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Remax released it’s 2010 Market Trends Reporttoday stating that “healthy levels” of inventory and demand that is gaining momentum are moving the Saskatoon real estate market towards a “full recovery.”


Other tidbits from the Saskatoon section of the report include the following:

  • While sales are still off of last year’s numbers average prices continue to edge up.
  • Balanced conditions characterize the market overall.
  • Rising demand could create a “tightening of supply” in the single-family home inventory.
  • Multiple offers have re-emerged in prime “hot pocket neighbourhoods” but remain the exception.
  • First time buyers account for the “lion’s share” of activity.
  • A “good selection” of condominiums still exists.
  • Buyers remain cautious, as do developers
  • Speculation is virtually “non-existent” in the Saskatoon market.


The report provides market opinions provided by Remax brokers in 16 major Canadian markets including Remax Saskatoon. Read the full report 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

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: February 15-19 2010
Saskatoon real estate sales cooled off this week as just fifty-one house and condo sales were reported to the local MLS, a drop of thirteen units compared to the previous week, but ahead of sales for the same week last yearwhen just forty-five homes changed hands. Reports of multiple offers continued, especially in the $250,000-$350,000 range, though buyers are clearly proceeding more cautiously than in past years as evidenced by the relatively small number of overbid sales. Most agents would probably tell you that the lower number of sales is related to a shortage of inventory in this key price range. While the lion’s share of the buying activity for single-family homes occurs below the $350,000 mark, about fifty-five percent of the houses that are currently for sale are priced above that.


New listingsremained steady on a week-over-week basis with ninety-seven new listings coming on the system, but fell sharply compared to the same week in 2009 when 121 properties were offered for sale. This week’s listings included seventy-five houses and twenty-two condominiums.



Total active listings inched up again climbing above the eight hundred mark for the first time in a few months. Listings sit at 801 today, up for 766 at the close of the previous week and down from 1,242 for the same time last year. Most of the growth we saw this week was in single-family homes, which moved ahead thirty-six units over last week to 449. Available Saskatoon condominiums were fairly steady moving higher by just two properties to 309 units. Last year at this time there were 753 houses and 409 condos showing an active status on the Saskatoon multiple listing service.



Cancelled and withdrawn listings came in low at just fourteen units. Eight of those immediately re-entered the system as a new listing, most at a new lower price. Ten sellers took the shorter route by simply reducing their asking price.


Slower sales and a slightly higher inventory didn’t hold prices back as the average selling price of a Saskatoon home surged ahead to reach its highest point since the week of September 15-19, 2008at $312,362. That’s nine thousand dollars higher than last week’s number and roughly eighteen thousand dollars higher than the same week last year. Higher sale prices over the past two weeks pushed the six-week average to a six-week high of $286,421 gaining nearly seven thousand dollars over the previous week and about three thousand over the same week in 2009. The four-week median also moved higher reaching $286,995 up nearly eleven thousand compared to last week and twenty-one thousand dollars higher than the number recorded for the same period last year.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


The number of overbid sales fell again as just four units traded above asking price by an average of $7,503. Four more sellers got what they asking while fifty-one settled for a discounted price that averaged 2.6 percent of the asking price, or $8,470.


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

Read


Canada’s Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty will announce this morning a change in lending rules that will further limit the amount of cash buyers can borrow to finance a home according to a report on Globe and Mail.


Stimulus cash, and historically low interest rates have created an enticing environment for Canadian home buyers who have flooded the market to produce near record sale numbers across much of the nation. The average selling price of a Canadian home gained nineteen percent in a year while the economy was largely stagnant, prompting talk of a housing bubbleand concern that some buyers may not be able to service their current debt levels when rates return to historical norms.


There is general consensus in the financial community that raising interest rates is not the right answer to cool what some see as an overheated housing market. Bringing this beast under control without mucking things up for the economy in general is a delicate dance. Some are speculating that the rule changes will bring tougher qualification rules, and perhaps a reduction in the maximum allowable amortization period to repay a mortgage. The Canadian government reduced the maximum allowable amortization period from 40 years to 35 years in July of 2008 following a massive run up in home prices across Canada.


Flaherty will address reporters in Ottawa this morning at 8:00 AM Eastern.


