RSS

Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 22-28, 2013
While sales numbers softened on a weekly and an annual basis this week saw a reasonable level of activity with Saskatoon real estate agents reporting a total of 76 house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service®. That number is down eight from the previous week and falls short of production for the same week last year by six homes.


New residential listings continued to come on the market at a strong pace for the season as 162 homes were offered for sale to the Saskatoon real estate market this week, up one from last week and ahead of the same week a year ago by 22.


The inventory of Saskatoon homes listed on the multiple listing service® grew again for the third consecutive week, the total flirting with the 1400 mark for the first time in years (for this particular week). Total active listings closed the week at 1393 homes, 15 higher than it was at the end of the previous week and almost two hundred units above levels seen at this time in 2012. At the close of business Friday, buyers could find 874 single-family homes and 409 condos showing an active status on the MLS® system. Single-family home listings have grown by 143 properties over levels recorded a year ago. Available Saskatoon condos are up just marginally from the 390’s last year at this time.


The median price of a Saskatoon home pushed higher this week to $337,200 and the average price followed along reaching $349,726. The longer term measures both moved lower as the six-week average edged down a little under a thousand dollars from last week to finish at $349,726 to close the week about $9,100 higher than it was at this time last year. The four-week median price of a Saskatoon home slipped $450 from last week to $327,000 claiming a year-over-year increase of seventeen thousand dollars.


Overbid sales continued to be rare. This past week just two buyers offered to pay more than the seller was asking. One went a full fourteen thousand dollars over while the other buyer came to the table with an additional $600. Another 68 buyers were looking for a better deal and they worked their sellers for a discount averaging $9,620. The other six deals closed at the seller’s full asking price.


Other notable MLS® activity this week included 64 cancelled and withdrawn listings,  18 expired listings and 56 price adjustments.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

Read

Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 15-21, 2013
The Saskatoon real estate market continued to record sales numbers that are fitting for the season. This past week, local agents firmed up 84 house and condominium sales, down six units compared to the previous week and matching sales numbers generated during the same week a year ago.


While the number of new residential listings dropped by 17 homes compared to last week they continued to make large gains on an annual basis for the eighth consecutive week. This week, 161 houses and condos were listed for sale on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® to finish ahead of the same week last year by 23 homes.


At a time of the year when total active MLS® listings are typically falling, the inventory inched higher for the second week to close at its highest point in the past five years. A search of today’s active MLS® listings shows 1378 properties in the residential category, 16 more than there were at the close of the previous week and up by 179 homes from this time in 2012. The only time they reached a higher level for this particular week was in 2008 when inventory really swelled for awhile. That week, they actually peaked for the year at 1758 homes. Taking a closer look at the major housing categories, this week’s numbers include 851 singe-family homes and 418 condos. At this time last year single-family homes stood at just 736 units while condo inventory came in at 391.


This past week, prices slipped lower in each of the four categories that we track. The weekly median price slipped $4,500 from the previous week to $328,500. Meanwhile, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home tumbled a little harder sliding about thirteen thousand dollars to $340,628. The six-week average price slipped the least dropping by just a few hundred dollars from last week to $342,572 for an annual gain of just five thousand dollars. The four-week median price slipped close to six thousand dollars on a weekly basis closing at $327,450 to record year-over-year growth of nine thousand dollars.


Overbid sales were few and far between with just three Saskatoon home sellers accepting an offer above their asking price. They certainly did alright picking up a bonus of an extra $12,400. Meanwhile, nine other buyers agreed to give a seller all they were asking for their home. Finally, 72 buyers came away from the negotiating table having ground themselves a bit of a discount that averaged $9,383.


Other notable MLS® activity this week included 60 cancelled and withdrawn listings,  19 expired listings and 56 price adjustments.


