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Saskatoon real estate week in review: March 22-28, 2015
The Saskatoon real estate market saw a welcome uptick in activity this week as firm residential sales increased by 15 when compared against the previous week. Total sales for the week came in at 87 for an annual decline of 13 home sales. As we close in on the end of the month, there are a total of 305 sales reported for the month of March, somewhat short of the 343 home sales reported by this time in March of 2014. It’s looking like March will likely wrap up about ten percent down from the same month a year ago. We can consider this an improvement from January and February. Sales for those two months were 20 percent off of last year’s numbers.


The number of new listings added to the multiple listing service® continued to show annual gains. This week, Saskatoon real estate agents brought 179 new listings to the system, down 25 from last weeks numbers, up by 14 from the same week last year.


The pace of inventory growth that we’ve seen in recent weeks took a slightly cooler climb as it grew from 1708 at the close of the previous week to 1725 by the close of business Friday leaving us up by nearly 400 residential listings from a year ago, just falling short of the record levels seen in late 2008. The inventory of available singe-family homes sits at 938 today, up from 802 a year ago. Today there are 591 Saskatoon condos showing an active status, up from 422 a year ago.


A stronger showing of upper end buyers pushed the median price of a Saskatoon home by about ten thousand dollars this week to $349,000. The average price moved in the same direction reaching $351,015. Those gains weren’t large enough to reverse the softening we’ve seen in the six-week average price recently. It slipped by about fifteen hundred dollars over the week to $349,159 to leave it down by a bit more than 10K in four weeks, and down more than six thousand dollars from where it stood a year ago. Meanwhile, the four-week median price edged up just a bit from last week to close out at $332,500 for an annual decline of about sixteen thousand dollars.


Sales above the asking price increased to 11 this week. The average overbid of $17,091 was skewed by some new home sales that clearly included improvements not anticipated in the list price. A further 10 buyers paid full asking price, while 66 others ground themselves a deal averaging a discount of $10,770.


Other notable real estate activity this past week included 61 cancelled and withdrawn listings (56 and five respectively), 18 expired listings and 73 price changes.


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: March 15-21, 2015
Saskatoon real estate sales grew by two this week as 72 firm residential deals were reported to the multiple listing service®. While small gains were made over the previous week, sales fell on a year-over-year basis. Looking back to the same week a year ago, sales had spiked higher to 89.


New listingswere off the charts again as weekly listings reached a new peak for the year at 204 homes, up just nine from the previous week and ahead of listings added during the same week last year by 49 homes. Yes. 49.


It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to make an educated guess as to what happened to our active listings database this week. That’s right. It grew again, which should be expected at this time of year. In fact, it should be expected pretty much every week between now, and say, June. Active MLS® listings broke the 1,700 mark this week for the first time since 2008 settling at 1708 by the close of business Friday. A closer look at the major categories of Saskatoon housing shows 922 single-family homes being offered for sale and 581 condominiums. Compare that to 722 houses and 421 condos at this time last year.


2008 saw listings climb to the highest point I had seen in my career, which began in 1993. They ultimately peaked in September at 1,738 homes. That previous high will happen for us this year next week, pretty much for certain, and like I said earlier it will grow for another three months.


A slightly higher level of interest in homes priced above $400,000 brought both the average sale price and the median sale price of a Saskatoon home higher this week to $348,967 and $338,450 respectively. The six-week median price continued to trail lower, a trend that began about five weeks ago. That measure lost about fifteen hundred dollars over the week to close at $350,675 or about seven thousand dollars lower than it was a year ago. The four-week median price finished up for the week making gains that were similar to the losses seen on the average. It finished the week at $331,750 to find itself down on an annual basis by sixteen thousand dollars.


The vast majority of this week’s sales required some negotiations to close a deal as 59 sellers gave up an average of $10,134 to close. Five buyers paid more than the asking price by an average of $14,640. The other eight sold at full list price.


Other notable real estate activity this past week included 50 cancelled and withdrawn listings (46 and four respectively), 27 expired listings and 69 price changes.


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: March 8-14, 2015
Saskatoon real estate sales remained steady this week with local agents reporting a total of 70 residential sales for a weekly gain of two, topping sales for the same week last year by four, and making this the first week this year during which sales actually grew on an annual basis.


The number of new residential listings that entered the MLS® system grew again, largely driven by the re-listing of a large number of expired listings that came off of the system last week, and a bunch of canceled listings that left and then returned with a new price. Across the week, 195 properties were were added to the multiple listing service®, up eight from the previous week, handily topping totals from the same week last yearwhen 167 new listings were added.


The database of active residential real estate listings saw its largest increase in eight weeks time as it spiked higher from 1575 last week to 1652 today. That total puts the current inventory ahead of levels recorded at this time last year by 370 homes, leaving it at its highest point since August of 2008. Single-family homes inventory rose to 887, up from 734 a year ago. Condos are now sitting at 571, ahead of last year’s numbers by 153 units.


