It was another decent week of sales for the Saskatoon real estate market, given the season. Local REALTORS® reported 66 firm deals to the multiple listing service®, up just one from the previous week, and topping sales for the same period last year by a dozen trades. Meanwhile, 116 new listings were added to the MLS®, up nine from the week before, and seven fewer than were placed on the system during the same week last year.
The inventory of Saskatoon homes for sale on the MLS® declined again, though just marginally. It fell lower by 12 listings when compared to last week’s close to settle at 1856. That number is out of record territory for this particular week for the fourth consecutive week, though just barely. At the close of the same week in 2015 the number was 1858. That said, the year-over-year increase in listings is at just 50 homes, the smallest annual increase since spring. However, where it ends up as this year closes is not nearly as important as where it goes when the new selling season gets underway. Clearly we have a ways to go before this market gets back to balance, particularly for condos. Today, we have 678 options for condominium buyers, up six from a year ago. Again, as I reported to you last week the number of new condos that are currently under construction is half of what it was a year ago, so that’s a marked improvement. Single-family inventory shows greater annual gains as it grew from 980 at the close of the same period last year to 1060 today.
This was one of those rare weeks that saw upward movement to all four price measures that we track. With the four highest priced home sales averaging more than $860,000 a piece the average sale price of a Saskatoon home moved up to $344,320 this week. We also saw our 14th sale this year of one million dollars or more. The four-week median price grew by five thousand dollars to reach $330,000 which is still lower than it was at the close of the same period last year by a little more than 10K. The six-week average price grew by just $600 from the week before to reach $336,135 to take an annual loss of eight thousand dollars.
One lucky seller in area four apparently had more than one buyer who wanted that house and it sold for $5,100 more than the asking price. On the other had, 62 of this week’s sales were reported to have sold below the seller’s asking price netting buyers an average discount of $12,991.
Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ration looked like on this week’s sales.
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
