The number of homes sold reached its highest point for any week this year as Saskatoon real estate agents reported 90 firm deals to the multiple listing service®, well up from 75 for the previous week, and topping sales for the same period last year by two units.

Meanwhile, the number of new residential listings added to the MLS® fell sharply to just 155. That’s 19 fewer Saskatoon homes than we saw listed last week, down 40 when compared to the number of new listings added to the system during the same week last year.

Strong sales and weaker new listing activity kept MLS inventory in check this week. As of this morning, there are 1801 active Saskatoon real estate listings in the residential category, up just three from last week’s close, and well down from 2029 at this time last year. That’s an 11 percent annual drop, the largest we’ve seen since listing inventory began to show year-over-year declines. Most of those losses are still counted in the single-family home category. Today there are 941 detached houses listed for sale on the Saskatoon MLS. That’s down nine from last week, a drop of 128 from a year ago. Condominium inventory is at 769 today, up 14 from last week’s close, and down eight on an annual basis.

Fewer high-end homes in the mix brought both the weekly median price and the weekly average lower this week to $311,000 and $327,572 respectively. The six-week average price edged lower to $333,526. That’s down about four thousand dollars from last week, an annual drop of nearly 21K. Last year at this time, that measure was beginning an upward spike that went on for five consecutive weeks until it reached its peak for the year. The four-week median price came in at $320,000, about where it’s been for four weeks time. It’s down twenty thousand dollars when compared against numbers recorded at the close of the same week in 2017.

Two homes were reported sold this week at a price that exceeded the list price, one at $100 over, the other paying a bonus of $2100. This week, 80 of 90 sales went below the asking price netting buyers an average discount of $12,600.

Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that those sales that do show a sale price that is greater than the list price are all new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.

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

The Saskatoon real estate market continued to move at a steady pace for the third week in a row as local agents reported 75 firm residential sales to the multiple listing service®, down just one from the previous week. That’s eleven fewer sales than were reported over the same period a year ago.

New listing activity fell lower as 175 Saskatoon homes hit the MLS®, for a weekly decline of 16 and an annual drop of 26.

MLS® inventory continued to gain ground as it almost always does at this time of year. By this morning, there were 1798 Saskatoon homes listed for sale on the service, an increase of 48 compared to last week’s close, but down from 1999 at the close of the same week last year. It’s certainly possible that things could change as the spring market heats up, but it’s beginning to look like inventory may continue at four-year lows like it has been for the past nine weeks. Most of the annual declines can be counted in the single-family home category which sits at 949 today, up just 14 from the week before, and down from 1073 (about 11 percent) a year ago. Condominium inventory is now at 755 as it grew by 35 units this week to come within four of where it stood at this point during 2017.

Some high-priced home sales pushed both the median price and the average price for the week considerably higher to $329,900 and $347,473 respectively. In spite of the weekly strength, the four-week median price barely budged as it moved just five hundred dollars higher to $320,000 which is about nineteen thousand dollars lower than it was a year earlier. The six-week average price gained some ground as it increased by more than five thousand dollars to close the week at $337,556 which is down nearly fifteen thousand dollars compared to the final numbers seems at the end of the same week last year.

Just one fortunate seller managed to get an offer above their asking price. That deal paid them a small $100 bonus. Another 68 sellers found themselves in a negotiation that wound up netting the buyers an average discount of $14,207. That number was skewed by some large discounts on the three highest priced sales for the period.

Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that those sales that do show a sale price that is greater than the list price are all new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.

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 in the residential category hit 76 this week, falling one from the previous period, to finish up on an annual basis for the first time since the final week of January. There were just 54 sales reported during the second week of April last year.

Meanwhile, new listing numbers saw a slight decline falling to 191 from 199 the week before. Just as sales numbers increased annually for the first time in a long while, this is the only week this year in which the number of new listings generated exceeded those recorded for the same period during the previous year. Over the same period of time in 2017, there were 13 fewer Saskatoon homes listed for sale on the multiple listing service®.

Active residential MLS® listings continued a slow trend of broadening annual declines, even as the database grew by 28 over the past seven days to reach 1750. That number is now down by 213 homes from where it stood a year ago. Once again, the numbers are at a four year low (for this particular week), now for the seventh consecutive week. A closer look at the major housing categories shows 935 single-family homes for sale in Saskatoon, up from 912 a week earlier, and down from 1054 at this time last year. Condo inventory grew by just six this week to reach 722, which represents a drop of 25 units from a year earlier.

A strong showing of home buyers at the market’s entry levels, combined with weaker sales at the upper end, brought both the weekly median price and the average sale price for the period lower to $314,450 and $314,056 respectively. The six-week average price dropped a bit more than two thousand dollars from last week’s close to $332,135. That’s roughly twelve thousand dollars below levels recorded at this time last year. The four-week median price also edged lower, falling by $500 on a weekly basis to settle at $319,500. That’s just over three thousand dollars lower than it was a year ago.

