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Saskatoon real estate: Week in review (May 21-25 2007)

Home buying and listing activity remained strong last week in spite of the long weekend with a total of 126 new residential listings and 104 home sales reported to the Saskatoon MLS®.


The average selling price of a Saskatoon home reached its highest point since I began tracking weekly activity at $251,164.It’s important to note that this number can be greatly impacted by an unusually high number of luxury home sales and that appears to be what happened last week. Area 1 showed 10 sales of homes above the $400,000 mark and Area 2 produced a sale at $959,000, the highest-priced home ever recorded sold on the Saskatoon MLS® system.


Saskatoon real estate sales and listing stats for the week of May 21-25 2007


Here are a few of the more notable sales from last week.


  • The two-bedroom walk-up apartment hit a new high as an 820 square foot unit in Wildwood sold for $190,000.This is one of those apartments which you could have taken your time thinking about last fall and easily bought for $90,000.
  • River Heights bungalow (1,236’) with a single attached garage goes for $370,000.
  • Haultain bungalow at 850’ with a single garage brings $275,000.
  • Dundonald bi-level at 1,251’ with a double attached garage fetches $345,000.
  • Arbor Creek four-level split on Kenderdine Road (1,024’) goes for $365,000.
  • Showy Forest Grove bi-level at 1,100 square feet with no garage goes for $310,500.
  • Lakeridge two-storey (1,726’) sells for $370,000.This is only remarkable because it also sold in 2003 for $182,000 and provides a pretty clear picture of what’s happening to Saskatoon property values.
  • More than one, one-bedroom condo in the 735’ range sells in the 180’s.
  • Cute little (900’) Queen Elizabeth bungalow with a legal suite and no garage sells $62,000 over the list at $270,000.
  • Large (1,584’) Montgomery Place bungalow goes $20,000 under list at $269,900. This one is a bit baffling as it has a double garage, large lot and some nice upgrades. It was left open for offers for one full week. Perhaps the best buyers for this home found something else in the meantime.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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If Saskatoon real estate buyers were holding out any hope that this market may have been starting to show signs of balancing, this week’s numbers provide a solid slap in the face and a reality check.


While there was some good news on the listings front when total actives briefly broke the 300 mark for the first time this year, and the largest number of new listings for any week this year came on the market, Saskatoon real estate agents also reported a record number of residential sales at 154 units.


Saskatoon home buyers continued to show their spirit and determination to get out of the market once and for all bringing offers over the list price on a full 75% of homes listed. The average overbid for all Saskatoon homes reached its highest average once again at $27,156.


Here’s a look at the numbers.


Saskatoon real estate statistics for MLS home sales from May 14-18 2007



Here are a few of the more notable sales from last week.


  • Showy Forest Grove bi-level at 1,100 square feet with no garage goes for $310,500.
  • Lakeridge two-storey (1,726’) sells for $370,000.This is only remarkable because it also sold in 2003 for $182,000 and provides a pretty clear picture of what’s happening to Saskatoon property values.
  • More than one, one-bedroom condo in the 735’ range sells in the 180’s.
  • Cute little (900’) Queen Elizabeth bungalow with a legal suite and no garage sells $62,000 over list at $270,000.
  • Large (1,584’) Montgomery Place bungalow goes $20,000 under list at $269,900. This one is a bit baffling as it has a double garage, large lot and some nice upgrades.It was left open for offers for one full week. Perhaps the best buyers for this home found something else in the meantime.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Please feel free to call or email.


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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For the first time this year, active MLS® listings of condominiums and single-family homes within the city of Saskatoon broke the 300 mark. Since late December, we’ve been hovering between 236 and 292 active listings. At the close of business today there are 312 listings showing an active status. An “active” listing is one that has not yet been reported as having a firm offer in place, so properties that have not attracted offers as well as those which have been “conditionally sold” are counted among them.


Is this a big deal? Most buyers and sellers aren’t likely to feel much of a change when they’re out there doing business. You can continue to expect to find competitive bidding on homes that are priced realistically. However, it is encouraging to know that active listings are now about thirty percent higher than they were at the lowest point. Over the past two weeks, there have been more new listings than there were homes sold. I wouldn’t expect to see prices come down anytime soon but as we make our way towards 400 Saskatoon homes for sale, and hopefully we’ll continue to move in this direction, we might expect to see the pace of increases slow.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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This is not exactly important real estate news but I couldn’t resist writing a small snip about this story.


It seems that the popular A&E reality program, “Flip This House” has run a number of episodes that amount to nothing more than a sham. Featuring self-proclaimed “real estate developer” Sam Leccima, the episodes represent his renovation projects as having been sold for huge profits. As it turns out, most of them haven’t actually sold and at least one of them wasn’t actually renovated.


To make matters worse, it’s clear that Sam Leccima is the target of a number of civil suits from prospective investors who trusted him to invest their money wisely. One gentleman claims to have lost $100,000 to the smooth-talking television celebrity.


A&E claims to have no knowledge of the sham and they have pulled all episodes which feature Leccima from their re-run schedule.


Thanks to Doug Quance for the heads up on this bit. Doug is an Atlanta based agent who has been on top of this home town story since October of last year when he noticed some of Sam’s sold properties were still listed for sale.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its "2nd Quarter Housing Market Outlook" for Saskatoon real estate today. Once again, the publication proves to be a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.  I hate to be so damned sharp but I'm constantly frustrated by the government agency's failure to get it right. You'd think that they could do better given the resources available to them.


In their forecast released late last fall, CMHC predicted, "In 2007, prices will continue to rise although at a slower pace largely due to the forecast increase in supply. A less pronounced increase is forecast for 2007, with prices rising by 7.3% to reach $169,500."  In this newly released 2nd Quarter Forecast, CMHC has adjusted its forecasted increase stating, "Average prices are expected to increase by 21.4% in 2007, bringing the average resale price to $195,000."


It's worth noting that the average selling price of Saskatoon homes has already reached $206,000 year to date, and it topped $220,000 over the month of April. Inventory levels remain desperately low and there is no apparent sign that balance will be found anytime soon.


To their credit, CMHC does make the point that many of the homes currently under construction will be ready for occupancy in the coming months. Given the types of homes that are currently under construction, there is some reason to be hopeful that these “starts” will bring some resale inventory to the market as they near completion.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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March was crazy. April was absolutely insane! I’ve never seen anything like it and neither had some of the old-timers in this business who have been around forever.


Buyers went after the property like another house would never be built and bidding wars reached new heights. By the end of the month, about 80% of Saskatoon homes were being sold at, or above the list price. Through most of the month, the average overbid topped $20,000. A lot of homes sold for $30,000-$50,000 above the asking price, many without any conditions at all.



The average price of a Saskatoon home (condos and single-family detached homes combined) surged further forward to a record-breaking $224,845, up from $203,065 the month before. Average days on the market plummeted to an unheard of 9 days.


The largest gains were seen in houses where the average selling price moved from $208,124 last month to an almost unbelievable $234,406.


104 Saskatoon condos traded hands with an average selling time of only 7 days. The average selling price hit $193,866, and an increase of just $4,500 from last month. Condos had seen a disproportionate increase during March when the average selling price increased more than $30,000.


Such massive changes are difficult to fathom over a short period of time. Agents are somewhat clueless on how to advise their clients, and buyers seem absolutely determined to sew up a deal, almost indifferent to the cost and somewhat reckless as well. Buyer, or seller, we should all be hoping that some of this steam comes off soon. Too much, too fast can often be a bad thing.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate: Week in review (May 7-11 2007)

It was another interesting week in the Saskatoon real estate market. For the second week in a row, new listings outpaced sales and active listings reached their highest level since mid-December of last year. Today, there are 292 Saskatoon houses and condominiums with “active” status on the Saskatoon MLS®.


The number of homes reported sold also dropped fairly significantly when compared to recent weeks at just 86 units.


You might expect that fewer sales and more listings would add up to a bit of a break from home buyers but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, the percentage of listings sold above the asking price reached a new high of 77% when looking at all major Saskatoon real estate areas. Eastside home sellers hit the overbid jackpot with 87% of homes reported sold going for more than the asking price.


Average overbids topped $25,000 in all five areas, a first since I started publishing the “Week in review” back in the middle of February. The average overbid reached its highest level yet at $26,313.


Here’s a look at the numbers from last week.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. 


Please feel free to call or email.


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate: Week in review (April 30 – May 4 2007)

A total of 136 new residential listing came on the market last week outpacing unit sales by about 10%. Saskatoon real estate agents reported a total of 123 sales of single-family homes and condominiums over the same period.


The average selling price of a Saskatoon home was $13,000 lower this past week at $222,150 compared to $235,345 the week before.The majority of listings continued to attract multiple offers and over bids to the tune of $25,688 on average.


Buyers might take some comfort in the fact that this weeks sales sheet looks a lot like the one from the week before.I see fewer numbers of sales which are really “remarkable.” Most weeks there have been a quite a number of sales which appear to have broken new ground but this past week it seems that prices may have been fairly level.


It’s also interesting to note that in Area 4, only 50% of sales reported where over list price. That’s the first time we’ve seen that in quite a while. Often times a softening in the core areas is a first indication that the market may level out some.Could it be a sign of things to come?


Here’s a quick look at the numbers from last week.




See a Google map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate “areas” here Data collection and calculation for our statistical reports


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

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