RBC Economics released its Housing Trends and Affordability studythis morning and reported improved affordability in all areas of the country. Here’s what they had to say about Saskatchewan, which saw “significant improvement,” albeit slightly less so than the national average.

Spurred in part by a decline in homeownership costs, Saskatchewan home buyers resumed house hunting in recent months with home resales in the province rebounding since August and reversing most of its slide in the first half of this year. The earlier softening of activity, nonetheless, had a linger- ing effect on home prices in the third quarter, which fell across all housing types relative to the second quarter. In turn, this lingering effect, along with lower mortgage rates, contributed to a significant improvement in affordability. The RBC Affordability Measures dropped between 1.8 and 2.2 percentage points, which was the most since early 2009. While lower than they were a year ago, the measures are still modestly above their long-term average, thereby suggesting to us that current market conditions are stretching homebuyers’ budgets to a degree. However, those budgets are likely to be boosted from a strong expected rebound in the provincial economy and, thus, family income this year and next.

Read the full RBC Housing Trends and Affordability study 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 Vidorra

A group of Saskatoon churches have pledged support to work together to assist in fundraising for the proposed “Good Food Junction,” a full service co-operative supermarket that would operate at Station 20 West, assuming that private funding goals are met and the “cluster of community services” becomes a reality. Pleasant Hill and Riversdale, two of Saskatoon’s poorest neighbourhoods have been without a grocery store for more than a decade. The low-income residents in these communities already face mobility challenges making it difficult to seek services in other areas.

$650,000 is needed to fund equipment for the store and church leaders from a number of Christian denominations have pledged to promote the cause leading up to the Christmas season.

More details from CBC here. More from the Star Phoenix here.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

A new childcare centre outfitted to care for up to 55 children opened today at Brevoort Park School. The government of Saskatchewan funded the project providing $440,000 to complete the facility, which will be operated by the Parents’ Child Development Cooperative.

More information, including fees can be found here.

Learn more about the Brevoort Park area.

The owners of Christie’s Mayfair Bakery opened their second store early this month at 802C Broadway Avenue and it appears to be a big hit already. It’s no wonder, really, given Christie’s longtime reputation in Saskatoon for quality and value. This store, Christie’s Il Secondo, serves as an outlet for goods produced at the 33^rd Street bakery and it also brings another excellent coffee and lunch bar to the Nutana area. A simple menu, presented on chalkboards, offers a selection of about a half dozen Panini bread sandwiches and six or seven authentic Italian pizzas, cooked on location in a wood fired oven.

My wife I made our first visit to Christie’s Il Secondo on Saturday afternoon. When we arrived at about 2:30 p.m. all of about three dozen seats in the place were full. Fortunately, by the time we reached the walk-up counter to place our order a table for two had opened up for us. We shared a Shevchenko sandwich (chicken and vegetables on toasted Panini) and a Margherita Pizza, both of which were excellent. With two cups of fresh brewed coffee, the total tab was twenty-eight bucks, a price that struck us as reasonable.

Christie’s Il Secondo is a perfect fit for the Broadway business district.

Check Craig Silliphant’s review of Christie’s Il Seconda for Planet S here.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

Saskatoon city council has just approved the purchase of 180 acres of land that will serve as a new location for the Saskatoon Transit Service bus barns, the public works department and the city yards, according to Sean Shaw who is live blogging from tonight’s council meeting.

The parcel is located west of the Saskatoon landfill, south of Montgomery Placeand north of Valley Road. The location may have once been considered impractical, but when completed, the new Circle Drive South bridge will provide easy access to the east side of the city for buses and snow plows.

The relocation of the public works department and the city yards will free up twenty-four acres of prime land in north downtown. A new home for the bus barns was the next major step in moving the South Caswell Concept Plan forward. The plan calls for the redevelopment of two whole city blocks including a number of affordable housing initiatives, some commercial space, a dog park of approximately 8,000 square feet and a 65,000 square foot neighbourhood park space. This move will come as great news to Caswell Hill residents who have had to deal with the noise and the smell of the public transportation facility for years.

Read also: City eyes land for bus barns – Star Phoenix

View MLS® listings in Caswell Hill.

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

Saskatoon’s largest park, together with the sites of the Mendel Art Gallery, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan and the Shearwater boat tour docks are the target of a massive renewal project and the city of Saskatoon is ready to begin a two-year planning process to ensure that the public amenities best meet the future needs of the community. Attendance at Kinsmen Park has declined forty percent in recent years. A $5 million dollar sponsorship agreement with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan provides funding for a needed renewal that will link the four City Parkarea amenities under one concept plan.

The $170,000 planning process was approved Monday by the city’s executive committee. Assuming that $100,000 in funding from next year’s budget is approved in December, the planning process for a transformation can begin immediately with the hiring of a consultant and a public call for ideas for the Mendel Art Gallery site that will become vacant when the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan opens in late 2014 at River Landing.

More from the Star Phoenix here.

According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) Saskatoon housing starts and MLS® resale activity will move in opposite directions, this year and next.

In their fall Housing Market Outlook for the Saskatoon area, CMHC is forecasting that Saskatoon housing starts will finish 2010 at 2,125 units, up from 1,936 in 2009, before falling to just 1,700 in 2011. Conversely, resale MLS® activity is expected to fall to 3,500 units this year, down from 3,822 in 2009, and then increase to 3,600 units in 2011.

On the heels of a 7.9% decline in 2009, CMHC economists expect the New Housing Price Index to increase by 2.7% this year before it moves 2.9% higher in 2011. Resale prices, after moving to $291,000 this year from $278,895 in 2009 will moderate and advance less than two percent to $296,000 next year.

Nationally, CMHC forecasts housing starts to rise from 149,081 in 2009 to 186,200 by the close of 2010 when they will begin to drop and fall to 174,800 in 2011. MLS® resale activity is forecast to rise from 320,362 in 2009 to 336,800 this year before increasing further to 339,800 in 2011.

The CMHC Housing Market Outlook for Saskatoon is here. The CMHC Housing Market Outlook for Canada 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 Vidorra

CREAeconomist Gregory Klump reports on MLS sales and listings for the Canadian real estate market in October, 2010.

In its last major plan for downtown Saskatoon, the city set a goal to increase the population of residents in the city centre to 10,000 by 2,025. The past few years have seen the development of roughly 450 housing units across several condominium projects but growth is sluggish and falling short of meeting objectives.  Could all of that change as River Landing Village finds a firm footing? What else needs to change in the short term to achieve that long-term goal?

Star Phoenix writer, David Hutton examines recent wins and the ongoing challenges in the revitalization of downtownSaskatoon in “Density in the downtown.”

Read it 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.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

After a couple of years of starts, stops and stumbles, two forward steps looks like a lot of progress. Saskatoon city council, in a special meeting Wednesday, placed its final approval on the sale of Parcel Y after independent auditors confirmed that adequate financing had been secured to bring the proposed River Landing Villageproject “to grade.” The current plan calls for an underground parking structure to be built at a cost of roughly $60 million.

The next deadline to be faced by Dr. Karim Nasser’s Victory Majors Investment Corporation comes in fifteen days time when the complete $5.2 million dollar purchase price of the land must be paid. Once that’s done, the city will transfer title to the land to the developer.

"I feel very, very happy and elated because the city has been waiting for that project for over 30 years," Dr. Nasser told the Star Phoenix. "It's an exquisite, beautiful project, which fulfils all the demands that are required in the area."

The most recent construction estimates suggest that we’ll see a ground breaking on the downtownsite in the spring of 2011 with an estimated completion of roughly three years.

Star Phoenix coverage is here. More from the CBC 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 Vidorra