For the fourth consecutive week, the Saskatoon real estate market has recorded firm sales that met or beat the numbers for the same week in 2015. Over the past seven days, local REALTORS® firmed up 93 residential deals. That’s an increase of nine from last week, and up four from the same period last year. To be clear, these are not huge gains but during a year that has shown declines in sales in all of the first seven months of the year, it might be a bit encouraging for some sellers to see August close up on last year. So far this month, local agents have reported 318 deals. Last year, the total for all of August was 329. It’s a win and we’ll take it.

At the same time, the number of new listings that were added to the MLS® system plummeted to just 160, down from 212 for the same period last year.

For the second consecutive week, the total number of active residential listings on the multiple service® came in below levels recorded a year ago. Again, the difference isn’t large, but given that we have seen consistent annual gains for roughly 165 weeks, it’s a welcome change. Today there are 2048 residential listings showing an active status on the MLS®. That’s down just four from last week, and 11 fewer than were available a year ago. With just over 100 listings set to expire in the next few days, next week will most likely show some larger drops.

Taking a closer look by housing category, there are 1107 single-family homes available to local buyers, well below the 1210 houses that were up for sale last year at this time. Condo inventory made some small gains this week as the inventory grew to 770 and closed well up from 688 a year ago.

There were strong sales towards the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market this week. With 14 sales recording prices at or above $500,000 the average price paid for a Saskatoon home grew to $362,599. There was a lot going on in the $200,000 to $300,000 range as well, enough to bring the weekly median price down sharply to $298,350. That’s just the second time this year that the median fell below $300K. At the same time, the longer-term measures both inched lower, perhaps telegraphing a similar trend to last year when prices began to slip lower in late August. In 2015, that continued through September and October which ultimately recorded some of the lower prices for the year. The six-week average price slipped to $358,391 to record an annual increase of just over one thousand dollars while the four-week median price slipped to $338,000 to show an annual loss of just more than ten thousand dollars.

After a couple of weeks with no overbid sales, three sellers found themselves accepting offers above their asking price. Those deals paid an average bonus of $1100. Meanwhile, 83 buyers made off with a discount averaging $10,629 while six buyers and sellers agreed to deal at the listed price.

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 real estate sales took a small upward swing this past week as local REALTORS® reported a total of 83 firm residential deals to the MLS® system, up three from last week, and even with sales for the same week last year. The number of new listings processed through the multiple listing service® fell to 168, down from 198 a week ago. There were 199 Saskatoon homes listed during the same week last year.

For the first time in well over three years the week closed with fewer active real estate listings on the MLS® than there were a year ago. The total number of residential listings fell by 15 over the course of the week to settle at 2052 this morning, down from 2060 at the close of the same week last year. Interestingly, the losses were all recorded in the condo inventory numbers which fell from 775 last week to 765 today, up from 674 a year ago. The number of single-family homes that are available on the MLS® grew by two this week to 1118, which is down from 1195 at the close of the same week in 2015.

With a little more than 25 percent of this week’s deals being condominiums, and only four sales with a price exceeding $500,000 both the weekly median price and the weekly average fell lower to $329,000 and $337,831 respectively. The six-week average price came off of its peak as is slipped a bit more than four thousand dollars from last week to $362,140 ahead of where it was a year ago by a few hundred dollars. Meanwhile, the four-week median price increased by one thousand dollars from last week to reach $339,000. At the close of the same week last year the four-week median was one thousand dollars higher than it was this week.

In spite of strong sales and softening listing inventory sellers found little love at the negotiating table this week. Not a single above list price sale was recorded. Seven buyers did agree to pay the seller’s full asking price while 76 insisted on a discount that averaged $12,180 off of the asking price.

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 falling completely flat last week, Saskatoon real estate sales surged upwards as 80 new firm sales were reported to the multiple listing service®, an increase of 17 from the previous week and up by 16 when compared against sales recorded during the same week last year. Listing activity saw some slight gains as they grew to 196, ahead of last week by two, to finish showing fewer new listings than were processed during the same period of 2015 by five.

The inventory of residential MLS® listings took a turn upward as well. By this morning, buyers could find 2067 Saskatoon homes for sale, up from 2044 a week ago, just 19 more homes than were available a year ago today. That is the smallest year-over-year increase to the inventory that we’ve seen all year. Today, there are 1116 single-family homes for buyers to select from, well down from the 1181 detached homes that were available a year ago. Condominium inventory continued to grow and reached 777 by the close of the week for an annual increase of 116 units.

More high end activity caused the median sale price for the week to grow by almost 20K as it reached $343,000 while the average sale price fell a fair bit lower to $348,418. Remarkably, the six-week average price continued to grow reaching a new high for the year at $366,472 for an annual increase on more than six thousand dollars. That’s actually the highest point that it has been at since late 2014 when sales were still red hot. On the other hand, the four-week median price fell by seven thousand dollars from last week. It settled at $338,000 to find itself down from a year ago by seventy-five hundred dollars.

Only one buyer made an offer of more than list price with that seller netting a $3,100 bonus while another five deals closed at the seller’s asking price. The remaining 75 sales went for less than asking price winning those buyers an average discount of $11,353.

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

Just as they did during the same week of last year, Saskatoon real estate sales took a huge dip, perhaps due in part to a shortened work week. Local REALTORS® reported just 63 firm residential sales to the multiple listing service® for a weekly decline of 25 units, but still high enough to beat sales over the same period last year by one unit. With a high number of expired listings in the mix over the past two weeks, new listings spiked higher to 194, up from 170 last week from an annual increase of 15 homes.

The number of active MLS® listings available to buyers continued to trail lower, however slightly. Residential inventory sat at 2044 this morning, down from 2055 at the close of the previous week for a year-over-year increase of just 40 units. Today there are 1097 single-family homes for sale on the MLS® in Saskatoon, down from 1166 at this time last year. Condo inventory is higher, of course, growing from 646 at the close of the same week of 2015 to 768 today.

The luxury housing market continues to do quite well in Saskatoon with a remarkable number of sales in occurring above $800,000. This week there were three and those three listings contributed an average of over one million dollars each to the sales volume, skewing prices higher. The average sale price for the week reached its highest point this year at $382,792 even while the weekly median price fell to $325,000. Meanwhile, both the six-week average price and the four-week median sat at their annual peaks. The six-week average price grew by five thousand dollars from a week ago reaching $362,719 to finish ahead of where it sat a year ago, also by about 5K. The four-week median stayed steady at $345,000 to see a year-over-year decline of twelve hundred and fifty dollars.

Only one buyer made an offer of more than list price with that seller netting a $7,100 bonus while another five deals closed at the seller’s asking price. The remaining 57 sales went for less than asking price winning those buyers an average discount of $14,662. That number was skewed higher by a $120,000 on the highest priced sale of the week.

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