New listings also slid fairly significantly as just 114 house and condo listings hit the MLS®, declining forty-three from last week to finish just ahead of the same week last year when 109 properties were offered up for sale.

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The total inventory of MLS® listings in the residential category grew again picking up twenty-five units to reach 1405, and topping last year’s inventory by just four properties. Today, I see 823 single-family homes and 509 condos listed for sale on the multiple listing service®, almost identical to last year’s number when there were 822 and 503 respectively.

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Cancelled and withdrawn listings were about even with the previous week at thirty-nine. Just over half of those made a return appearance as a new listing the same day they were removed. Most of them returned with a lower asking price. An additional forty-nine sellers used a standard price adjustment to sweeten their offering in hopes of closing a deal before the spring rush starts to loose its steam.

An unusually strong burst of activity in lower priced homes drove the weekly median price lower by nearly thirty-five thousand dollars to $276,500.  The average selling price of a Saskatoon home moved in the same direction dropping twenty thousand dollars to $303,679. The longer-term measures held pretty firm.  The six-week average price actually moved higher on a week-over-week basis, gaining just a couple of hundred dollars to finish at $318,995 roughly twenty-three thousand dollars higher than it was at this time last year. The four-week median was down just nine hundred dollars from the week before to $306,000 for a year-over-year gain of twenty-one thousand dollars.

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Overbid activity remained weak with just two sellers closing a deal above their asking price, by an average of just $2,600. Another four got their full asking price while sixty-four of seventy firm transactions required a sharper pencil to close the deal. The average dollar discount on those homes that sold below list price was $8,993 or about three percent of the price.

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Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out 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

Saskatoon home sales continued to show year-over-year gains for the month as the third week of May came to a close. A total of ninety-eight single-family home and condominium sales firmed up this week for a weekly gain of fourteen units and an annual uptick of sixteen.

Following an unseasonably slow week for new real estate listings, activity spiked higher as 157 houses and condos were added the Saskatoon multiple listing service®, up thirty-eight properties from last week to match volume from the same week last year.

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The total inventory of active MLS® listings in the residential category saw its greatest gain in a month climbing by forty units from last week to 1380 properties. At the same time, this number represents the smallest year-over-year gain that we’ve seen in almost a year. Last year, at this time, there were 1376 residential properties showing an active status on the Saskatoon MLS® system, just four fewer than there are this year.

Today, there are 804 single-family homes and 502 condos available to prospective buyers. Those totals are up from 786 and 486 respectively, last week. Single-family home inventory is now down on a year-over-year basis, by just sixteen properties, while condo listings remain higher than the previous year by twelve.

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Cancelled and withdrawn listings edged up over last week as forty-one sellers removed their property from the MLS®. Twenty-nine of those homes returned on the same day as a new listing. Another eighty listings saw a change to the pricing strategy with most moving lower.

Following a brief retreat last week, the median selling price of a Saskatoon home edged back up to reclaim more than fifty percent of last week’s loss, closing at $308,932. The weekly average gained even more, closing almost ten thousand dollars higher than it did the previous week at $323,669. The six-week average price finished the week at $318,724 for a weekly gain of nearly four thousand dollars and a year-over-year gain of roughly twenty thousand dollars. The four-week median price actually edged lower, falling about two thousand dollars from last week to $306,900 for an annual gain of about 18K.

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Eighty-six of ninety-eight sales were closed at a price that was roughly 3.3 percent ($10,667) below the seller’s asking price. Three sellers closed a deal for more than they were asking, by an average of just $1,566. Another nine sellers found a buyer who was willing to conclude a deal for exactly what they were asking.

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Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out 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

Following on the heels of a week that saw a huge spike in the number of new listings brought to the Saskatoon MLS® system, new listings took a downturn again falling forty-five units from the previous week to just one hundred and nineteen houses and condos. That’s thirty-four fewer listings than were offered up for sale during the same week of 2010.

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The total inventory of active MLS® listings in the residential category continued to climb, but at a very modest pace, as the number grew by just twelve to 1340 for a year-over-year gain of thirty-seven properties. Of course, the year-over-year gap has been narrowing fairly substantially each week for the past couple of months. Assuming that the pace of new listings over the next couple of weeks is similar to what we’ve experienced in the last four or five weeks, it appears that we will soon be looking at inventory numbers that are actually down from last year. At this point, we’re just six to seven weeks away from the tipping point when inventory usually starts to decline through the balance of the year, making it highly unlikely that we’ll hit anywhere close to record levels as some had been predicting months ago.

Today’s active listings show 786 single-family homes, a gain of twelve from last week for a year-over-year gain of just four units. Condo inventory actually slipped this week, falling by four properties to 486, up from 453 at this same point last year.

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Cancelled and withdrawn listings remained steady with thirty-four Saskatoon home sellers pulling their listing from the system. Twenty-two of them apparently changed their minds and re-listed the same day, setting the days on the market clock back to zero, with most coming back at a new lower price. Another fifty-seven sellers opted for a price change.

The entry-level market saw some improvements this week pushing the weekly median price lower by roughly eleven thousand dollars to $301,500. The weekly average price followed, slipping about six thousand dollars to $314,231.  We saw less change in the longer-term averages, but they both moved in the same direction. The six-week average selling price slipped just over a thousand dollars from last week to $315,005, maintaining an annual gain of fifteen thousand dollars. The four-week median slid lower by thirty-five hundred dollars to finish the week at $309,000, for a year-over-year gain of twenty-four thousand dollars.

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This week brought some big gains in the percentage of deals that resulted in a bit of overbidding as nine Saskatoon home buyers agreed to close a deal at a price greater than the asking price. The average overbid also saw a large increase to $12,485.  Sixty-eight of this week’s eighty-four deals closed at a price that was below list with an average drop of $9,516 for a discount of roughly three percent.

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Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out 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 showing signs of softening over two consecutive weeks, new listings came to the market in greater numbers than they have for more than a full year. One hundred and sixty-four houses and condos were added to the inventory, up forty-six units from last week, and one more than we saw over the same period last year.

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The fifty-five listings that expired without a sale kept the total inventory of MLS listings from expanding significantly, but the number grew by eighteen when compared against the close of last week and finished at 1,328. At this time in 2010, there were 1,254 active listings for buyers to choose from. Today’s totals, by category, show 774 single-family homes (houses) and 490 condominiums with houses up twenty-one and condo numbers declining by one on a week-over-week basis. Last year at this time, those categories stood at 722 and 444 respectively.

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Cancelled and withdrawn listings spiked to thirty-two, a gain of ten compared to last week. Twenty-two of those same properties immediately returned as a new listing, most at a new price. Sixty-eight Saskatoon home sellers took the more obvious route of simply adjusting the price on their existing listings.

Just a touch more action in the entry-level market saw the weekly median price soften by just over five grand to $312,750 while the weekly average slid by twice that to $320,147.  The six-week average still managed to edge higher picking up about five thousand dollars to close the week at $316,112 for an annual gain of about sixteen thousand dollars. The four-week median took a smaller bump gaining thirty-five hundred dollars on the week to finish at $312,500. That’s well up from $286,000 four-week median at the same time in 2010.

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Overbid activity remained weak as just four lucky sellers completed a deal at a price greater than asking, by $3,787 on average. Another nine sellers found a buyer willing to pony up with all that they were asking.  Seventy-nine of ninety-two firm deals required some give and take as sellers gave up an average of $9,158 at the negotiating table.

Click the image for a larger version of the chart.

Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out 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