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Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 25 - May 31, 2014

I’m away on a bit of a break this weekend so we’re giving you the shortened, commentary free version of this week’s Saskatoon real estate activity.


Saskatoon real estate sales for the week of May 31, 2014



Active Saskatoon real estate listing on the MLS at May 31, 2014



Average and median prices for Saskatoon homes sold May 25-31 2014



Saskatoon real estate statistics for MLS home sales from May 25-31, 2014



Thanks very much for reading.


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 Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 18-24, 2014

Saskatoon home sales slipped lower on a weekly basis while continuing to show annual gains for the fifth consecutive week. Saskatoon real estate agents brought 98 house and condo sales to the local MLS®, lower than the previous week by 18 units but up on sales reported the same week last year by 13.


The number of new listingsadded to the multiple listing service® database also fell this week, much more sharply than sales. Agents brought 181 new listings to the system, 60 fewer properties than were listed last week but well ahead of the same period of 2013 when 158 Saskatoon homes were offered for sale.


The total number of residential listings showing as “for sale” on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® rose again, as it has in all but four weeks this year. Active listings jumped to 1543 for a weekly gain of 37 homes to close ahead of levels recorded a year ago when just 1219 properties could be found on the system. Today’s totals show 938 single-family homes, up from 733 a year ago. Condo inventory has risen by 86 units over the same period of time and sits at 478 today.


The average sale price of a Saskatoon home took a pretty solid slide for the fourth week in a row falling more than 10K to $344,349.  This was largely due to more activity on entry level homes which also ushered the weekly median lower by roughly nine thousand dollars to $332,675. Both of our longer term measures hardly moved from the previous week. The six-week average price inched up just a few hundred dollars to $351,139 for an annual increase of less than two thousand dollars. The four-week median moved higher by just one hundred dollars for the week to close lower than it was at this time last year by nearly four thousand dollars.


Overbid sales fell from ten last week to just four. Those deals closed at an average of $12,950 more than the asking price, mostly due to one crazy overbid of more than 50K, numbers we haven’t seen in a long time. Eight more buyers closed a deal at the full asking price while 86 of this week’s closed deals went below asking price with an average discount of $7,928.


Other notable activity through the Saskatoon multiple listing service® included 49 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 9 expired listings and 53 price changes.

Highlights from the news this week

Canada’s housing bubble fears due to ‘wildly inaccurate estimates’: economist - Yahoo Finance

The renter’s guide to successful investing - Globe and Mail

Slowdown, but no housing collapse: CMHC - CTV News

CMHC probes how bank of mom and dad may be skewing the real estate market - The Star

Carney shrugs off worries about Canada’s housing market - Globe and Mail


A map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate areas is here. An overview of data collection and calculation practices for our statistical reports is here.


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 Vidorra

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The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), released national sales statistics for the month of April, 2014today. According to the CREA, "The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations rose 2.7 per cent from March to April 2014. This continues to build on gains recorded in each of the two previous months, marking the third and largest month-over-month increase since last August."


The increase places activity about halfway between the most recent peak reached in August 2013 and the slowdown in the second half of 2012 that followed changes to mortgage rules and guidelines." Highlights of CREA's report    

  • National home sales rose 2.7% from March to April.
  • Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 0.3% below April 2013 levels.
  • The number of newly listed homes climbed 2.9% from March to April.
  • The Canadian housing market remains in balanced territory.
  • The national average sale price rose 7.6% on a year-over-year basis in April.
  • The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 5.0% year-over-year in April.

Read the entire report on Canadian MLS® sales for April, 2014.


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

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 11-17, 2014
Saskatoon real estate agents saw sales numbers soar this week as they reached their highest point since late June of last year with a total of 116 house and condo deals firming up over the week. That represents a weekly increase of 14 sales and beats production for the same week last yearby 21 units. Game on!


That said, another game is playing itself out, and man, we saw some serious level of new listings hit the market this week. Local agents added 241 house and condo listings to the Saskatoon multiple listing service® database this week. That’s up 48 units from last weekand it’s the highest number of new listings to be added to the MLS® for any week since May of 2008 when 248 Saskatoon homes hit the market. That was the year when total active listings reached their highest point peaking at around 1800 properties in late September.


So, sales are definitely rocking. We are well on our way to topping last year’s numbers quite handily, and in case you’ve forgotten, last year saw the second highest number of Saskatoon homes sold, ever, next to our big boom year, 2007. At the same time, listing inventory is substantial, keeping the Saskatoon real estate market in check and preventing prices from rising. It will be interesting to see if sales activity is strong enough to keep prices from slipping as we move out of our spring market.


