Saskatoon real estate sales improved modestly after falling sharply lower last week. Local agents reported 66 firm residential trades, for a weekly increase of 14 property sales and an annual increase of two.

The new listing activity also grew as 126 Saskatoon homes were added to the multiple listing service®, 17 more than hit the system last week, and up by eight compared against activity recorded for the same week last year.

The inventory of Saskatoon homes listed for sale on the MLS® edged lower to 1726 and reached its lowest point since late April. That amounts to a drop of 30 listings from last week’s close and leaves us down 87 units from the total count a year ago.

A closer look at the major categories shows 1065 Saskatoon housed for sale, down 18 from last week and up 61 annually. Condo inventory slipped just six this week to settle at 580 for a year-over-year decline of 115 units, or roughly 16 percent.

It was another week of strong activity at the market’s entry-level. For the third consecutive week, the weekly median price of a Saskatoon home edged lower, this week to $283,500. High-end sales continued to slump leaving the weekly average sale price well down from typical levels as it dipped to $314,344.

The six-week average price fell lower again, this time to $325,948 and recorded a weekly decline of about 5K while managing to finish twenty-five hundred dollars higher than it was at the close of the same week last year. The four-week median price headed for higher ground to grow by close to six thousand dollars over the previous week and reach $315,987. That’s pretty much exactly where it stood a year ago.

Three sellers found an enthusiastic buyer who was motivated to shut out some competitive offers. Those deals closed above the asking price by an average of $3,833 with the lion’s share of the bonus being paid to one seller who got $11,100 more than they had asked. On the other hand, 54 of the week’s 66 deals wrapped up with a price below the listed price. Those buyers saw an average discount of $12,153.

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.

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them. 

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

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

A short work week likely contributed to falling sales this week as Saskatoon real estate agents reported just 52 firm residential trades to the multiple listing service®. That’s down 30 units from the week before and eight fewer sales than were reported over the same period last year.

New listing activity fell to its lowest level since late February with just 109 Saskatoon homes being added to the MLS® for a weekly drop of 39 and an annual dip of nine.

MLS® inventory slipped marginally lower as we closed the week with 1756 active residential listings, down just ten from last week’s close. At the end of the same week last year, buyers had 1836 residential listings to choose from.

Today’s totals include 1083 single-family homes, up 60 from a year earlier and 586 condos, down 112 from the close of the same week last year.

Entry-level sales continued to dominate the sales activity as buyers scooped up cheap condos and pushed the median sale price for the week lower again to $284,750. The average sale price for the week bounced higher but still remained well below the annual average at just $315,245. That, despite the fact that a single sale at $1,335,000 skewed the average significantly higher.

The six-week average price slipped a bit more than four thousand dollars this week to $331,012 but still managed to maintain some annual gains. It was up about 12K from a year ago. The four-week median price slid $10,000 from last week to settle at $310,000. The measure is also down 10K on a year-over-year basis.

Once again, only one seller found a buyer willing to pay more than the list price, but the bonus was hefty at $16,500. Meanwhile, 47 of 52 deals closed at less than the asking price with an average discount of $10,263.

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.

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them. 

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

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Norm Fisher, Broker/Owner of Royal LePage Vidorra and Kyle Benning of GlobalNews discuss the impact of "newcomers to Canada" on the local and national real estate markets.

A recently released report from Royal LePage shows that "newcomers to Canada" are behind one in five homes sold across the nation. That number goes to two in five in the Prairie region.

The survey found that 86% of newcomers (anyone who has moved to Canada in the past ten years) see real estate as a good investment and 75% of respondents arrived in Canada with savings to help them purchase a home.

Most typically, these folks settle into a rental home or stay with family initially. On average, those interviewed for this report purchased within three years of arriving in Canada.

At the current rates of immigration, it's expected that newcomers will purchase 680,000 Canadian homes over the next five years, 71,000 within the prairie region.

Read the full report here.

Read also: GlobalNews - 41% of homes bought on the Prairies purchased by new Canadians

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), recently released national sales statistics for September of 2019.

According to the report, "Home sales recorded via Canadian MLS® Systems advanced for the seventh consecutive month, raising them 18% above the six-year low reached in February 2019 but leaving them about 8% below highs reached in 2016 and 2017."

"Activity was up in slightly more than half of all local markets, led by Greater Vancouver (GVA) and the Fraser Valley (which together constitute the Lower Mainland of British Columbia). Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity was up 15.5% year-over-year, reflecting the combination of slow sales in September 2018 and a rebound in activity this year. Transactions were up from year-ago levels in all of Canada’s largest urban markets, including the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, the Greater Toronto area (GTA), Hamilton-Burlington, Ottawa and Montreal."

Highlights of CREA's report

• National home sales rose 0.6% month-over-month (m-o-m) in September.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 15.5% year-over-year (y-o-y).
• The number of newly listed properties edged back by 0.6% m-o-m.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) advanced by 0.5% m-o-m and 1.3% y-o-y.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was up 5.3% y-o-y.

Read the entire report on Canadian MLS® sales for September 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

Even as the weather cooled, the Saskatoon real estate market remained hot. This past week saw a total of 82 firm sales in the residential category of the Saskatoon MLS® system, up two from the previous week and topping sales for the same period last year by 28.

New listing activity also increased as many of last month’s expired listings came back to the market with sellers hoping the extended season might bring them a sale. This week, 148 Saskatoon homes hit the multiple listing service®. That number is up just three from the previous week but solidly higher than the 110 homes offered for sale over the same period last year.

The inventory of active residential listings for sale on the MLS® fell lower to 1766, down just 17 from last week’s close and falling short of last year’s total by almost 100 units.

While inventory slipped lower, the number of single-family homes for sale in Saskatoon edged up from 1083 a week ago to 1086 today. That puts us up on a year-over-year basis by 41 houses, a gain of roughly four percent. That said, total supply in this category remains firmly in a balanced territory given current demand. 

This morning there are 589 Saskatoon condos for sale. That number is down 21 from the close of the previous week for an annual decline of 115 units, a drop of more than 16 percent. Still, even with a massive increase in demand through 2019 (condo sales have increased 12 percent this year) supply is heavy and buyers can carry some clout to the negotiating table. 

In my view, condos are quickly headed towards balanced territory as the number of newly built homes that are complete and unoccupied continues to plummet. This is a category that rarely seems to find a perfect balance. Builders take their queues from sales numbers, but it takes a long time to bring these projects to completion so it’s easy to miss the mark, as they did in 2013 and 2014. At that time, the market was smoking hot. That spurred a large interest in development, but by the time those buildings were ready for the market, the market had vanished. As we move forward, there’s a good chance that the supply will fall low as interest in buying these properties grows.

Speaking of condos; with 34 percent of sales falling into that category this week, both the weekly average sale price and the median sale price for the week fell sharply lower to $293,108 and $287,450 respectively.

Both of the longer-term measures that we track turned the same way.

The six-week average which has grown by sixteen thousand dollars over the past four weeks fell close to three thousand dollars from last week to settle at $335,665. It remains up annually by about 15K. The four-week median price of a Saskatoon home broke a six-week growth spurt and fell seven thousand dollars from last week. It closed the week at $320,000 which represents an annual decline of four thousand dollars.

Overbid sales were nearly non-existant but one lucky seller found themselves accepted an offer that was more than $20,000 above their asking price. Meanwhile, 75 of the week’s 82 closed transactions required some give and take. Those sellers gave up an average of $10,547 to close the sale.

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.

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them. 

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

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

Affordability of Saskatoon homes sparks demand

Local housing market shifts towards a balanced market

The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® has just released the official home sale statistics for September 2019 along with the release below. As always, the video and the charts that accompany this blog post were produced by TeamFisher to provide some visual context and additional information that was not present in the release.

The first month of autumn had spring in its step as Saskatoon’s residential housing market saw increases in listings, sales, and the average price, according to statistics from the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR). 

Sales rose 14 per cent to 305, up from last September’s 267 and 260 the year before, while the average price was up 10 per cent to $351,741 from $319,534. 

Those factors contributed to a 26 per cent jump in the dollar volume of sales, which came in at $107.3 million — well up from $85.3 million last September and $89.5 million in 2017. 

More homeowners decided to put their properties on the market, as well, listing 717 homes, up 11 per cent from 647 last year. 

“The market is really balanced right now,” said Trevor Schmidt, interim CEO of SRAR. “With the sales to listing ratio being at 43 per cent, it indicates both sellers and buyers are able to come together and get deals done. It’s a good situation for both seller and buyer. 

“If you go back six months, the market has been trending toward balance.” 

Year-to-date, sales in the city are up seven per cent to 2,855 from 2,677, while listings have fallen two per cent to 6,393 from 6,520. The average price of $332,762 is practically unchanged from last year’s $332,757. 

In the region surrounding Saskatoon, including the cities of Warman and Martensville, sales were down 11 per cent to 76 from 85 in September while listings rose 14 per cent to 227 from 199. The average selling price, however, was up three per cent to $302,502. Dollar volume came in at $22.9 million, down eight per cent from last year’s $25 million. 

Regional year-to-date sales are down five per cent to 755 from 797, and listings are down one per cent to 2,422 from 2,454. The average price so far this year is down three per cent to $295,187 from $303,636, and dollar volume has fallen eight per cent to $222.8 million from $242 million. 

At the end of September, active residential listings in the city were down two per cent to 1,896 from last year’s 1,944. Listings in the region were also down two per cent to 1,143 from 1,161.

Trevor Schmidt, Interim Chief Executive Officer

Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®

Saskatoon real estate sales remained strong this week as local REALTORS® reported 80 firm residential trades to the multiple listing service® matching last week’s production. That was enough to finish ahead of the same week last year by three sales.

New listing activity fell lower for the fourth consecutive week which is pretty typical for the season. A total of 145 Saskatoon homes were offered up for sale, down from 149 last week and way below the 171 properties that were added to the MLS® over the same period of 2018.

MLS® inventory saw its largest single-week decline as it fell from 1892 at last week’s close to 1793 today, thanks, at least in part to a large number of listings that expired as September closed. 

There are now 1083 single-family homes showing an active status on the MLS®. That’s up from 1057 at the close of the same week last year. There are now just 610 Saskatoon condos for sale, down from 725 at this time last year.

The average sale price of a Saskatoon home was $341,276 which is almost unchanged from last week. A few more entry-level buyers showed up this week to bring the median sale price for the week lower by 15K to $320,000.

The six-week average price edged higher to $339,302 to finish up about six thousand dollars from last week, and about nineteen thousand dollars higher than it was a year ago. The four-week median price was also up, now for the sixth consecutive week. By the close of business yesterday, it reached $327,000 for a weekly increase of two thousand dollars and an annual gain of just under 10K.

This week’s sales include two above list price contracts. One seller received a big bonus of $16,000 while the other took the extra hundred dollars being offered to close the deal. Meanwhile, 73 of the week’s 80 sales closed at a price that was less than the seller’s list price. Those buyers netted an average discount of $14,244.

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.

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them. 

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

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra