The number of homes that traded fell short on an annual basis for the third consecutive week as Saskatoon real estate agents reported 88 firm transactions to the multiple listing service®. That number is up by two compared with the previous week, but down by 14 compared with the same week a year ago. On the heels of a first-quarter which saw sales increase marginally over the same period the previous year, April looks to have been a bust. With the final business day of the month behind us, the MLS® is showing just 316 firm sales, down from 381 last year.

Meanwhile, new MLS® listings continue to flow at typical rates for the season. Local REALTORS® added 215 residential listings to the MLS® system last week, up 15 from the week before and down five from the same week last year.

The number of active MLS® listings available for purchase in the residential category grew again, as expected. This week wrapped up with the inventory showing its largest year-over-year gains since mid-November of last year. The week closed with 2029 properties for sale within the city of Saskatoon, up 30 from a week earlier. That amounts to an annual increase of 104 homes. I should point out that numbers recorded during the same week last year would have already had month-end expired listing taken out of them. There are 55 active MLS® listings on the system today (April 30) that are scheduled to expire at midnight tonight that should close that gap some, depending on the number of listings that are extended today. The current inventory is largely made up of the two major property types. Today, we have 1069 single-family homes for sale, up from 1026 a year ago. The condominium category shows 787 active listings, up from 732 at this time last year.

While some pricey homes traded hands this week, including one Saskatchewan Crescent home that went for $1.5 million dollars, strong activity at the market’s entry-level (there were 13 sales at or below 200K this week) drove both the weekly price measures lower. The median sale price for the week slipped more than twenty-five thousand dollars to $330,000. The weekly average fell nearly twenty-four thousand dollars to $353,321. Even as the weekly numbers dropped lower, the six-week average price continued to edge upwards and reached its peak for this year at $354,233 for a year-over-year increase of about 13K. That is the highest close for this particular week in the past five years. The four-week median price grew for the fourth consecutive week and reached $340,000 for a weekly gain of just one thousand dollars, finishing up from a year ago by nine thousand.

Two resale sellers found a buyer willing to pay more than their asking price, one buyer overbidding $3,100 and the other padding their offer with an extra $5,200. There were 12 list price deals and 74 sales that went below the asking price by an average of $11,164.

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 rebounded this week after showing a sharp decline during the previous period. Local agents brought 86 firm residential sales to the MLS® system, up from 54 a week ago, but down from 101 for the same week last year. Still, 86 sales falls just shy of this year’s most productive week when 89 Saskatoon homes traded hands. The new listing activity also grew to reach 200, up from 178 a week earlier and falling slightly short of the 202 new listings brought to the multiple listing service® over the same period last year.

The inventory of Saskatoon MLS® listings continued to head upward, stopping just short of the 2000 mark at 1999. That’s higher than it was at the close of the previous week by 36 homes, and up 37 from a year ago. Today’s totals show 1073 single-family homes being available to buyers. That selection tops last year’s by about 50. Condo inventory is at 759 today, 15 fewer than were available a year earlier.

This week’s price figures are significantly skewed by upper-end activity, much like last week. The weekly median remained high at $355,000 and the weekly average took a huge jump to $385,856. While sales of high-end homes were generally strong, some extra punch to the average came from two sales, one at $2 million dollars, and the other at $930,000. This is just the third time that Saskatoon has produced a seven figure sale with a 2 at the front end. This is fairly remarkable given that it happened for the first time just last September. All three sales were at the Willow’s Golf Community. In any case, this week’s sales pushed the six-week average price for a Saskatoon home to $352,278. That’s up about eight thousand dollars from last week, and about thirty-five hundred dollars higher than it was a year ago. The four-week median price also took some gains growing more than thirteen thousand from last week to reach $339,000. That’s just a thousand dollars below where it was a year ago.

The number of “at list price” sales doubled this week to ten, and the number of homes that sold above list dropped from two to one. That single seller saw a $2,200 bonus. The remaining 75 trades went for less than the asking price netting those buyers a hefty discount of $15,688. Like this week’s prices, the average discount was skewed by large discounts on those two big sales. Together, those two homes went $415,000 below their asking price contributing some big dollars to the discount pool.

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

Significant inventory and soft demand create a buyer’s market SASKATOON,

April 18, 2017 – According to the Royal LePage House Price Survey1 released today, the aggregate price of a home in Saskatoon dipped slightly in the first quarter of 2017, decreasing 0.5 per cent year-over-year to $385,980.

When broken out by housing type, the median price of a two-storey home declined 1.5 per cent year-over-year to $412,795. During the same period, the median price of a bungalow increased modestly by 0.9 per cent year-over-year to $355,623.

“A persistent supply of inventory is giving buyers the edge across several price ranges and property types in Saskatoon,” said Norm Fisher, broker and owner, Royal LePage Vidorra.

“When coupled with a continued low interest rate environment, the surplus in listings has kept Saskatoon’s housing market relatively affordable when compared to many other larger cities in Canada. Even though low resource prices are having an impact on employment and population growth in Saskatoon, home prices have been remarkably resilient in the face of tough times.”

Nationally, Canada’s residential real estate market saw substantial price growth in the first quarter of 2017, increasing 12.6 per cent year-over-year to $574,103. The price of a two-storey home rose 13.9 per cent year-over-year to $681,728, and the price of a bungalow increased 11.0 per cent to $490,018. During the same period, the price of a condominium increased 8.9 per cent to $372,638.

While the majority of housing markets in Canada posted modest gains, price appreciation across much of Ontario significantly outpaced the rest of the country. Meanwhile, the pace of year-over-year home price appreciation in Greater Vancouver was noticeably lower than the historic highs witnessed in 2016.

“For the first time in several years, real estate markets in Vancouver and Toronto are headed in opposite directions,” said Phil Soper, President and CEO, Royal LePage.

“The Vancouver market stalled, as confused consumers took to the sidelines after a series of uncoordinated moves by all three levels of government. With its housing shortage becoming more acute, Toronto easily stepped forward to assume the title of Canada’s most overheated real estate market.”

Significant home price appreciation, caused by market dynamics similar to those that have driven housing activity in the Greater Toronto Area, is being seen across the entire “Golden Horseshoe” region of south-central Ontario, and as far away as Windsor and London in southwestern Ontario. In fact, the torrid pace of home price appreciation in much of Ontario contributed almost half of the national aggregate home price increase in the first quarter, with the rest of Canada appreciating by a healthy, but much lower, 6.4 per cent year-over-year when excluding all Ontario-based regions.

“The overall Canadian market is healthier in 2017 than it has been in years, yet the downside risks are greater too,” concluded Soper.

“Our economy, which has recovered nicely from the 2014 oil crisis, is sadly dependent on moves by an unpredictable U.S. federal government and can be swayed by unforeseen global events, such as fallout from Europe’s restructuring. Still, housing activity is strong and prices are rising at a healthy mid-single-digit rate across the land.

The trend in Alberta, Quebec and Atlantic Canada is particularly encouraging. Our concerns with the state of Canadian real estate begin and end in Toronto and Vancouver.” 

Read also: Global News - Saskatoon housing prices flat in Q1 2017: Royal LePage

A shortened work week brought softer home sales and a sharply lower number of new listings for the Saskatoon real estate market.

Local agents reported just 54 firm Saskatoon home sales to the multiple listing service® this week, down from 88 transactions the previous week, and also well below numbers generated during the same week last year when 82 sales were reported. New listings slipped lower to 178, which is well down from the 253 homes listed the week before, and 42 fewer than were listed during the same week in 2016.

The number of Saskatoon real estate listings showing an “active” status in the residential category continued to grow, this week reaching 1963 properties by the close of business Thursday. That number is up 32 from a week earlier and tops inventory numbers recorded at the end of the same week a year earlier by 18 homes. As the week wound down, buyers had a selection of 1054 single-family homes, which is 34 more than were available a year ago. The number of available condominiums slipped lower to 747, down from 769 last year.

While there were no seven-figure sales recorded this past week (in fact, nothing that even reached $700,000), upper-end home buyers certainly showed up, especially in area one, driving both the weekly median price and the weekly average higher to $356,750 and $367,674 respectively. The six-week average price dropped $2500 compared to the previous week and settled at $343,806 for an annual decline of about fifty-five hundred dollars. The four-week median price moved higher by nearly 6K on a weekly basis and reached $322,750. That’s down almost fifteen thousand dollars from a year ago.

This week saw five “at list price” sales and just two that recorded a final sale price that was greater than the asking price. Those two deals netted the seller an average bonus of $11,050. The remaining 47 trades were all reported to have sold at a price below the asking price with an average discount of $12,159.

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

This was one of those weeks during which all things were looking up for the Saskatoon real estate market. Sales grew. New listings exploded. Active listings inventory grew. Both long term price measures headed higher. Maybe it was the previaling temperatures, which were also nicely up.

Saskatoon real estate agents reported 88 firm residential sales to the multiple listing service® this week to once again set a new weekly sales record for the year, which in and of itself is nothing spectacular at this time of year when sales numbers should be consistently growing. This week’s numbers beat the previous week by seven sales and were up when compared against the same week last year by nine.

The number of new listings for the week grew to a whopping 253 which is the highest number of new listings for any seven day period since the week of September 3, 2015. It’s a hefty number, 53 higher than last week and up nearly two dozen compared to the same week a year earlier, one which had also produced an impressive listing spike.

The number of residential listings for sale on the Saskatoon MLS® also spiked higher as 77 Saskatoon homes where added to its numbers by the close of business Friday. It now sits at 1931 listings, up from 1854 a week earlier, and ahead of the 1884 properties available at this time last year. The greatest gains were seen in the condo category when oodles of listings that expired the previous week came rushing back on the market. Condo inventory grew by more than five percent this week from 705 to 745 to finish the week ahead of last year’s levels by 20 homes. Single-family homes also moved up from 999 a week ago to 1023 today. That’s also up from 987 a year earlier.

The median sale price for the week stayed stable at $310,000. The only number that edged lower this week was the average sale price that slipped just a few hundred dollars to $341,263. Meanwhile, the six-week average price grew by about four thousand dollars on a weekly basis to reach $345,593 which is actually up from a year earlier by around a thousand dollars. The four-week median price inched up a few thousand dollars from a week earlier to close the week at $317,000 taking an annual loss of seventeen thousand dollars.

Twelve Saskatoon home sellers saw offers that met their asking price this week, and two that went above, both by just $100.  The remaining 75 sales were reported to have sold below the listed price netting those buyers an average discount of $10,475.

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 reached a new annual high this week as local agents reported a total of 81 firm residential deals to the multiple listing service®, up nine from the previous week, but down by 13 sales when compared against numbers generated during the same period last year. Meanwhile, month-end listing activity was quite strong as 200 new residential listings hit the MLS® system for a weekly gain of 37. These numbers were down from the same week last year when 214 new listings were added to the system.

The number of active residential listings available to Saskatoon home buyers took a slight dip as month-end expired listings prevented the numbers from growing. This morning, there are a total of 1854 active listings, which is ten fewer than there were a week ago. Still, that number is enough to show year-over-year inventory gains for the first time since early February. At the close of the same week last year, total inventory sat at 1833. The largest growth is actually in the single-family homes category where we have 999 properties for sale, up from 955 a year ago. Condo inventory shows a rare year-over-year decline with 705 active listings today, versus 710 a year earlier.

This week’s average sale price was driven higher by a 1.15 million dollar sale. It came in at $341,627. The weekly median remained on the low side at just $314,250 as entry-level buyers were quite active. The six-week median price made some modest gains growing by about three thousand dollars from last week to reach $341,627 and finishing the week with an annual increase of about six hundred dollars. The four-week median price fell just two hundred dollars from a week earlier to $314,250 to show an annual loss of nearly 18K.

Sellers had a decent week as five sales were reported at the asking price and another four hit the books recording a sale price that was greater than the seller’s list price by an average of $5,519. Meanwhile, the remaining 72 sales went below list with an average discount of $11,990.

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