Update: New Canadian mortgage rules effective April 19 2010


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.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Insisting that Canada is not facing a housing bubble, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a tightening on mortgage lending rules, which he says will “help prevent negative trends from developing.”


Effective April 19, 2010 the following changes will take effect.


Home buyers must qualify for their mortgage using the five-year fixed mortgage rate, regardless of the term that they chose to finance their home.


Refinance loans will be limited to ninety percent of a home’s value.


A twenty percent down payment will be required to finance government backed mortgage insurance on investment property.


Do these changes go far enough to cool the Canadian housing market?


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.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Read

One of the most exciting on-going developments in technology has to be mapping. Today, maps are moving to new levels that go far beyond simple directions and street views. Data that is location specific and appropriately tagged with geo-coordinates is flowing onto the web at a rapid pace finding its way onto maps, and changing the way that we view the world.


Street level, three-dimensional images provide a close-up view of any location, flickr images contributed by users around the globe provide a glimpse into the past and in some cases, streaming video may open a window into the present. If that’s not enough to blow you away take a walk indoors or gaze towards the heavens for an astronomically complete representation of the sky above.


Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Microsoft architect presented new developments to their Bing Maps at the TED 2010conference happening in California showing us how various technologies and bits of data are being integrated into their mapping software to change the way we can interact with maps and data. This eight minute video is a must watch for any tech geek.



Imagine the possibilities for real estate.


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

Read

Competition Commissioner Melanie Aitken has moved to bring the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) before a Competition Tribunalto seek a ruling that would force CREA to change MLS rules that she believes limit competition and harm consumers.


Following a lengthy investigation, the Competition Bureau announced in early November that they believed some of CREA’s rules limit the options that real estate agents might otherwise provide consumers in marketing their homes if the rules didn’t exist. At the time, CREA indicated that they were interested in working towards a settlement and apparently; discussions have been ongoing since that time. In a Globe and Mail open forumtoday, CREA President Dale Ripplinger claimed that the two parties were “close” to reaching an agreement that would settle the dispute, and expressed that he was “surprised” by the bureau’s announcement that the case would head to a Competition Tribunal for resolution.


An overview of the issues identified buy the bureau as problematic can be found here.The Competition Bureau's release on this matter is here. CREA's response to the Competition Bureau's move 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.


Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Read

Saskatoon real estate week in review: February 1-5 2010
Saskatoon real estate sales numbers continued to bring hope that spring is on its way as agents reported a total of sixty house and condo sales to the local MLS, a drop of just three properties from last week and a gain of eleven compared to the same week last year.


The new listings that were conspicuously absent for last week’s review made a comeback as one hundred and one homes made their way to the market, a welcome addition to what feels like a tight inventory, especially in the price ranges that are at or below the average selling price of a Saskatoon home. New listingswere much higher than last week’s number of fifty-eight homes but fell far short of the one hundred and forty-two properties offered for sale during the same period in 2009. Most years, we start to see pretty good upward spike in the number of new listings offered for sale right around this time, so hopefully, supply will increase in the weeks ahead.



This week, the inventory of active residential listings inched just slightly higher over the previous week moving from 734 to 749, to sit at roughly two-thirds of last year’s level, which reached 1,124 by this time. There are currently 411 single-family homes and 290 condominiums for sale.



The cancellation and re-list strategy was back in full swing this week as thirty-three Saskatoon home sellers put the kibosh on their MLS listing and twenty-three quickly resurfaced as a “new listing.” Nineteen sellers adjusted their asking price, all of them moving lower.


The average selling price of a Saskatoon home fell more than $10K on the week to $279,617. The six-week average saw its fifth consecutive weekly decline slipping more than three thousand dollars to $272,658 and reaching its lowest point for the year, roughly nine thousand dollars lower than it was at this time last year. The four-week median inched up a thousand dollars from the previous week to $260,000 and finished forty-five hundred dollars lower then it was for the same period in 2009.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


There was some notable change at the negotiation table as eight home sellers (13 percent) managed to complete a deal at a price greater than their asking price. The average overbid was $2,337. Seven of the eight overbid sales were from areas 1 and 2. The average asking price for these properties was $308,042. Four of the seven properties were town house condos priced at an average of $277,900. An additional three sellers got all they were asking and forty-nine went for less than the asking price by an average of $8,557. The average negotiated discount was just three percent, well below the 3.6% average from the week before.



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

Read

The Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors recently reported January 2010 resultsfor the entire residential category of Saskatoon real estate that includes single-family homes, condominiums, semi-detached properties, duplexes, mobile homes and vacant lots. Unit sales totaled 179 properties across all of these property types, at an average selling price of $270,191. Let’s have a look at how houses (single-family detached homes) and condominiums did in comparison to the entire residential category.


Single-family detached home (houses) sales fell flat in Saskatoon during the month of January, finishing with just one hundred and fifteen firm sales, lower than December by nearly two-dozen units and well off of the one hundred and sixty-four properties sold in January of 2009. The inventory of available houses edged higher by thirty-one units from the previous month to three hundred and eighty-six homes. Lower sales and a larger inventory pushed the absorption rate (months of inventory) up nearly a full month to 3.4 and while remaining on the low side of “normal” reached its highest level since April of 2009. Active listings remained well below levels seen last year when buyers had six hundred and eighty-eight single-family homes to choose from.



After a strong finish to 2009 house prices moderated on a month-over-month basis by all three measurements that we tracked, but continued to show gains year-over-year. The average selling price of a house tumbled nearly thirty thousand dollars from last month, falling below $300,000 for the first time since March of last year but maintaining annual gains of just over six thousand dollars. The median selling price was down seventeen thousand dollars on the month to $283,000, not quite six thousand dollars higher than it was at the close of the same month last year. The three-month average inched lower by four thousand dollars to reach $308,633 and recorded a gain of over seventeen thousand dollars on a year-over-year basis.



The average price per square foot paid for a Saskatoon house also fell, though not as sharply as the other measures. Saskatoon home buyers paid $248 per foot in January, down five dollars from the month before, and just two dollars more than the average in January 2009.



Sales of Saskatoon condominiums also slipped from the month before but managed to eek out some modest year-over-year gains as a total of fifty-eight units traded, just four fewer than December, and fourteen properties higher than the same month in 2009. Active listings finished lower by just three units when compared to the previous month with just two hundred and fifty-two available homes, down from three hundred and sixty-three a year ago. Months of inventory remained steady from one month to the next, and year-over-year at 4.3.



The price of Saskatoon condos slipped lower in all three categories. The average sale price came in at $214,072 losing more than fourteen thousand dollars from the previous month, and down a little better than six thousand dollars from January 2009. The median price slid nine thousand from last month to $213,700 to show a loss of roughly $6K from a year earlier. The weakest month for condos prices last year was October, and as that month fell out of the three-month average calculation this measure managed an upward push to $229,423 to show a gain of nearly five thousand dollars from last month and an increase of just under two thousand dollars on the year.



The average price paid per square foot for a Saskatoon condominium was higher than last month by three dollars reaching $227, a gain of fourteen dollars from the previous January.



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

Read

The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for January 2010today, accompanied by this release.


Saskatoon REALTORS® assisted 179 homebuyers with the purchase of a home during January of 2010. This number was down 16% from January 2009 when 212 homes changed hands.



The average residential selling price was $270,191 down 3% from January 2009, which had an average residential selling price of $ 278,939. The average selling price declined slightly due to the increased number of sales in the $ 250,000 to $275,000 price range. This price range had the highest number of unit sales in January.



Inventory levels continued to correct in the month of January with fewer listings being taken. REALTORS® listed 394 residential properties, down 23% from January 2009 when 512 properties were listed for sale. Home buyers had 736 homes to select from at the end of January as compared to the same time last year when 1156 homes were available for sale. January’s number is up slightly from December 2009 when 703 properties were available for purchase.



The residential dollar volume of $48,364,000.00 was down 18% due to lower sales numbers and increased activity in the mid price range of homes. Dollar volume is expected to increase significantly as the year 2010 progresses.


The real estate market in areas surrounding Saskatoon was very active. Unit sales were up 17% in January with 34 units selling as compared to 29 units selling in the same month last year. The average selling price was $214,976 up 5% from January 2009 when the average selling price was $204,166. January dollar volume was $7,309,200 up 23% from January 2009.


The real estate market is expected to remain steady for the first quarter of this year. Days to sell in January were 38 days on average within the city limits and 59 days in areas surrounding the City of Saskatoon. Consumer confidence remains high, interest rates are low, both factors contributing to a healthy real estate market.


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

Read
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