not declines were in the 3%-10% range.
Exhibition, Hudson Bay Park, Kelsey-Woodlawn, Meadowgreen and North Parkall bucked the general trend to record small increases in the average selling price of a house.
A few areas saw declines in the average house price that were out of step with the rest of the city. In Greystone Heights the average selling price of a single-family home dropped $55,000, and the median sale price dropped $53,000. Lakeview saw it’s average drop the most in real dollars by $81,261, while the median price for the area moved down $50,000. Montgomery Place saw a $60,000 drop in the average and a $63,000 drop in the median. Nutana’s average came down significantly falling $80,000, but the median price for the area moved just $10K. Briarwood, Avalon and Erindalealso saw average house price declines that were higher than average at $69,445, $63,914 and $48,971 respectively.
This year’s biggest surprise may be Stonebridge, an area that our more bearish readers wrote off as hopeless, bound to become an open range of rickety shacks with garbage and tumbleweeds everywhere. Sorry folks. The average price in Stonebridge declined less than $11,000 over the year as a ten-month supply of inventory nearly vanished.
In the stupid prizes categories, Lakewood condos win for coming closest to the overall condo average in Saskatoon while Hollistonwins for most closely following the average Saskatoon house price over the last ten years.
See what happened in your neighbourhood here. While you're there, please jot us a short note about your area in the comments section of the page.
The same details for Saskatoon can be found 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.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
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 Vidorra
Thirteen new listings were offered for sale over the past seven days, down two from last week, and lower on a year-over-year basis by nine properties.
Saskatoon home sales exceeded new listings for the third consecutive week, a fairly common occurrence at this time of year as people are generally not inclined to be listing a home for sale over the holidays unless they really have to get a move on. Throw in one hundred and five expired listings this week and watch the total listing inventory tumble to just six hundred and fifteen properties, about fifteen percent lower than last week’s close, and in fact, approaching seasonal norms for the first time in twenty months. We saw similar activity during the final week of 2008 when nearly fifteen percent of active listings fell out of the system but close to half of them returned the following weekas sellers put the holidays behind them and got back to work on the selling effort. I expect we’ll see equally strong listing activity next week. As of this morning there are 353 single-family homes and 220 condominiums showing an active status, down from 671 and 358 respectively at this time last year. Based on December’s final sale numbers of 211 units we now have less than a three-month supply of homes, a seller’s market by most definitions.
This week, there was just one cancelled. Three sellers adjusted their asking price.
Following four exceptionally strong weeks for home prices, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home slid lower falling about forty–two thousand dollars from last week to $268,336, but still managing to finish ahead of last year’s average by roughly three thousand dollars. The six-week average found higher ground breaking $290K for the first time this year and reaching its peak during this final week of 2009 at $291,889, twenty-two thousand dollars higher than it was for the same week last year. The four-week median moved in the opposite direction falling just over seven thousand dollars to $276,750 and finished roughly thirty-three thousand dollars higher than it was during the closing week of 2008.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
The average underbid fell to $8,997 from $10,420 last week, for an average discount of 3.1% of the asking price, down from 3.4% last week.
Does anyone have a 2010 predictions they’d like to share?
Happy New Year, and thanks again for reading.
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.
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Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra