Saskatoon real estate sales numbers fell lower for the second week in a row as local agents reported just 64 firm residential deals to the MLS®, down from 72 the previous week. Sales softened even more on an annual basis. During the same week last year 92 transactions were completed.

New listings for the period also declined. Just 160 Saskatoon homes were offered for sale on the multiple listing service®, down from 181 last week and matching numbers posted at the close of the same week last year.

Total active MLS® listings slipped lower to 2235, down slightly from the 2253 Saskatoon homes that were available a week earlier. On an annual basis, we are up by 187 homes from a year ago. Today we have 1276 single-family homes for sale, up from 1107 last year. Condo inventory is at 848, considerably higher than the 770 listings that were on the system last year.

Fewer upper-end home sales combined with strong activity at lower price points brought the weekly median price considerably lower this week to $331,700. The average sale price also tumbled lower to $343,108. The six-week average price slipped a few hundred dollars from the week before to $338,047. That’s down just over 20K from a year ago. The four-week median price edged up to $335,000 for an annual loss of just three thousand dollars.

One seller managed to wrap up a deal at $100 above their asking price, while six others found a buyer willing to pay the asking price. The remaining 57 sales were reported to have sold at a discounted price, $11,421 below list on average.

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 activity cooled some this week as local agents reported 72 firm sales to the local MLS®, down from 87 last week, about 11 fewer sales than were recorded for the same week last year. Meanwhile, the number of new residential listings that were added to the system matched the previous weeks total at 181, which is up from 168 when comparing the year-over-year stats.

The inventory of active MLS® listings reached a new high for the year this week at 2253, up from 2251 at the end of June as inventory grew by 22 units this week. We’re now up about ten percent when comparing to levels seen last year. There were 2052 listings showing an active status at that time. Once again, a new record for our area and a hefty number of homes for this time of year when active listings should be moderating. Today, a search of the MLS® system delivers 1282 single-family homes, up from 1118 a year ago. Additionally, there are 865 active condo listings, up 100 units from a year earlier.

A more typical mix of upper and lower end sales brought both the weekly median price and the weekly average higher to $361,250 and $359,597 respectively. The six-week average saw modest weekly gains of about sixteen hundred dollars and reached $338,652 for a big annual loss topping twenty three thousand dollars. The four-week median price came back after it fell off a cliff last week and closed the week at $331,000. That’s down just eight thousand dollars from a year ago.

The overbid activity was soft, as expected, with just two sellers bagging an above list price offer. They did well though, capturing an average overbid of $4100. Another 64 sales hit the system showing an average discount of $12,549. The remaining six sales were reported to have sold for 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

It’s been just a few weeks since the “upgrade” to the local MLS® system and I am still not confident that the database is sound. I’m reasonably confident in the sales and listings numbers (even though various approaches to a search deliver different results), but I feel that some of the pricing data may by iffy and should be taken with a grain of salt. Hopefully, this all gets sorted out soon.

Saskatoon real estate sales numbers increased this week as local agents reported 87 firm residential sales, up from 73 last week to top sales for the same week last year by seven. Meanwhile, the number of new listings added to the multiple listing service® fell to 181 for a weekly decline of 36 homes. That’s 15 fewer than were offered up for sale over the same period of 2016.

The total number of active residential listings available to Saskatoon home buyers took a very modest dip falling just eight from a week earlier to 2231. That amounts to a year-over-year increase of 164 units, for an approximate gain of eight percent. Today there are 1277 detached homes for sale, up from 1116 a year ago. Condo inventory nows sits at 843, down from 867 a week earlier, thanks to a solid sales week, but well up from the 777 condos that were available on the MLS® last year at this time.

With more than 30 of this week’s sales falling into the condominium category, which are typically lower in price than the average, all four of the price measures that we track fell lower. The weekly average price slipped from $358,779 last week to just $306,510, The weekly median price also tumbled to just $278,000 from $338,000 the week before. The six-week average price fell about eleven thousand dollars from last week to $336,900. That’s down by nearly $30,000 from the same week last year. The four-week median price went to $316,250 for a weekly dip of 19K. That number is lower than it was last year by about 22 thousand dollars (It’s the six-week average and the four-week median prices that are not ringing true to me as I’m nearly positive that the new system is not collected all of the sold listings for calculation).

There were two lucky sellers that received an above list price offer, one at $100 over and one at $2300 over. Seven sales were reported at the full asking price. The remaining 78 homes sold for less than the listed price netting an average discount of $10,967 for those buyers.

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

A media release from the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®; with an overview of residential MLS® sales and listing activity for the month of July 2017 follows.

The warm weather in July appears to have taken some purchasers out of the Saskatoon market with a monthly decline in unit home sales of 16 percent compared to July of 2016. Year-to-date, unit sales are down nearly four percent for Saskatoon compared to the first seven months of last year. Sales in the region surrounding Saskatoon increased just over 17 percent for the month compared to last July, while the year-to-date numbers declined slightly by 2.6 percent. So far this year, there has been a total of 2,155 unit sales within Saskatoon and another 596 in the region surrounding the city. The total dollar volume recorded for Saskatoon and region this year is $989 million off five percent from last year.

The number of active listings in Saskatoon has reached a new peak at 2,210 with an additional 1,125 properties available in the market outside Saskatoon. At the current rate of monthly sales, it would take just over seven months to liquidate the current inventory completely. The average home is taking approximately 50 days to sell which is consistent with the past two Julys. The homes that are selling are seeing a sale price that is at 96.7 percent of the asking price. “These stats would indicate to me that those who are serious about selling are pricing to market and getting very close to their asking price and in much less time than the current 50-day average,” according to Jason Yochim CEO with the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®.

The number of listings taken this year in the Saskatoon and region market is consistent with last year at 8,693. In Saskatoon, there have been 5,795 properties listed since January 1, very similar to numbers for the past two years.

Prices continue to show signs of slight decline as well. The average sale price in July of 2017 was 6.4 percent lower than it was in July of 2016. Year-to-date, the average price has slipped from $351,855 to $348,960. The median price for the year has also decreased slightly from $335,000 to $329,500. The Composite Home Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for July declined by 2.2 percent compared to last July. The HPI is considered to be the best indicator of the trend in home prices and measures the rate of change month-over-month. “Based on the theory of supply and demand it is reasonable to expect that prices are not likely to strengthen until the number of active listings declines,” comments Yochim. “It is important to remember that these changes in pricing are an aggregate of the entire market and will vary based on area, type of home and availability of similar properties to the subject. Access to this information is critical to accurate pricing and can be obtained through consultation with one of our members.”

Jason Yochim CAE, CRAE , Chief Executive Officer 

Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® 

I’m back in the saddle after an amazing trip to Iceland which involved a trek of 115 kms through mountains, rivers, snow, ice, sand, stone, volcanic rock and dust, and forest. It was amazing! Our group raised over $650,000 for Canadian women’s shelters, so we’re pretty proud of what we accomplished in that beautiful country.

My thanks to Pamela Fisher for looking after the week in review for the two weekends I was away. This is a task that I prefer to do, even when I’m away, but there wasn’t much for internet connections and even if there were, a guy would come off as pretty strange lugging a computer around through the mountains. Again, thanks Pam!

Both Saskatoon real estate sales and new listings exploded this week, at least in comparison to levels recorded over the last two weeks (the numbers for both weeks are a bit suspect and may have been impacted by the implementation of an MLS® upgrade during that time). Local REALTORS® reported 73 firm residential transactions to the MLS®, up from 41 for the previous week. Meanwhile, new listings numbers increased from just 145 last week to 217 for this reporting period.

The inventory of active residential real estate listings on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® moved higher by 28 units this week to reach 2239, the highest levels we’ve seen since numbers peaked at 2251 in mid-June. I recall predicting that week would be our highest level for the year and for a few weeks that appeared to be the case. At this point, we could easily see a new peak over the next couple of weeks. In any case, the number of residential properties available to buyers is now up 195 from where it stood a year ago, a sizeable increase at a time when listings are typically on a slow steady decline. There are now 1262 single-family homes for sale in Saskatoon, up from 1097 a year ago. Available condos have increased from 768 to 867 over the same period of time.

All four price measures that we track made some gains this week with the weekly average and median price inching higher to $358,779 and $338,000 respectively. The six-week average grew just more than a thousand dollars from last week to reach $347,344. That’s down a bit more than 15K from levels recorded at the close of this week last year. The four-week median price took a bigger jump to $334,900 which is up 10K from last week, and down 10K on an annual basis.

No overbid offers were recorded this week, though eight sellers did capture an offer at their asking price. On the other hand, 65 of this week’s 73 sales were reported to have sold below the seller’s asking price netting the buyers an average discount of $14,349.

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