The Saskatoon real estate market saw modest declines in both sales and new listings this past week. Local REALTORS® reported 70 firm residential transactions, a drop of 16 from the previous week, which is down the same amount from numbers generated during the same time period last year. New listings took a larger slide from 204 last week to just 170, down from 203 last year.

That large gap between sales and new listings, combined with fewer expired and canceled listings served to drive inventory higher for the third consecutive week. That’s not particularly unusual at this time of the year, but as the black line on the active listing chart indicates, we’re making some quick, large gains that might move us out of the “four-year historical lows” area that we’ve been in for the past thirteen weeks. By early Saturday morning, the number of Saskatoon homes for sale on the multiple listing service® had grown to 1997, up from 1953 at the previous week’s close but still well down from the 2174 listings that could be found on the MLS® at this time last year. Taking a closer look at the two major categories of housing shows 1055 active single-family homes listings, down from 1194 a year ago, and 817 condominiums for sale, also down from 823.

Fewer entry-level sales over the past seven days brought the weekly median price and the week average sharply higher to $333,250 and $333,905 respectively. The longer-term measures that we follow both moved in the same direction. The six-week average price of a Saskatoon home hit $333,827 for a weekly increase of about three grand, and a hefty annual decline of 24K. The four-week median price grew even more and reached $320,000 for a weekly increase approaching $10,000. It posted an even larger annual decline as it fell from $357,806 at the close of the same week a year ago.

Two Saskatoon home sellers got a lucky break and received offers exceeding their asking price with an average overbid of $2100. Meanwhile, 65 of the week’s sales were reported a price below the seller’s offering with an average discount of $13,135 being reported.

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

Home sales grew and new listings fell lower this week. Both fell short of meeting numbers recorded during the same week last year. Saskatoon real estate agents reported 86 firm residential sales to the MLS® system, up 16 from the previous week, but down 13 when compared to last year’s numbers. Meanwhile, new listings declined to 204, down from 236 a week earlier, and 16 fewer than were listed during the same week of 2017.

Even as the market showed some sales improvements, the large disparity between closed sales and new listings caused inventory to spike higher for the second week in a row. As of this morning, there were 1953 Saskatoon homes for sale on the multiple listing service®, up 65 from last Saturday. That looks to be the sharpest two-week increase to MLS® listings over the past several years, but we are still well down from levels that we’ve become accustomed to seeing at this time of the spring real estate season. Last year at this time there were 2135 Saskatoon homes listed for sale. A closer look at the inventory by major housing types shows that we have 1032 single-family homes for sale, down from 1169 a year ago. Condo inventory sits at 794, down just 14 from the close of the same week last year.

On the heels of a week that produced a good number of high-end real estate sales, entry level home trades stole the show this week. With 17 transactions recorded below the $200,000 mark, both the weekly average sale price and the weekly median fell sharply lower to $315,109 and $301,000 respectively. The longer-term measures both took a dip as well. The four-week median price slipped to $310,500 losing nearly 10K from a week earlier and down almost $38,000 from the same week last year. The six-week average price fell eight thousand dollars from a week earlier to hit $333,699 taking a loss of $34,000 from a year earlier.

The vast majority of deals closed below the seller’s asking price netting buyers an average discount of $10,140. Just one buyer showed a willingness to pay more than list price. That deal reported a sale price that exceeded the seller’s asking price by $1200. 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 fell for the second consecutive week as local agents brought 70 firm deals to the MLS® system, down 15 from last week, and falling short of sales for the same period last year by 20.

New listings, on the other hand, spiked higher to reach their largest volume for any week this year as many of the listings that expired at the end of April began to reappear on the multiple listing service®. A total of 236 new residential listings were added to the MLS® over the past seven days, a gain of 25 compared to the previous week, and up 12 from the same period of 2017.

Following three weeks of stability, the inventory of Saskatoon homes for sale on the MLS® took its largest single week gain for the year as it grew by 95 listings to reach 1888, which is still well below the 2115 homes that were available a year ago. As has been the case since inventory started to fall to four-year lows, the declines can all be attributed to the single-family category. Today there are 986 detached houses for sale, down from 1106 at this time last year. Condo numbers were at 793 this morning, up from 785 on a year-over-year basis.

A bit more activity at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market pushed the weekly median price sharply higher too $333,500 but a near absence of luxury home sales brought the average price for the week lower to $337,794. Meanwhile, both of the longer term price measures took some modest gains. The six-week average price of a Saskatoon home grew by about sixteen hundred dollars to $338,863 to find itself well down from last year when it closed this week at $359,834. The four-week median price gained 5K to return to $320,000 down from its peak week for 2017 when it reached $352,500 a year earlier.

Three lucky sellers found themselves accepted offers above their asking price, which I believe is the largest number for any week this year. Those deals closed paying an average bonus of $5,233 which was seriously skewed by an area two sale that reported a sale price that exceeded the asking price by more than thirteen thousand dollars. On the opposite side of the negotiating table, 63 Saskatoon home buyers made off with a discount that averaged $11,647.

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 agents had another strong, spring-like week with 85 home sales going firm, down five from the previous week. That’s six fewer sales than we saw during the same week of 2017.

New listings spiked above the 200 mark for the first time this year as 211 Saskatoon homes were added to the multiple listing service® for a weekly gain of 56 and an annual decline of 71.

A total of 96 listings met the end of their term without a sale causing the inventory of MLS® listings to dip slightly to 1793. That number is down eight from the previous week’s close, and well below the 2056 Saskatoon homes that were available a year ago. This was the third consecutive week in which no real gains were made to the inventory, something that’s a bit unusual for the season. Most years, we continue to see inventory grow for another two months before it reaches its peak. Today, we have a total of 739 condominiums for sale, down from 785 a year earlier. The number of available single-family homes is at 952, down from the 1106 listings that could be found on the system at the same point in 2017.

Activity at the Saskatoon real estate market’s entry-level remained strong keeping the weekly median price of a Saskatoon home on the low side at just $310,000. A handful of big-dollar trades including two homes that averaged sale prices in excess of a million bucks brought the average price for the week sharply higher to $344,882. As always, the longer term price measures level those highs and lows a bit. The six-week average price edged higher by about three thousand dollars to reach $337,202 which is nearly 22K lower than it was a year ago. The four-week median price slid five thousand dollars below the previous week to $315,000 to take an annual loss of $35,000. It’s worth pointing out that even while both of these measures are at or near their five-year lows, they were hitting some high points at this time last year that were oddly out sync with the longer terms trend.

Even with reports of multiple offers occurring on numerous trades, not a single seller managed to bag an offer for more than their asking price. Meanwhile, 74 of the week’s 85 sales were reporting a price below the list price to generate an average discount of $13,143.

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 home sales were up 6.7 percent compared to April of last year with 335 units selling last month. This represents a third of home sales in Saskatoon so far this year. Although year-to-date sales for the first four months of 2018 are down 4.8 percent from 2017, last month’s increase in sales helped to close the gap. The increase in April sales was also a welcome reversal of a two-month trend of declining sales seen during February and March. Unit sales for April showed increases for homes priced under $350,000. “Homes that are properly priced in that entry level have been seeing competing offers in many cases,” comments Jason Yochim, CEO of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®. Sales of homes in the $400,000 to $450,000 range increased by 30 percent in April over the same month last year with 39 sales being reported.

Also of note, year-to-date there have only been two residential sales over $1M in Saskatoon compared with six for the first four months in 2017.

The number of active residential MLS® listings in Saskatoon at the end of April was 1,834. This is consistent with the five-year average of 1,830. The drop is largely due to a decrease in the number of new listings brought to the market. The number of new listings for the first third of 2018 was 2,594 compared to 3,024 by this time last year, a 14 percent decline, year-over-year.

The sales to listing ratio improved to 43 percent, up from 37 during the same month last year. The sale to listing ratio is a comparison of the number of sales for a period of time to the number of new listings. “Although the sales to listing ratio is moving towards balance, I emphasize we are still in a buyer’s market,” cautions Yochim. The increase in this ratio in April was largely due to the 6.5 percent reduction in new listings and the comparative 6.7 percent increase in sales. Last month, the average home in Saskatoon took 53 days to sell compared with the five year average of 47 days. 

The average sale price saw its first increase this year as it grew by 1.75 percent to $318,729 in April. For the first quarter of 2018, the average home sale price in Saskatoon was $333,826. Since averages can be misleading, a better reflection of the market is the median. The median home sale price increased slightly from March to $320,000. The five year average for median residential home sale prices in Saskatoon is $332,650. 

The Home Price Index Composite Benchmark Price (HPI) increased slightly for the second straight month to $294,100. This appears to indicate an upward trend for home prices going forward. 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®