Let’s talk about active listings then. This week’s activity brought the total number of active MLS® listings available in the residential category to 1506, up 66 from the close of the previous week to its highest level since the week of May 17, 2009. They are, quite literally, off the chart, or at least they would have been had I not adjusted the scale in my spreadsheet to accommodate the gains. Presently, we see 904 single-family homes listings bearing an active status, up from 729 at this time last year, for an annual increase of 24 percent. Condo inventory sits at 482, up from 377 a year earlier, for a 28 percent year-over-year increase.


Saskatoon real estate market activity was fairly well spread out across the spectrum of prices. The median price of a local home slipped just a bit lower to $341,925 and the weekly average followed along shedding just a few thousand dollars to hit $355,709. Meanwhile, our longer term measures also moved lower. The six-week average price paid for a Saskatoon home slid about four thousand dollars from last week to $350,670 actually falling below where it was a year ago by about 3K. The four-week median price edged down just one thousand dollars from last week to $339,900 and closed the week flat on a year-over-year basis.


Overbid sales saw their biggest week in a good long time as ten buyers offered to pay more than asking price. The average overbid reached $13,730 largely driven by one sale that went more than thirty thousand dollars over asking. Another nine buyers wrote a full price offer while 97 of this week’s closed deals wrapped up with a discounted sale price, reduced by $10,109 on average.


Other notable activity through the Saskatoon multiple listing service® included 57 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 17 expired listings and 56 price changes. Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


Highlights from the news this week

Downtown Saskatoon vacancy rates rise - Star Phoenix
Home prices show ‘early signs of accelerating’ - Globe and Mail
Canadian homes sales grow 2.7 percent in April as prices decelerate: CREA- TeamFisher.com


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

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: May 4-10, 2014
Saskatoon real estate sales continued its near two month streak of year-over year gains, interrupted just once over the past eight weeks, as local agents reported 102 firm house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service®. That number, while down eight units from the previous week’s numbers, comes in ahead of units reported sold for the same week last year by nine.


The number of new listings added to the MLS® took a bit of a dip compared to the previous week as Saskatoon real estate agents brought 193 houses and condos to the market. That’s down 25 homes compared against last week’s numbers but still up over the same period a year ago by eight properties.


The total number of MLS® listings in the residential category continued to move higher this week. By today, Saskatoon home buyers have 1440 properties to choose from, ahead of the close of last week by 18 listings and up on numbers recorded during this same week last year by 256. That puts us ahead of the five-year average for this week by 149 homes. Taking a closer look at specific housing categories we find 871 single-family homes displaying an active status, up from 714 a year ago, and 455 condominiums, up from 381 at this time last year.


A bit more action at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market took the median sale price of a local home out of last week’s lower than typical level, back up to $348,000 even as the weekly average price dipped lower by more than 10K to $360,519. Still, the six-week average price paid for a Saskatoon home managed to grow by about twenty-five hundred dollars compared against the previous week. That left it roughly fourteen hundred dollars higher than it was at the close of the same week in 2013. Meanwhile the four-week median picked up just over five thousand dollars when compared against last week. It finished this week at $341,000 for an annual increase of six thousand dollars.


Overbid sales continued at levels that have become fairly typical for early spring but buyers were quite reserved in how much they went over. A total of six deals were reported to have sold above the asking price by an average of just $502. On the other hand, 81 sellers came head to head with a buyer who wasn’t going to close without some concessions on price. Those buyers settled for a discount that averaged $9,847. The remaining 15 transactions closed at the seller’s asking price.


Other notable activity through the Saskatoon multiple listing service® included 61 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 32 expired listings and 67 price changes, which I believe is the highest number of price changes during any week this year.


Highlights from the news this week

Was CMHC’s move on mortgage rules a step towards privatization? - Financial Post
Sales gains signal strong spring for much of Canada’s housing market - Globe and Mail
New house prices decline in Saskatoon as starts increase - GlobalNews
Housing starts jump in April - Star Phoenix
Bubble? What bubble?- Globe and Mail


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

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 27 - May 3, 2014
The weather may be refusing to heat up but the Saskatoon real estate market continued to operate above seasonal norms this week as local agents reported 110 firm sales to the multiple listing service®, down just one from last week to top sales for the same period last year by 12. During six of the past seven weeks, Saskatoon home sales have shown a strong year-over-year increase. Year-to-date, the residential category of the Saskatoon MLS® system has recorded sales eight percent over the previous year’s numbers.


If you consider Saskatoon home sales to be strong, you’ve got to agree that listing activity is off the charts. This week saw new annual highs as real estate agents added 218 houses and condominiumsto the MLS® system, an increase of 56 compared to last week to finish ahead of the same week last year by 22 homes. To be fair, this week saw a month end, which typically brings a good handful of expired listings, many of which immediately ended up back on the system as a new listing. Not really new at all, but assigned that status.


Following a week that saw an unusual drop to the total inventory of residential properties available on the multiple listing service®, inventory sharply changed directions and forged its way higher. At the close of the week there were 1422 residential properties showing an active stays on the MLS®, up 31 homes from a week earlier, higher than it was a year ago by 280 properties. At this time last year Saskatoon condo buyers had just 360 units to choose from. Today the numbers have swelled to 444, a 22 percent increase. Meanwhile the inventory of single-family homes has grown to 862 from 704 a year ago, also a 22 percent annual change.


A continued absence of many high end sales kept the median sale price of a Saskatoon home at lower than typical levels this week as it closed at just $324,000. The mix of deals that did include one sale at almost $1.4 million brought the average back to nearly $370,812 for a weekly gain of about $40,000. The six-week median price of a Saskatoon home inched higher by less than two thousand dollars to $352,284 and finished ahead of where it was a year ago by about one thousand dollars. The four-week median price slipped lower losing about five thousand dollars from the close of the previous week. It finished the week at $335,800 to show an annual increase of just $2300. Looking back to previous years, it’s quite typical to see a pretty good run up in prices over March, April and May. That doesn’t appear to be happening this year. Even while demand remains at elevated levels, the number of willing sellers seems to be taking that pressure off of prices.


The number of buyers that found themselves competing for a home and displayed a willingness to pay more than the asking price slipped lower by two to just five this week. The average overbid, however, increased handily to $8,640 thanks to one massive overbid of $31,000 that skewed the average higher. On the flip side of the negotiating table, 93 of this week’s closed deals were reported to have sold below the seller’s asking price by an average of $10,166. The remaining 12 sales closed at the full asking price.


Other notable activity through the Saskatoon multiple listing service® included 48 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 42 expired listings and a whopping 60 price changes.


Highlights from the news this week

Saskatoon’s upper end home sales numbers soften in April: SRAR - TeamFisher.com
The ‘responsible’ Canadian: Why Stephen Poloz sees no housing crash - Globe and Mail
What Google searches reveal about Canada’s housing market - Globe and Mail
Why Regina has seen the steepest home price declines this year- Globe and Mail


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

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The Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors® (SRAR) released the MLS® residential real estate statistics for April of 2014recently accompanied by the following release.


Please note that many of the association’s comments (in italics) touch on “year-to-date” numbers, and some may be based on all sales within the association’s full 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.


Sales activity in the Saskatoon market continued to be strong, up eight percent year-over-year. Although sales activity has been strong in all price ranges this year, sales over $400,000 were five percent lower in April 2014 compared to April of last year. During this same period, the number of homes selling below $400,000 increased by 18 percent.


"A surplus in the inventory of homes priced in excess of $400,000 has created a buyer’s market, especially in new homes,” according to Jason Yochim, Executive Officer with the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®.  "The higher the price, the longer homes have been sitting on the market. This gets expensive especially for builders who are carrying these homes,” says Yochim. Of the active listings available priced over $500,000 it would take a year at the current rate of absorption to clear out the inventory, this time frame nearly doubles for homes above $600,000. This is quite a contrast to homes priced between $250,000 and $450,000 where there is only 2.6 months of inventory.


"A key element in pricing of new homes is the cost of land which many stakeholders fear is bringing "sticker shock" to purchasers in this price range,” adds Yochim. "To move inventory, developers are forced to reduce prices and cut margins." Comparatively, the cost of labor and materials has not experienced significant increases in the past couple of years.


In April, the median price in Saskatoon took its first drop this year from $348,000 to $341,000. There were 884 homes listed by Saskatoon REALTORS® in April which represents 31 percent of the total number of homes listed so far this year. The current inventory of active homes in Saskatoon is 1,443 which is an increase of 22 percent year-over-year. Based on the current rate of sales this represents 3.2 months of inventory which is just slightly below the five year average of 3.35 months.


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

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