Highlights from the news this past week

CREA hikes housing forecast after jump in home prices - Globe and Mail
Canadian home prices to drop 15% on back of rising rates: Sun Life - Financial Post
Consumers turned around housing market - National Post
Rosenberg on Canada: ‘So much for the housing bust’ - Globe and Mail
CREA: Canada’s home sales beat expectations as buyers move to lock in low rates - Financial Post
How farmland became Canada’s hottest real estate market - Globe and Mail
Debt-to-income measure hits record high as mortgage borrowing hikes- Financial Post


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

Read

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), released national sales statistics for the month of August, 2013 recently. According to the CREA, "The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations and other co-operative listing systems rose 2.8 per cent on a month-over-month basis in August 2013. The number of local markets where sales improved on a month-over-month basis ran roughly even with those where activity edged lower in August, with increases in major urban centres tipping the balance." Highlights of CREA's report    
  • National home sales rose 2.8% from July to August.
  • Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 11.1% above levels in August 2012.
  • The number of newly listed homes was up 1.8% from July to August.
  • The Canadian housing market has tightened but remains in balanced territory.
  • The national average sale price rose 8.1% on a year-over-year basis in August.
  • The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 2.9% year-over-year in August.

Read the entire report on Canadian MLS sales for August, 2013.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

Read

Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 8-14, 2013
On the heels of one the slowest sales week since late February, the Saskatoon real estate market bounced back to record 90 house and condo sales this week. That’s an increase of 23 homes over the previous week and a year-over-year gain of just two properties.


New MLS® listings came on the market at a faster pace as 178 Saskatoon home sellers offered their home for sale on the Saskatoon multiple listing service®, eclipsing last week’s strong numbers by two dozen and finishing ahead of the same week last year by 26 listings.


After slipping slightly for two consecutive weeks, the total inventory of MLS® listings available to Saskatoon home buyers changed directions and increased by 20 units to 1362, closing higher compared to the same week last year by roughly 14 percent or 162 homes. A closer look, by category, shows 851 single-family homes (houses) and 415 condominiums displaying an active status on the Saskatoon MLS®. At this time last year, there were 741 houses and 388 condos for sale on the MLS®.


A little more activity at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market brought the average sale price of a home higher by more than thirty thousand to $353,711. The median price of a Saskatoon home recovered a good portion of the huge drop it saw last week and finished the week at $336,500. Following along, the six-week average price of a Saskatoon home moved higher by seven thousand dollars to reach $342,845 but showed a year-over-year decline of nearly three thousand dollars. The four-week median price moved in the opposite direction slipping lower by about fifteen hundred dollars to close the week at $333,000. That’s an increase of eight thousand dollars when compared against sales that closed during the same week last year..


Overbid sales cooled slightly as just three local home buyers offered a price that exceeded the seller’s asking price. The average overbid was much higher than we’ve seen recently at $11,900. That number was largely impacted by one sale that was recorded at $35,000 more than the asking price.


Other MLS® activity this week included 85 cancelled and withdrawn listings, many of which flowed back on the market as a “new listing” contributing to the bloated number we saw in that category, just three expired listing and 53 price adjustments.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

Read

Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 1-7, 2013
It felt a bit like a late winter sales week. Saskatoon real estate agents reported just 67 firm house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service®, the lowest number since late February when the market was just ramping up for what would turn out to be a pretty solid six month run. We did see volume slip by nearly two dozen homes compared against the previous week but still found ourselves looking at a pretty decent annual increase. When comparing this week against the same week last year we were up by nine home sales.


New MLS® listings continued to come on the market at more of a spring like pace as local agents brought 154 homes to the market to match last week’s numbers. On a year-over-year basis the Saskatoon multiple listing service® saw an additional 44 homes added to the system this week, the sixth consecutive week in which new listings were well up over the previous year’s numbers.


Given that the expired listings from the final day of August fall into this week’s stats a good handful of  properties moved out of the system keeping the total number of active MLS® listings in the residential category in check. In fact, inventory slipped lower for the second week in row dropping by 14 units this week to finish at 1342 homes. That number is up more than ten percent from a year ago when just 1195 Saskatoon homes could be found bearing an active status on the MLS® system. A quick look at the various categories of housing shows that single-family homes (detached houses) are showing the greatest gains climbing from 729 at this time last year to 840 units today. Active condo listings are also up, but but far smaller numbers with the inventory growing from 393 a year ago to 412 today.


The average sale price of a Saskatoon home slipped lower for the third week in a row and reached $322,367. The median sale price took some larger lumps and slipped more than twenty thousand dollars from last week to settle at $315,000 even. The six-week average continued on to a three week slide falling nearly four thousand dollars from last week to $335,779 reaching its lowest point since April of this year. That’s down nearly sixteen thousand dollars from the number recorded for the same week last year. The four-week median also fell on a weekly basis losing more than thirty-five hundred to hold on to a year-over-year gain of about six thousand dollars.


Overbid sales picked up a little steam accounting for four of this week’s closed deals, twice the number recorded last week. Those purchasers paid an average of $3,100 more than the seller’s asking price to lock up a deal. Another nine homes closed at the full asking price while 54 of this week’s 67 firm Saskatoon real estate sales went below the asking price by an average of $8,100.


Other MLS® activity this week included 51 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 46 expired listing and 54 price adjustments.


Highlights from the news this week


Stephan Harper’s advisors play down warnings of ultra low interest rates - Financial Post
Canada’s housing market among most ‘bubbly’ in the world, Economist finds - Globe and Mail
The Smith Manoeuvre - A Canadian mortgage tax deductible plan - Globe and Mail
Why real estate doomsayers continue to be wrong - Financial Post
Immigration boosting housing sector: Report - Globe and Mail
Mortgage fears drive up Canadian home sales - Globe and Mail
Does Canada have a housing bubble?- Globe and Mail


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

Read

The Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors® (SRAR) released the MLS® residential real estate statistics for August of 2013today accompanied by the following release.


Please note that many of the association’s comments touch on “year-to-date” numbers, and some are based on all sales within the board’s trading area. The charts which you see, as always, reflect activity within the city of Saskatoon on a month to month basis over the past several years.


For the second year in a row the gross dollar volume for home sales exceeded $1 billion by the end of summer. At this rate the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® is on track to break the $2 billion mark by year end. The number of units sold year-to-date was down by 2 precent in 2013 however an increase in the average selling price of 4 percent boosted the yearly volume by $25 million over the same period last year. "Listing activity is up 8 percent over last year thanks in part to 1,125 new properties added to the market last month versus 936 in August of 2012," according to Jason Yochim, Executive Officer with the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®. "There are currently 3,118 properties for sale in the Saskatoon region and 1,373 within Saskatoon."


The average sale price in Saskatoon was up 4 percent from last year at this time to just under $345,000. "We are actually in balanced territory with 54 percent of listed properties selling. With the number of new listings up almost 10 percent over last year and the number of sales unchanged, we can expect this balanced market to continue for the foreseeable future," comments Yochim. "A steady supply of new listings will help to ensure that our demand does not put a sharp upward pressure on pricing.”


Home sales between $300,000 and $500,000 continue to increase at the greatest rate, accounting for approximately one half of all sales. Sales between $450,000 and $500,000 increased 30 percent over the first two-thirds of the year.


In recent years there has been a growing interest in farmland in Saskatchewan which has driven prices to unprecedented levels, however, activity is down this year with farmland transactions at 55 percent of what they were a year ago. "The dollar volume for farmland so far this year is at $14.5 million compared to 24 million in 2012. It’s hard to say what caused the sharp decrease, however, it could be due to prices reaching levels that no longer make sense to the investor," states Yochim.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call of email me.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate

Read
The Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA) IDX Reciprocity listings are displayed in accordance with SRA's MLS® Data Access Agreement and are copyright of the Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA).
The above information is from sources deemed reliable but should not be relied upon without independent verification. The information presented here is for general interest only, no guarantees apply.
Trademarks are owned and controlled by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Used under license.
MLS® System data of the Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA) displayed on this site is refreshed every 2 hours.