A few sellers found some buyer love this week as three deals closed above the asking price by an average of $12,767. That average was heavily skewed by one sale that went $38,000 above the seller’s list price. On the other hand, 68 of this week’s sales required some grinding to bring to a close. Those buyers saw an average discount of $12,268 but the time the dust had settled.

Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that those sales that do show a sale price that is greater than the list price are all new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.

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

In a hopeful sign that a spring real estate market is on its way Saskatoon home sales and new residential listings both hit a weekly high for the year.

Local agents reported 77 firm sales, well up from the 55 that got a sold sign last week, and eleven fewer than we saw trade hands over the same week last year. This was the ninth consecutive week during which sales fell lower on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, new listings number spiked higher to 197 for a weekly increase of 67 Saskatoon homes. Still, that number is way down from the 253 local homes listed over the same period of 2017. Each week this year, new listings numbers have failed to match last year’s levels.

The inventory of active MLS® listings in the residential category grew by 46 to close the week at 1722, well below the 1931 properties that were available to buyers last year at this time. Once again, inventory is at a four year low for this particular week, now for six consecutive weeks. The number of single-family homes for sale on the Saskatoon MLS® system grew to 912, down from 1023 a year ago. Condo inventory sits higher by five percent this week as it increased from 682 at last week’s close to 716 today. That number is lower than it was a year earlier when 745 Saskatoon condos were for sale.

After nearly disappearing over the past few weeks, high-end home buyers returned to the market and drove all four prices measures we track higher. With three home sales averaging a sale price of nearly a million dollars each, the weekly average price of a Saskatoon home took the biggest jump as it grew by nearly $40,000 to reach $364,461. Meanwhile, the weekly median price was $15K higher than the previous week at $335,000. The four-week median price edged up $2500 from the previous week’s close hitting $320,000. That amounts to an annual increase of $3000. The six-week average price grew by ten thousand dollars to reach $344,457 to come short of levels recorded a year ago by eleven thousand dollars.

Two lucky sellers closed on offers that were above their asking price, one seeing a remarkable overbid of $90,000 on a property that was clearly underpriced, perhaps intentionally. Another 69 sellers found they had to be a bit more flexible and agreed to sell their home at an average discount of $13,983. That number was somewhat skewed by substantial discounts on the higher end sales, three of which contributed a quarter million dollars to the discount pool.

Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that those sales that do show a sale price that is greater than the list price are all new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.

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 March 2018 follows.

In the first quarter of 2018, there were 648 Saskatoon home sales, a 10 percent decline on a year-over-year basis. The decrease in sales for the month of March was 24 percent with just 234 residential transactions occurring last month.

The number of new listings introduced on the MLS® for Saskatoon is also down for the quarter. There have been 1,807 Saskatoon homes listed so far this year compared to 2,183 for the same period in 2017.

At the end of March, active residential listings in Saskatoon totaled 1,670 for both single and multi-family homes, consistent with the five year average of 1,695. The inventory would take just over seven months to liquidate at the current rate of sales.

The reduction in active listings is not only the result of fewer homes being listed on the market. “Some sellers may have decided not to re-list their home just yet, opting to wait for the more active spring market to try their luck,” according to Jason Yochim, CEO of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR). “Many sellers believe that spring is the best time to sell,” he adds.

The sale-to-listing ratio is a comparison of the number of sales to the number of new listings for a specific period of time. Understanding this ratio allows us to determine if we are in a buyer’s market, a seller’s market or a balanced market. A ratio between 40% and 60% is considered to be a balanced market. A ratio below 40% is considered to be a buyer’s market, while a ratio exceeding 60% is considered to be a seller’s market. The sale-to-listing ratio for March was 35%, down slightly from the five year average of 40%.

Last month, Saskatoon homes took an average of 64 days to sell compared to 47 days in March of 2017. The five year average days to sell for the Saskatoon market is 50 days.

The average year-to-date residential sale price continued its steady decline falling 2%. For the first quarter of 2018, the average home sale price in Saskatoon was $333,826. Since averages can be misleading, the median price tends to be a better reflection of the market. The median home sale price continued to decline from $330,000 in January, to $317,250 in March. In March of 2017, the median price was just slightly higher at $320,000. The five year average for median residential home sale price in Saskatoon is $330,000.

The Home Price Index Composite Benchmark Price (HPI) increased slightly for the first time since June of 2017 to $293,200. By comparison, the composite benchmark has not been this low since February of 2012. The highest point ever reached was $319,600 in May of 2015. Declines to the HPI began showing signs of slowing in January of 2018. The HPI is the most accurate indicator of where home prices are trending.

Jason Yochim CAE, CRAE

Chief Executive Officer 

Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®