The schools will be constructed using a "public-private partnership model" (P3) where a private company, or companies, own the real estate and lease it to the respective school boards.

Today on our Facebookpage, we asked the question, "Do you have any thoughts or concerns regarding the P3 model, or do you think it's fine provided we end up with quality building that serve our students well at a fair cost?"

What do you think? Feel free to comment here or on the Facebook post embedded below.

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

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

• National home sales edged up by 0.8% from August to September.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 18.2% above levels in September 2012.
• The number of newly listed homes declined by 1.4% from August to September.
• The Canadian housing market has tightened but continues to remain balanced.
• The national average sale price rose 8.8% on a year-over-year basis in September.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 3.1% year-over-year in September.

Read the entire report on Canadian MLS sales for September, 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

Standard two-storey homes witnessed the largest increase, rising by 7.0 per cent to $399,750. Detached bungalow prices also made solid gains, jumping by 5.2 per cent to $366,250. Standard condominiums remained relatively flat, edging up by 1.1 per cent to $255,000.

“A healthy mix of first-time and move-up buyers has created strong demand for both detached bungalows and standard-two storeys,” said Norm Fisher, broker, Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate. “Houses that are priced properly and well-presented are selling quickly.”

“Rising prices in the detached home market have also had a spill-over effect on the condominium market,” added Fisher. “The standard condominium category has become an attractive entry point for first-time buyers.”

Nationally, the average price of a home in Canada increased between 1.2 per cent and 4.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2013.

The survey showed a year-over-year average price increase of 3.7 per cent to $418,686 for standard two-storey homes, while detached bungalows rose 4.1 per cent to $381,811. During the same period, the average price for standard condominiums saw a more moderate increase, rising 1.2 per cent to $246,530. Sales volumes surged in a number of regions, as Canadians re-entered the housing market after sitting on the sidelines for more than a year – marking the end of the most significant housing market correction since the 2008-2009 global recession.

“Canada experienced a significant housing market correction over the last four quarters that most in the nation missed entirely," said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage.  "Many regions experienced dramatic slowdowns in the number of homes trading hands, but news of double-digit unit sales declines went largely unnoticed, over-shadowed by a macabre fascination with the prospect of a U.S.-style home price collapse, which of course never transpired. Our over-heated real estate market of 2011 and early 2012 drove some to the sidelines. Home price appreciation ground to a halt for a year – a necessary breather and predictable market response."

“Our housing market turned a corner in the third quarter. Buyers returned to the streets in droves, resulting in a sharp increase in home sales.  In many cities, there simply weren't enough properties on the market to satisfy demand, which put upward pressure on prices for the first time in 2013," continued Soper. “We expect this positive momentum to continue through the all-important spring market of 2014, buoyed by a combination of pent-up demand, increasing consumer confidence and continued low interest rates.”

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 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

If they weren’t busy processing sales, chances were good that your agent may have been busy taking one of 198 new residential listings that hit the market this week. The final few days of the month often see a good number of homes expire without a sale. Many of those came back for another crack at the market. New listings increased by 36 on a weekly basis to finish higher than the same week last year by 58 homes.

The total number of residential listing available on Saskatoon’s MLS® system today settled at 1389 after the week’s business wrapped up, pretty much even with last week and up by just over 200 units from the close of the same week in 2012. The active MLS® listings chart tells a story that’s a bit out of the ordinary with the number of homes for sale in Saskatoon continuing to grow at a time of year when they can almost always be counted on to fall, causing some to suggest that a buyer’s market may be just around the corner. This morning’s tallies show a total of 864 single-family homes available to buyers, up from 741 at this time last year, and 414 condominiums for sale, up from just 382 a year ago.

Still, prices moved higher for three of the four measures we track. While the median price of a Saskatoon home slipped lower by about twelve thousand dollars to $325,900 the average sale price pushed higher by almost as much to finish the week at $361,646. Meanwhile, the six-week average sale price advanced nearly three thousand dollars from last week to reach $344,740 and finished up on the same week last year by roughly nine thousand dollars. The four-week median price pushed higher by 3K to claim a year-over-year increase of twenty-one thousand dollars.

Overbid sales increased two-fold to a whopping four homes. Those four lucky sellers picked up a bonus of $4,175 more than they had asked. An additional 13 sellers received a full price offer on their property. Finally, 70 of this week’s 87 sales were reported to have closed below the seller’s asking price by an average of $11,175.

Other notable MLS® activity this week included 62 cancelled and withdrawn listings,  65 expired listings and 66 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.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate