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Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 25-29, 2011
House and condo sales accelerated again for the third consecutive week to usher in the highest volume sales week this year. Saskatoon real estate agents reported ninety-four firm sales to the MLS® system, up eleven from last week, and matching sales volume generated during the same week last year.


New listings also surged higher as one hundred and eighteen home sellers placed their property onto the multiple listing service®. That number is up twenty-four from last week but well short of the number of Saskatoon homes listed during the same period last year when one hundred and thirty-nine homes hit the market.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


After taking a bit of a break last week, active Saskatoon real estate listings edged higher. The total inventory of residential listings grew by just a dozen properties to 1,310 up from 1,225 at this same time in 2010 for an annual gain of just seven percent. Over the course of the week, the condo category grew by twenty units while the single-family home inventory actually declined by five. Today, there are 753 single-family homes and 489 condominiums for sale on the MLS® system. At this time last year, there were 722 houses and 444 condos for sale.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Cancelled and withdrawn listings were practically even with last week at just twenty-two. Seventeen of those made a same day return to the system flagged as a new listing, most bearing a new and lower price. An additional sixty-seven price adjustments were recorded through this week’s activity.


The median price for the week slipped slightly lower falling just over $10,000 to $307,500. At the same time, nine sales with prices above the $500,000 mark pushed the average selling price for the week higher as it gained nearly $16,000 from the week before to reach $330,740. The six-week average price followed suit and gained six thousand dollars to finish the week at $310,709 to show an annual gain of about $14,500. The four-week median held firm at $309,000 compared against last week but ended the week sharply higher than it did for the same week last year when it was just $285,000.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Just five sellers had the good fortune of finding a buyer who was willing to pay more than list but the average overbid was substantially higher than it is most weeks at $10,680. It was skewed higher by one property in Nutana that drew a $42,000 overbid. Another fifteen sellers managed to close a deal at the full asking price while seventy-four of ninety-four sellers sharpened their pencil to close the deal giving up an average of $8,807 or about 2.6% of the asking price.


Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


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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Please welcome guest contributor to TeamFisher.com, Rachel Vanderveen, a Calgary real estate blogger and home stager who is writing an eight-part series of home staging advice for our blog. This is the final post in that series. Rachel’s previous home staging posts can be found here.


So the table is set, the carpet is vacuumed, and the house is sparkling and geared toward all of your newly installed focal points. Your listing contract is signed and your Saskatoon real estate agent has told you that you’re going live tonight and to be prepared for your first showings!


How do we make your listing stand out? We’ve done all the groundwork, but now the curtain is going to be lifted and the audience will soon be in your home to view the stage you have set. So, much of giving a five-star showing is about creating a mood, and that’s what we’re going to talk about here today.


Let’s start with lights. For every showing we have, I want every single thing in your house that makes light to be turned on, and I mean everything:  every lamp, pot light, puck light, art-feature light, even the work light on the hood fan. (No, not the interior oven light. I had someone ask me that once, so I figured I better clarify). I want those lights up and running, even if your showing is happening at 9 am. This means that if you’re going to be at work all day, you need to switch them all on before you leave. I know, I know, Al Gore would read this and cringe, but you’ll see the benefits of it in the purchase price of your home. Maybe you can use the surplus to buy some carbon credits.


Why is light so important? Because people who are looking to buy Saskatoon real estate love natural light. Light is something that you can’t often change. A house is either well-lit, or it’s not, and if it’s not, it’s often difficult to renovate in. Having all of your home lights on—especially in the middle of the day—gives the impression that there is bountiful light in the home, and therefore adds perceived value.


Next, music. I like to make sure that every time there is a showing happening you have music playing in the home. The best source is often using the music stations on your digital cable because you can choose by genre, it’s never-ending, and it’s often non-descript. You also don’t have announcers coming in and out. I don’t like local radio stations as they can be a little too in-your-face and a little too personal, when we are aiming for neutral. Buying a CD and playing it on repeat can often work. But music selection is paramount. I like instrumentals the best. Stay away from things with vocals. The type of music you choose really depends on what you’re trying to sell. If you’re selling a renovated townhouse in Saskatoon’s more trendy areas, go for some instrumental light jazz. If you’re selling a luxury home in an older more established area go for light classical. If you have a house that overlooks water, find one of those CDs that have flutes playing with ocean noises in the back. It’s all about creating the mood. The music should be loud enough so you can hear it, but not so loud that you couldn’t have a comfortable conversation if you were standing right near it.  You may want to consider playing music on every level, but try to play from the same source. If there are different songs playing everywhere you’re going to have the feeling of confusion in areas where you can hear it all playing.


Finally, there is etiquette. You never want your Saskatoon real estate shopper to feel rushed. For that reason, if you get a call from your Realtor to book a showing from 3-4. You should be totally gone from the house from 2:45-4:15. This gives your buyers all the time they need to be able to show up and explore. No, you may not stay home for any showing. No, you may not wait in the garage, backyard, shed or whatever wild idea you come up with. You and your family must be totally gone from the property. Otherwise you have totally spoiled your scene.


In addition, the only acceptable excuse for declining a showing that your Realtor requests is the following: you or an immediate family member is dead or dying. No other excuse is acceptable. If you want to sell your home, you’ve got to be serious about it. If you decline a showing, you’re giving the message that you don’t really care if you sell or not, and that does not inspire people to write offers. Additionally, nine times out of ten, if the buyer’s agent can’t book a showing on the first try, they won’t attempt to rebook, and you may have just lost an offer or a multiple offer.


You’re at the end of the road here. Reaching this point in the process of selling your home means you’ve done most of your work already! Now all you have to do is maintain that sparkle in your home, and trust your Realtor to bring an offer. So kick up your feet and relax! You’ve staged your home to sell!


Until Next Time…


Blessings


Rachel Vanderveen is a Calgary Christian Realtor specializing in Calgary condos for sale, South Calgary Real Estate, Calgary home staging , McKenzie Towne Real Estate, and Auburn Bay Real Estate.  But more importantly, she is a mother to four adorable children, a lover of Auburn Bay Realty, and an avid writer of Calgary Real Estate blogs. For more information on Calgary mls.ca, or searching mlslistings.ca, visit her website here.  

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 18-22, 2011
Sales of houses and condos saw a second consecutive weekly gain as Saskatoon real estate agents reported eighty-three firm sales to the local MLS®, up six from the previous week, and falling just a couple of units short of the high volume week for the year. Still, total sales came in below levels recorded during the same week of 2010when eighty-eight Saskatoon homes changed hands.


While sales levels rose on a weekly basis, new MLS® listings plummeted dropping thirty-six units compared to the previous week to just ninety-four, the smallest number of new listings for any week this year. The year-over-year decline was even sharper. One hundred and thirty-six new listings were added to the MLS® system during the same week last year.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Stronger sales and weaker listing activity brought the first decline in active listing inventory that we’ve seen this year, however slight it was. The total number of residential properties that are currently available on the Saskatoon multiple listing service slipped by just one unit from last week to 1298. On a year-over-year basis, total active MLS® listings were up just 7.5 percent, continuing the trend that we’ve seen in recent weeks as annual gains have declined significantly. There are currently 758 single-family homes and 469 condominiums offered for sale on the Saskatoon multiple listing service®. At this time last year, these two housing categories stood at 717 and 436 respectively.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Cancelled and withdrawn listings dropped to just nineteen this week with fourteen of those properties returning to the system the same day with a new MLS® number and in most cases, a lowered asking price. An additional thirty-nine listings had a price adjustment while eight others expired without a sale.


Sales activity continued to favour the upper end of the market and the weekly median price took another increase to $318,000. The average sale price for the week also pushed higher gaining more than ten thousand dollars on the previous week to finish at $314,914. The six-week average sale price gained over five thousand dollars on the week to close at $304,885 to mark a year-over-year gain of nearly fourteen thousand dollars. The six-week median sale price was up sharply, also gaining fourteen thousand from last week to reach $309,000. Last year at this time the six-week median was just $279,900.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Overbid activity tripled from the previous week as six lucky sellers found a buyer willing to pay more than list price by an average of $3,509. Another four received a full price offer. Seventy-three of eighty-three sales closed at a price that was below asking by an average of $8,569 or a percentage discount of roughly 2.7%.


Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out here.


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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Please welcome guest contributor to TeamFisher.com, Rachel Vanderveen, a Calgary real estate blogger and home stager who is writing an eight-part series of home staging advice for our blog. This is part seven in that series. Rachel’s previous home staging posts can be found here.


Now that we’re in the final steps of staging our home, we need to get to the heart of un-decorating. Why is it that all of us stagers seem to want to take your house apart and make it so plain? Well, the answer you’re looking for is right there in the name of the job we do: staging. We’re setting a stage for buyers. Think of what you see when you go to the theatre. It’s not often that you see ornate sets and backgrounds. Even shows like the Phantom of the Opera have fairly minimal backgrounds. There’s not a lot to look at. The background just sets the scene; it doesn’t tell the story. The actors tell the story. I happen to have seen Rent on stage a few times, and when I think about the actors in that show, they sparkled. At one point, Mimi—clad in bright blue sparkly tights---actually flips her hair and a poof of sparkles actually releases out into the air. You hardly notice the iron rails she is dancing on when she herself is taking up so much space.


“Ok, Rachel, we get it; you’re a theatre geek, what does this have to do with selling a home in Saskatoon?”  The point is that the actors are the ones who have to fill the stage with whatever story they want to tell, and those who want to buy a home in Saskatoon, are the actors on the stage you’re setting. So what happens when you’ve left your story all over the stage? Well the result is confusion, and unsettledness. It would be like walking onto the set of The Lion King and trying to tell the story of Showboat. It doesn’t work. People need to be able to imagine theirstory unfolding on your stage, so our chief concern today will be making that stage interesting, inviting, and yet neutral and ready for any story that needs to be told. This is done mainly by de-personalizing. It’s hard to imagine raising your kids in a certain real estate listing, where you can see the photos of the children who live there, and the marks of the owners who are raising them. That’s not a blank stage. Saskatoon MLS shoppers will feel more like guests in someone else’s home, rather than being able to enter a residence and truly try it on for size.


So what needs to stay, and what needs to go? Well let’s start with all of the personal photos. Everywhere. Wedding photos, graduation photos, the whole nine yards. Gone.  “But, Rachel, I had my wedding photos professionally shot by an up-and-coming avant garde photographer; they’re really more art than personal!” Nope, sorry, those are personal, and in some ways they may even be worse than wedding photos taken in a studio. The problem we have with personal photos---no matter how well they were photographed---is that now we have someone who is honestly looking to buy Saskatoon real estate in your home, and they’re not looking at your home; they’re looking at your wedding photos! They’re ooohing and they’re ahhhhing, and they’re pulling their husband significant other away from looking at the home, in order to look at your photos. Once you have that happening, in many cases, you’ve lost them. This isn’t a home for them anymore. This is yourhome, and they’re just visiting.  So junior’s baseball championship photos, all of his trophies and ribbons, everything needs to come down to make room for the new junior who happens to be into soccer and math.


Most people who have made achievements in university or higher education like to post their certificates, degrees and diplomas in their study. This is a no-no. Not only is it pulling people out of the blank stage mentality, but it is also giving them cause to give you a stinky low-ball offer on your home. “Ohhhh, so this seller is a doctor? Reeeeaaaally? Well, then I guess he has gobs of money, and he doesn’t need to get his asking price on this property. They can afford to give me a few thousand dollars off.”


Then there is art work that may not have personal photos in it, but it’s pretty loud all the same. Your artwork should not draw attention to itself. Your artwork is in place to compliment the space and to reinforce your focal points. I once staged a home where a bachelor homeowner had a medieval sword hung above his bed. Is the sword cool? Yes. Is it a totally different approach to decorating? Yes. Is a sword appropriate to hang over the master bed for the purposes of staging? NO. That gives the opposite message that we want to give off. The whole scene of a “come-hither” environment is spoiled by such a hard image which calls up thoughts that are the last thing we want Saskatoon homebuyers thinking about when stepping into your master bedroom.


So what’s the main thrust here? You need to set a stage that looks like the “best life.” The kind of life we all hope to live, and isn’t really possible in reality….but darn it, we just keep trying!  Don’t know what that looks like? Pick up an issue of Canadian Home and Garden, that’ll start to give you a good idea! You don’t need to worry about spending the money on all of the expensive furniture and accessories, just take note in those pictures of what you don’t see, rather than what you dosee: no mess. No personal photos. Blank stage.


Good Luck! We’ll see you here next week for my final blog on how to give a five-star showing!


Until Next Time…


Blessings


Rachel Vanderveen is a Calgary Christian Real Estate Agent specializing in Calgary condos, South Calgary Real Estate, Calgary home staging , McKenzie Towne MLS Listings, and Auburn Bay Real Estate.  But more importantly, she is a mother to four adorable children, a lover of Auburn Bay Realty, and an avid writer of Auburn Bay Community News blogs. For more information on Calgary mls.ca, or searching mlslistings.ca, visit her website here.

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 11-15, 2011
Following two weeks of declining unit sales, Saskatoon real estate trades bounced back but remained lower than those recorded during the same week last year. Local agents reported seventy-six firm deals to the Saskatoon MLS® system, up fourteen from last week, but trailing last year’s number by nineteen.


At the same time, new listings of single-family homes and condominiums slid lower with 130 properties being added to the multiple listings database, eighteen fewer than last week and significantly lower than the 168 that were listed during the same period a year ago.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Total active MLS® listings continued on a seasonal upward trend as the number of Saskatoon residential listings grew by nearly forty units from last week, falling just short of breaking the 1300 mark at 1299. That number is up from 1180 at the same time last year, the smallest year-over-year gain that we’ve seen in months at just ten percent. Inventory levels were thirty percent above the previous year’s numbers as we entered 2011. The increase has been declining steadily since that time. Most of this week’s growth can be attributed to the single-family home category, which grew from 717 to 754 over a one-week period for annual growth of forty-nine homes. The current condo inventory sits at 475, up just six units from the close of the previous week for a year-over-year gain of almost sixty units.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Cancelled and withdrawn spiked to forty-eight properties with thirty-nine of those immediately returning to the system with a new MLS® number. An additional fifty-eight homes recorded a price adjustment this week, almost all of them lowered.


Fewer entry-level sales, and strong activity above the $400,000 mark pushed the weekly median sale price higher by more than forty thousand dollars to $314,950. The average price for this week’s house and condo sales followed suit, though not as sharply, gaining just under seven thousand dollars for the week. The six-week average sale price slipped just a few hundred dollars from last week, and settled at $299,555 for a year-over-year gain of just over nine thousand dollars. The four-week median price bounced higher by eight thousand dollars this week and finished at $295,000 for an annual gain of thirteen thousand dollars.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Overbid activity remained low with just two sales reporting a final sale price that was greater than the list price, with an average overbid of $8,550. An additional five sellers found a buyer willing to pay the asking price. Sixty-nine of seventy-six deals closed with an average discount of $9,011.


Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out here.


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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CREAeconomist Gregory Klump reports on MLS® sales and listings for the Canadian real estate market for March, 2011.



More from CREA's release.


Steady sales activity combined with fewer new listings tightened the national resale housing market. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of the balance between supply and demand, stood at 56.5 per cent in March. This kept the national housing market firmly entrenched in balanced territory, with March marking the firmest reading for national market balance in more than a year.


Based on sales-to-new listings ratios, more than half of local markets in Canada could be considered balanced in March, with two-thirds of the remaining markets considered to be as sellers’ markets.


Read the full release here.


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.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Please welcome guest contributor to TeamFisher.com, Rachel Vanderveen, a Calgary real estate blogger and home stager who is writing an eight-part series of home staging advice for our blog. This is part six in that series. Rachel’s previous home staging posts can be found here.


Now we get to the fun stuff: decorating. Actually in most cases, we will be un-decorating, but for those of you who live a little tooplain and minimal---not naming names... *ahem*… bachelors and the like---it may be time to add a few pieces to dress up your spaces and create interesting focal points in your rooms in order to make your home stand out on the Saskatoon MLS®. Most Realtors out there do not offer staging services, so you can bet that once you have your home neat, trim, and staged, your listing will make an impression on your pool of Saskatoon home buyers.


What are focal points, and why do we need them? Focal points are the parts of the room where your eye can rest when you enter, and which cause a calming and relaxed feel to visitors. Having several different focal points in the room tends to communicate to real estate buyers, a feeling of confusion and overwhelm. It just feelscluttered, even if it’s not.


So before we start into how to create interesting and inviting focal points, I need to take you right back to square one. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but we have to de-clutter a space before we can create a focal point. Once you have decided where your focal point is going to be, you need to seriously pare down the space around it to make sure that your vignette is going to get the attention it deserves.


So let’s use, for example, the great room. In this space your focal point will likely be your fireplace. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to create a similar feel. You can make a focal point out of tons of things, such as old musical instruments, a collection of hang-able antiques, old record albums, or framed sheet music. The options are only limited to your creativity, and to being neutral in colour. These are to be used in the great room only if you do not have a fireplace. However, I’m a huge fan of fireplaces in great rooms; if you don’t have one, you can buy them fairly inexpensively at your local big box store. These things are so easy to set up. Just open the box, assemble, and plug in. No saw, hammer, or nails required. Think in the neighbourhood of $500 for a basic one, and around $1000 for your more ornate feature fireplaces. Costco is also a good place to go for these fireplaces. This may seem like a big investment, but remember, you get to take it with you! Don’t forget to point out to your agent that the fireplace is not an attached chattel of the home, so that they can be sure to exclude it on the Saskatoon MLS® listing.


Okay, back to the example. So the fireplace is your focal point. That means that you should undress the rest of the room. Take it down to essentials. Keep the lamps on your side-tables, but take off the figurines, coasters, and magazines. Just keep it simple. Your focal point, however, should be interesting. You may decide to place a neutral urn on top of the fireplace, or neutral—yet eye-catching—picture in a frame hung above the mantle. Mirrors are also great to hang above the fireplace. In fact, I’m okay with mirrors hung just about anywhere. They open up the space, and can multiply the light available. Put bright throw pillows on your couch (make sure they all match and are one colour) and place them so the points, actually point towards the fireplace. The centerpiece on your coffee table should not block the view of the fireplace in anyway; it should be something that will help guide the eye toward it.


In the bedroom, your bed will likely be the focal point, just because of its sheer size. For that reason, again, I do urge you to consider a bed-in-a-bag, if you do not already own a modern set. A modern bedspread can have a huge effect on instantly modernizing a space. Be sure to have a head board in place. If you do not, you can construct one out of some wood, batting, and a length of fabric. Assemble with construction glue and a staple gun, and hang securely where the headboard is supposed to go. Above that I’d love to see a mirror that spans the width of the headboard, or a decorative item of the same length. Failing those large accessories, you can place three medium neutral items on the wall above the headboard, or five small ones.


Remember, it’s not about how much you have to decorate; it’s about how little you can use and still make the space interesting and above all inviting! Happy (un) decorating!


Rachel Vanderveen is a Calgary Christian Realtor specializing in Calgary condos, South East Calgary Real Estate, home staging , Calgary Real Estate Investment, and Auburn Bay Lake MLS Listings.  But more importantly she is a mother to four adorable children, a lover of Auburn Bay Real Estate, and an avid writer of Auburn Bay Community News blogs. For more information on Calgary mls.ca, or searching mlslistings.ca, visit her website here.  

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: April 4-8, 2011
Sales of Saskatoon houses and condos slipped again for the second consecutive week, shedding nine units compared to the previous week. Real estate agents reported just sixty-two firm sales to the local MLS®, down nine from last week and falling below sales recorded during the same week last yearby five properties.


Consistent with last year’s pattern, listing activity saw a strong surge and recorded the largest number of new MLS® listings for any week this year as 148 condominiums and single-family homes were introduced to the market. That’s an increase of thirteen compared with the week before but falls short of the number of homes listed during the sale week in 2010 by eighteen units.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


The total inventory of active MLS® listings posted gains as it has every week since the year began. The total number of residential properties for sale in Saskatoon reached 1260, an increase of thirty-five compared against the close of last week for a twelve percent year-over-year gain. That’s the smallest year-over-year gain that we’ve seen in several months. As of this morning, there are 717 single-family homes available for sale and 469 condos. Those numbers are both up from last year when there were 675 houses and just 397 condominiums showing an active status on the Saskatoon MLS® system. Year-over-year percentage gains for those two housing types are six percent and eighteen percent, respectively.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Cancelled and withdrawn listings fell substantially to just twenty-seven properties. As is usually the case, a large percentage of those homes (nineteen) immediately returned to the system posing as a “new listing.” An additional sixty-two Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking price hoping to improve their marketing position.


Sales activity at the lower end of the market picked up the pace as the weekly median sale price tumbled almost thirty-five thousand dollars from last week to $274,000. The average sale price of a Saskatoon home followed along slipping more than twenty-four thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis to finish at $297,186. The six-week average price managed to edge higher gaining almost two thousand dollars on the week to fall just short of $300K at $299,919. That’s up nearly fourteen thousand from the same week a year ago. At the same time, the four-week median sale price slipped 5K from last week to $287,000 but still managed to claim a year-over-year gain of about ten thousand dollars.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Overbid activity nearly feel off the map with just one lucky seller reporting a sale price that was greater than the asking price, and only by one hundred dollars. Six sellers did manage to get exactly what they asked. The other fifty-five gave up a few bucks at the negotiating table with an average discount of roughly 2.7 percent, or $8,145.


Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out here.


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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The following is the media release for the Royal LePage House Price Survey for the first quarter of 2011. The report focuses on year-over-year change in the prices of specific categories of housing in Saskatoon and other major real estate markets across Canada.


Saskatoon - Strong buyer demand offset by above-average inventory

The Royal LePage House Price Survey released today showed little year-over-year change in Saskatoon house prices. Sales activity was up year-over-year, but an above-average supply of listings tempered price increases.


Detached bungalow prices increased 0.9 per cent, selling for a first-quarter average of $331,250. Standard condominiums sold for an average price of $239,333 – a year-over-year gain of 0.4 per cent. Prices for standard two-storey homes fell 1.7 per cent, selling for a first-quarter average of $360,000.


“In the beginning of 2011, our inventory was 30 per cent higher than the same period last year although current levels sit at 20 per cent,” says Norm Fisher, Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate. “This has created significant competition among sellers.”


An over-supply of inventory helped create a buyer’s market, and Fisher believes mid-March changes to the mortgage rules helped boost sales by motivating first-time buyers to enter the market before the change took effect.


Nationally, low interest rates and a recovering economy continued to fuel activity in Canada’s housing markets over the past year, which has led to country-wide increases in average home prices. In the first quarter of 2011, the national average price of a detached bungalow rose 4.3 per cent year-over-year to $341,355, while standard two-storey homes rose 3.5 per cent to $379,388 and standard condominiums rose 4 per cent to $237,919.


“The rate at which Canadian homes are appreciating may well have peaked for the next year or so,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services. “We expect house prices will continue to creep up, but most of the excess demand created by the initial drop in interest rates has been satisfied, and affordability continues to erode slowly, allowing the listings supply to catch up.  In most markets, lower single digit percentage increases are more likely for the balance of the year.”


“Canada’s real estate market has maintained momentum coming out of 2010, indicating that the post-recession recovery is continuing,” Soper added. “While low interest rates continue to drive demand, the tepid pace at which employment levels are improving is tempering the rate of home price appreciation in many Canadian cities.”


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.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.


Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: March 28-April 1, 2011
Saskatoon real estate sales lost some steam on a weekly basis but made up some lost ground when compared against the same week last year. Agents reported firm sales on seventy-one detached houses and condominiums, down from eighty-four deals the previous week and ahead of the sixty-five units that traded hands over the same period in 2010.


After two weeks of softer than expected new listing activity, unit numbers spiked as home sellers brought 135 houses and condominiums to the Saskatoon multiple listing service®. That’s two dozen more than were listed the previous week but seven fewer than were offered for sale during the same week last year. New MLS® listings have trailed the previous year’s numbers for four of the past five weeks.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Still, total active MLS® listings (residential) took a gain that was as large as any we’ve seen in recent weeks, in spite of the fact that this week crosses month end, a time at which expiring listings are typically plentiful. The inventory grew by forty-two homes this week to finish at 1215, up from 1054 a year ago for an annual gain of roughly fifteen percent. On a weekly basis, the largest gains were seen in the single-family category, which moved from 669 to 693 while condo inventory edged up from 435 to 446. Those numbers are up from a year ago when single-family home numbers were at 630 and just 372 condos were showing an active status on the Saskatoon MLS®.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Cancelled and withdrawn listings surged higher with forty-three units being removed from the system prior to their expiry date. Twenty-six of those returned the very same day brandishing a new MLS® number and in most cases, a new price. An additional fifty Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking price. Twenty-one properties expired following a full listing term without a sale.


Sales activity at the lower end of the market was particularly weak pushing the weekly median sale price higher by nearly $53,000 to $309,900 to reach its highest point in eight weeks. Seven deals that closed for more than a half million dollars pushed the weekly average higher to $321,512 to reach its highest point in nine weeks. The six-week average sale price moved up two thousand dollars over the previous week to $298,087 maintained a year-over-year gain of nearly fourteen thousand dollars. The four-week median climbed by almost seven thousand dollars to $292,000 for an annual gain on about $18,000.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Overbid activity remained steadily weak in comparison to previous spring markets with just four sales registering a price greater than the asking price. However, the average overbid amount nearly tripled from the previous week to $5,462 thanks to a couple of ten thousand dollar overbids on homes priced below $300K. Sixty-six of seventy-one sales required some pencil sharpening on the seller’s side closing at an average on $9,313 below list price for an average discount of 2.8%.


Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings from all real estate brands with the most detail and information available anywhere. Check it out here.


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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Please welcome guest contributor to TeamFisher.com, Rachel Vanderveen, a Calgary real estate blogger and home stager who is writing an eight-part series of home staging advice for our blog. This is part five in that series. Rachel’s previous home staging posts can be found here.


As we work through the outer parts of the house and begin to move towards the inner parts, it may be tempting to start to believe that no one is really going to be looking at these parts as much as the main floor and living areas, but I can assure that this is not true. People will indeed look into the bedrooms, the closets, the pantries, and the bathroom cabinets. Some people may even open up your fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer to see what they could expect from an appliance that they may soon acquire. This week, I would like to move deeper into the master bedroom to see what needs to be done there to make it shine and stand-out on the Saskatoon MLS®.


Let’s start with the master bedroom and bathroom. Over the years, I have found that it is easier to tell clients what I do want to see, rather than what I don’twant to see in the bedrooms. So let’s start with the basics. First, I would like to see a bed, two nightstands, and two matching lamps. Anything else in the room should be sharply questioned in terms of whether it’s going to stay or go. All of your extra bedside materials will need to be boxed up. No books, glasses of water, prescription drugs, or eyewear. The tables should be totally clear. To make things easier, you may consider getting a small Rubbermaid bin for your nighttime accessories and sliding it under your bed.


If you have a dresser in the room, there should be lots of room for it. A good rule of thumb is that two people should be able to hold hands and walk all the way around the bed without hitting the dresser or the bed on any side. If you don’t have that kind of space in your room, I would strongly suggest removing the dresser. There are two reasons for this. The first one is the obvious one, and that is that the less we have in a space, the bigger the space appears to be. The second is that having an extra dresser in the room tends to say that there isn’t enough room in the master closet to store all of the clothes. If you’re like me, there probably isn’t enough room in the closet. This is why it’s important to pack up all the unnecessary seasonal clothes and store them away as mentioned in previous blogs.


Unfortunately, TVs in the bedroom are always going to be a big no-no. The same goes for video games. TVs in the room bring a harsh value to the space. The feng shui is all off. I would very strongly recommend removing them and boxing them up.


If you have the same bedding that you received as a wedding gift in 1994, I would suggest getting a bed in a bag from Walmart, Winners, or Home Sense. These products are worth their weight in gold. They can be purchased for a very low price and they come with sheets, comforter, bed skirts and usually a few throw pillows. Be sure to pick a neutral shade. Stick to browns, beiges, whites or creams. Being that your bed is the going to be the focal point in the room, you want to make sure that you make it look modern and inviting.


Moving into the master closet, be sure to follow the instructions of previous blogs by removing as much as you can. Remember, the less there is in the closet, the bigger it looks. Once you’re all done boxing everything up, colour block what is left.


When I describe the master bathroom to my clients, I tell them it should look “spa-like.” Totally clear the counters of all products. Buy a five-dollar shower caddy from Walmart and keep all of your products in there so that when you need to shower, you can take the caddy in with you, and when you’re done, you can place it back under the sink. You can keep a pump-able hand soap on the counter (no, you can’t have a bar of cracked and grey-stained bar soap) and a neutral vase with fake white flowers in them. Everything else should go. The only other thing I would like to see on the counter is three hand towels folded in perfect squares, and then three face clothes folded in perfect squares on top of those. Then on the very top, I want you to fold a fan or a swan to sit on top of the pile. You can find out how to do that here. On the floor by your tub or shower, take a basket and fill it with rolled up white towels, and place it where it won’t be in the way. I know this is not the way that people honestly live in their homes, but remember, we are selling an experience as much as we are selling a house in Saskatoon, so remember that every little bit counts!


The bathroom itself should shine from head to toe. Every surface should be polished and clean, and potential Saskatoon home buyersshould be able to walk into your shower and eat dinner off the floor. The most important spaces in your home to keep clean as a whistle are the kitchen and the bathroom, so don’t skimp on polishing time in these areas.


The master bedroom is one of the most serene spaces in your Saskatoon real estate listing. You need to make sure that this space tells a story to your buyers. So let your room be the main space of the house that says, “Come on in, and enjoy!”


Until next time…


Blessings


Rachel Vanderveen is a Calgary Christian Realtor specializing in Calgary condos, South East Calgary Real Estate, home staging and Calgary Real Estate Investment, and Auburn Bay Realty.  But more importantly she is a mother to four adorable children, a lover of Auburn Bay Real Estate, and an avid writer of Calgary Real Estate Blogs. For more information on Calgary Home Buyers, or searching mlslistings.ca, visit her website here.  

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The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for March, 2011today, accompanied by this release.


First quarter sales for 2011 continued to be strong. Saskatoon REALTORS® assisting 346 home buyers with the purchase of their dream home. This number was down 4% from March of 2010 when 359 homes were sold. Year-to-date, unit sales numbers stand at 821, up 6% from 2010 when the total stood at 772. The $300,000 to $350,000 price range continues to be the most active. The average number of days to sell in the month of March was 36.



The average residential selling price in March was $294,025. This number is up 4% from March of 2010 when it was $282,393.



REALTORS® listed 694 homes in March, down 6% from March of 2010 when 739 properties were listed for sale. Year-to-date, 1769 homes have been listed for sale, up 11% from when the 2010 first quarter ended with 1599 being placed on the market. Home buyers had 1219 homes to choose from at the end of March.



In areas surrounding Saskatoon, sales were very active with 91 homes selling, down 6% from March of 2010 when 96 homes were sold. REALTORS® listed 274 properties in these areas in the month of March. That number is down 9% from March of 2010 when 300 properties were placed on the market. Year-to-date, 664 properties have been listed for sale, up 9% from this time in 2010. The average number of days to sell in areas around Saskatoon during the month of March was 66.


The new home market remains strong with steady city lot sales taking place. Interest rates remain unchanged being favorable to purchase that next home. Job creation in the Saskatoon area remains steady. The forecast for the next quarter of 2011 is for listing and sales numbers to continue to balance and for prices level or move up slightly due to demand.


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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