Sales above the five hundred thousand dollar mark were weak once again. The weekly median price slipped $1,000 from last week to $330,000 as a result. The average price fell lower for the second week in row to $327,379. The six-week average price continued to trend lower as it slid about twelve hundred bucks from last week to $352,168 and finished the week just a few hundred dollars softer than it was a year ago. The four-week median price stayed stable on a weekly basis to close at $330,000 for an annual loss of a bit more than $8,000.


Even with sales activity that was pretty tepid, five buyers offered to pay above list price for their new home with an average overbid of $3,280. Meanwhile, the 59 deals that closed below the seller’s asking price recorded an average discount of $10,841. Another six buyers paid full price to close their purchase.


Other notable real estate activity this past week included 47 cancelled and withdrawn listings (42 and five respectively), 11 expired listings and 62 price changes.


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: March 1-7, 2015
Saskatoon real estate agents saw an upward turn to homes sales this week as totals grew by 12 compared to the previous week. By the close of business Friday a total of 68 residential deals had been processed through the multiple listing service® coming very close to meeting sales for the same week last year when 70 deals were reported.


New listings also moved higher, but by substantially more than sales as they soared to 187. That was a gain of 31 from last week, and just seven more homes than were listed during the same period a year ago.


The number of active listings on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® forged higher and grew by 23 to 1575 for a lofty annual increase of 365 homes.  Single family homes listings stood at 854 by week’s end for a year-over-year increase of 139 homes. Condo inventory moved to 541 up from 404 a year ago.


With fewer upper end sales in the mix the median sale price of a Saskatoon home tumbled to just $304,000 a level I can’t recall seeing in the past year. The weekly average price moved in the same direction settling at $341,898. The six-week average price hit it’s lowest level in five weeks as it slid to $353,483 to end the week lower than it was at the close of the same week last year by around eighty bucks. Meanwhile, the four-week median price slipped $7500 from last week to end the week at $330,000 for an annual decline of eighteen thousand dollars.


Three Saskatoon real estate sales closed at the seller’s asking price this week, while another seven brought a little more with a selling price that delivered an average bonus of $11,664 to the seller. The other 58 buyers ground themselves a deal that resulted in an average discount of $9,781.


Other notable real estate activity this past week included 37 cancelled and withdrawn listings (32 and five respectively), 61 expired listings and 48 price changes.


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

Read

A media release from The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) regarding February, 2015 residential real estate sales in Saskatoon and area.


Please note that the association’s comments often touch on “year-to-date” numbers, and some of their comments may touch on sales within the association’s full trading area. The charts that you see on these posts , as always, reflect data for activity within the city if Saskatoon on a month-to-month basis over the past five years.


Year-to-date, the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) experienced a 22 percent reduction in the number of sales along with an eight percent increase in the number of properties listed for sale. This has resulted in an overall increase in inventory levels of 13 percent. The greatest increase in inventory is within the city limits where the increase is 26 percent over 2014. The number of multi-family units is on the rise representing almost 40 percent of the Saskatoon inventory. In 2014 new housing starts for multiple units exceeded single family starts by 65 percent. Many of these units are now complete and added to the resale inventory to increase supply. The sale-to-listing ratio in Saskatoon is currently 37 percent which is the lowest level since last January.


"Stories of oversupply, slower sales, cooling economy, and bursting real estate bubble do have a psychological effect on the behaviour of consumers. To be sure there are real economic impacts as a result of low crude oil prices however speculation based on negative outlooks has an even bigger impact in my opinion," comments Jason Yochim, CEO with the SRAR. "I heard it once said that 'the economists have accurately predicted five of the last two recessions'. Two points here, firstly, no economist knows for certain what the future may hold and secondly if the media is full of speculation that an economic apocalypse is inevitable, then it is to be expected that a decrease in consumer confidence will result in reduced spending and investment in real estate," adds Yochim.


In spite of higher inventory and lower sales, the average sale price year-to-date is up three percent. The number of properties selling over $500,000 was consistent with last year’s numbers with two sales in excess of one million dollars. Home sales in all price ranges were down compared to 2014 with a notable 32 percent decrease for sales in the $450,000 to $500,000 range.


Facts worth considering are that Saskatchewan has a strong and diverse economy, people are still moving into our province and the housing needs of families change as they move through the various stages of life. Homes and condominiums will continue to be bought and sold to meet the demands of these changes. It is important to realize that housing supply and demand can vary significantly depending on area, condition and pricing compared to competing properties in the market. The largest source of market specific data is in the hands of a professional REALTOR® who can not only provide the data but also interpret it and make specific recommendations for each situation. "This is critical for a seller who wishes to sell within a certain time frame or a buyer who is interested in getting fair value for their money," Yochim comments.


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

Read
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