The Saskatoon real estate market recorded its strongest sales week for 2019 as 59 firm residential deals were reported to the MLS® system.

The total of new listings added to the multiple listing service® grew marginally to 105, up from 99 the previous week and down by one compared to the same period last year.

Sales

The number of Saskatoon homes for sale on the MLS® grew by eight this week to 1426, which is down from 1573 a year earlier. While active listing numbers are slow in making gains compared to most years, the line on our chart looks a lot like last year’s. In 2018, it wasn’t until close to the middle of March that listing inventory began to grow at a more typical pace. Still, with far fewer new condominiums for sale, I expect that this year’s active inventory will fall short of last year’s right through spring.

Included in the total inventory we have 770 single-family homes for sale, down from 836 a year earlier. The condo category has fallen to 567, from 653 a year ago.

Actives

The first residential sale above the $1 million mark for 2019 was recorded this week. Even with that one in the mix, the average sale price for the week slipped lower to $338,230. Meanwhile, a bit more activity at the upper end pushed the weekly median price higher to $318,000.

The six-week average price took a jump of nearly 15K from where it was a week ago. It reached $329,015 which is just eight thousand dollars lower than it was at the close of the same week last year. That’s the smallest annual drop we’ve recorded in several months time. The four-week median price grew for the fourth consecutive week to reach its highest point since the opening week of 2019. It closed at $310,000. That’s up $2000 from a week ago, but down close to 20K annually.

Price

Two sellers got a break that led to some overbidding on their home. One of the two homes sold for $20,000 more than the asking price, while the other went $200 over. On the flip side of the negotiating table, 52 buyers made off with a discount averaging a hefty $14,645.

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.

List

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them.

General

Thank-you for reading TeamFisher’s Saskatoon Real Estate Week in Review.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Please feel free to call or text me at 306-241-6676 or reach me by email at norm at teamfisher dot com.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Saskatoon real estate agents firmed up 55 residential sales over the past week, up 11 compared to the previous week to match sales for the same period last year for the first time in four weeks.

The number of new listings that were added to the MLS® system over the same period fell lower, dropping by 36 compared to activity over the previous seven days, and declining annually by 14.

Sales

Active residential listings also slipped lower with the total settling at 1418 this morning, down just ten from last week’s close for an annual decline of 140 Saskatoon homes. That represents a ten percent drop to the number of homes for sale in Saskatoon from a year earlier. It’s anybody’s guess as to where it might go in the weeks ahead, but a much smaller supply of new condominiums (about half what it was last year) should keep things in check. Again, inventory numbers are at their lowest point for the week in more than four years and builders are producing far few homes, particularly in the multi-family category.

This morning’s totals include 557 condominiums, which is up marginally from last week but down 94 from a year ago. The single-family homes category now sits at 769. That number fell by 26 compared to last week, and is down nearly 60 from the close of the same week last year.

Actives

Pricing measures continue to be tricky to track, but there’s no doubt that things have changed from a year ago. In early 2018, the small samples of sales skewed prices in an upward direction as the six-week average price and the four-week median price pushed their peaks for the year over January and February.  This year, they are registering much lower, and in fact posting some big dips from a year earlier, and even well down from last year’s closing numbers.The six-week average price for the week was $314,983. That’s up about seven grand from the previous week, but down a little more than twenty thousand dollars from a year earlier. The four-week median price grew by three thousand dollars this week to $308,000 which is about twenty eight thousand dollars lower than it was a year ago.

In 2018, those large spikes in these two measures came back down and prices cooled considerably as we moved towards spring. The reality of new mortgage qualification rules set in. By the close of the first quarter, home builders and consumers were also dealing with the addition of the provincial sales tax on new homes, which added at least 15K to the price of an entry level home.

Price

This past week, two lucky sellers found themselves in the fortunate position of having at least two buyers bidding to buy their home. Those deals both generated strong overbids averaging just over four thousand dollars. Meanwhile, 51 of the week’s 55 sales closed at a discount that averaged $12,182.

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.

List

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them.

General

Thank-you for reading TeamFisher’s Saskatoon Real Estate Week in Review.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Please feel free to call or text me at 306-241-6676 or reach me by email at norm at teamfisher dot com.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), released national sales statistics for January of 2019 this week.

According to the report, "Home sales via Canadian MLS® Systems climbed 3.6% in January 2019 compared to December 2018. The number of homes trading hands was up from the previous month in half of all local markets, led by Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg." Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales were down 4% from year-ago levels and turned in the weakest January since 2015. They also came in below the 10-year average for the month on a national basis."

Highlights of CREA's report

• National home sales rose 3.6% between December 2018 and January 2019.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down by 4% from one year ago.
• The number of newly listed homes edged up 1% month-over-month in January.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 0.8% year-over-year (y-o-y) in January.

• The national average sale price fell by 5.5% y-o-y in January.

Read the entire report on Canadian MLS® sales for January 2019.

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 saw a slight decline to residential sales as the total number of homes traded fell to 44 this week, down three from the week before, and a drop of seven when compared against the same period last year. This is the third consecutive during which sales fell short on a year-over-year basis. The weather is undoubtedly having a cooling effect on an already tepid real estate market as people are showing some reluctance to leave the house when they can avoid it.

New listing numbers moved higher in spite of the weather as a large number of home listings that had expired at the end of January came back to the MLS® system for another go. A total of 135 Saskatoon homes entered, or re-entered the system this week, up from 108 the previous week for an annual gain of four.

Sales

After taking a solid dip last week the number of Saskatoon homes listed for sale on the multiple listing service® rebounded. By the close of business Friday, total inventory in the residential category had grown by 37 from the previous week’s close reaching 1428. That’s 125 fewer listings than were available a year ago, and the lowest for “week six” of any of the past five years. Included in the mix are 795 single-family homes, down just 27 annually, and 552 condominiums, which represents an annual drop of 96 units.

Actives

Slightly more upper end activity moved the median sale price for the week higher to $314,500. With only a few sales above the $500,000 mark the average sale price for the week still managed to decline to $311,904. The six-week average price sipped lower to $307,920 losing about nine thousand dollars on the week to find itself down annually by close to 40K. The four-week median price re-bounded growing by almost fifteen thousand dollars this week and reaching $305,000. That’s good for an annual decline of about 28K.

Prices

Seller’s dreaming of multi-bid situations found themselves disappointed as none got more than their asking price. Meanwhile, Saskatoon home buyers found they could grind a bit of a deal as 36 made off with a discount that averaged $13,341.

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.

List

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them.

General

Thank-you for reading TeamFisher’s Saskatoon Real Estate Week in Review.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Please feel free to call or text me at 306-241-6676 or reach me by email at norm at teamfisher dot com.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Average Saskatoon home sale prices were down 12 percent year-over-year in January to $302,412. By comparison, the average price in January of 2017 and 2018 was $341,260 and $344,720 respectively. The challenge with averages is that the numbers can be skewed in a given period and are therefore not a reliable reflection of pricing. For this reason, the Canadian Real Estate Association created the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) for major cities to give a more accurate reflection of pricing trends.

The HPI establishes attributes for a handful of typical housing styles; Single Family, One Storey, Two Storey, Townhouse, Apartment and a composite of all five. It then establishes a base value to each with the starting point of 2005. From that starting point, changes in value are recorded over time to get a better sense of what is happening to pricing and where prices may be trending. For example, the MLS® HPI value for a typical single-family home in January of 2005 was $140,400. This value reached its peak in May of 2015 at $329,500. At the end of January 2019, this value is at $304,300, down from $307,300 last January. This indicates a less drastic decline in year-over-year values than the average price of a sold Saskatoon home would suggest.

The total MLS® dollar volume for sales in the Saskatoon Region for January was $84 million, down six percent from a year ago and comparable to 2017. In spite of this dollar volume decline, January home sales on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS®) in Saskatoon declined by only one percent in January to 199 transactions. The region surrounding Saskatoon had 60 MLS® sales in January, only five fewer than last January and 18 percent more than in January 2017.

Residential MLS® listing totals for January were the lowest in the past six years with 555 new listings introduced to the market, down ten percent from last January. For the market surrounding Saskatoon, the number of new MLS® listings was unchanged from a year ago with 216 units listed for sale. “New listings to the market are not always houses being introduced for the first time to the market,” comments Jason Yochim, CEO of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR). “Many new listings are homes that did not sell in the initial listing attempt and are relisted, often at a revised price.” The total number of active listings as at the end of last month was 1,450 compared with 1,529 last year. “It’s positive to see the overall number of active listings decline to prepare the way for prices to recover,” adds Yochim. “Some price ranges still have a good supply to choose from while others do not.

Jason Yochim CAE, CRAE
Chief Executive Officer – Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®

Saskatoon real estate agents reported 47 firm residential sales to the multiple listing service® over the past week matching numbers recorded the week before. That left us short by nine sales when comparing the numbers against results from the same week last year. That said, January proved to be a decent month with 201 Saskatoon homes trading hands, even with January 2018.

New listings saw increased activity compared to the previous week while falling well below last year’s activity for the same week. Local REALTORS® added 108 Saskatoon residential properties to the MLS®, up from 95 a week earlier, but a decline of 26 from the same period last year.

Sales

The total number of Saskatoon homes listed for sale on the multiple listing service® fell lower as the final week of January closed and 103 listings expired without a sale. As of this morning, the MLS® system showed 1391 properties, down from 1444 at last week’s close, and down further from the close of the same week last year when 1518 properties showed an active status.

In that mix, we have 767 single-family homes, down from 794 a year ago. Condo inventory has fallen even further to settle at 546 today, down from 636 at this time last year. A 15 percent drop in this category is encouraging and reflective of the massive decline in the number of new condominiums that are completed but unoccupied.

Active

The average price of a Saskatoon home took a jump this week thanks to a couple of big sales. It reached $344,528. The median price for the week also edged higher to $308,000. Both of the longer-term measures we track recovered a bit. The six-week average price grew nearly eight thousand dollars from the week before to reach $316,809 which is still nearly 25K below the levels it had reached a year earlier. The four-week median price grew to $289,750. That’s up about twelve thousand dollars from last week but a remarkable 50K lower than it was at the close of the same week in 2018.

Prices

There were two overbid sales this past week, both fairly substantial at $51,100 and $16,600. Meanwhile, 41 of the week’s sales closed below the seller’s asking price netting those buyers an average discount of $13,485.

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.

List

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them.

General

Thank-you for reading TeamFisher’s Saskatoon Real Estate Week in Review.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Please feel free to call or text me at 306-241-6676 or reach me by email at norm at teamfisher dot com.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra