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Saskatoon real estate week in review: February 16-22, 2014
Firm sales of Saskatoon homes continued to track last year’s numbers fairly closely this week as agents reported 67 deals to the local MLS® system, a drop of 11 from the previous week to finish ahead of the same week last yearby two sales.


New listingsalso slipped lower as Saskatoon real estate agents added just 111 houses and condos to the multiple listing service® database to bring us the slowest week for new listings since the first week in January.  This week’s listing numbers are down by 18 homes on a weekly basis and lower than they were for the same period in 2013 by just one property.


A reasonably strong sales week combined with a drop in new listings brought the total inventory of Saskatoon homes for sale on the multiple listing service® lower. By the close of the week the total number of residential listings sat at 1203, down just nine from last week and still well ahead of levels recorded at the same time list year when home buyers had 1027 properties to choose from. This coming week may bring a bit more relief to inventory numbers. At present, 66 properties are set to expire from the system over the next week. Today, buyers can find 697 single-family homes for sale, up from 609 a year ago. Condominium numbers sit at 391 up from 326 last year.


Sales at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market performed strongly again. The median sale price of a home grew by more than twenty thousand dollars to $360,000 while the average jumped a more modest eleven thousand dollars to $369,209. The average price of a Saskatoon home over the last six weeks continued on an upward trend. That number has increased for six of seven weeks this year pushing to $354,319 for a weekly increase of about thirty-five hundred dollars and an annual bump of nearly 24K. Meanwhile, the four-week average price, after sitting rather flat for the first two months of the year, moved higher. It gained almost thirteen thousand dollars over last week to finish up from levels recorded at this time last year by about sixteen thousand dollars.


Two lucky sellers completed a deal with a buyer willing to pay more than list but both overbids were modest at just $100 each. Fifty of the Saskatoon real estate sales recorded this week were completed below the list price to net the buyer an average discount of $8,436. The remaining 15 sales were reported to have sold at the full listed price.


Other notable MLS® activity this week included 33 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 9 expired listings and 38 price adjustments.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: February 9-15, 2014
The Saskatoon real estate market saw increased sales this week as local REALTORS® reported 78 houses and condos sold to the multiple listing service®, up 14 from the previous week to finish ahead of volume recorded during the same week last yearwhen 69 homes traded hands. This is the third consecutive week that sales have finished higher on a year-over-year basis.


Meanwhile, the number of new listings fell lower this week. Saskatoon real estate agents added 129 properties to the MLS® system this week, three dozen fewer than we saw just last week, but well up from the same week a year ago when just 91 properties were added. As with sales, new listings are up annually for the third week in a row.


Inventory continued to push higher this week breaking the 1200 mark for the first time this year. At the close of business, 1218 active MLS® listings could be found in the residential category, an increase of 25 from the previous week’s close, up more than 200 units (20 percent) from levels recorded at this time last year. Today, buyer’s will find 710 single-family homes showing an active status, up from 590 a year ago. Additionally, there are 381 condominiums for sale on the MLS® system, up from 322 last year, also an increase of close to 20 percent.


Higher end home sellers saw some decent action this week with the four highest priced residential sales generating about $3.5 million dollars in volume. The median sale price of a Saskatoon home jumped more than ten percent from last week reaching $337,450 while the average priced spiked higher to $357,850. The six-week average price bounced out of the loss it saw last week coming back up to $350,820 for an annual increase of roughly thirteen thousand dollars. Meanwhile, the four-week median held firm with very little change on the week. It finished the at $324,625 for a year-over-year loss of close to three thousand dollars.


While 13 Saskatoon home sellers managed to find a buyer willing to pay their full asking price buyers were reluctant to overbid this week. Just one seller closed a deal above their asking price with a $1,600 overbid. The remaining 64 house and condo sales concluded with a contract to sell below the asking price by $14,453 on average. This number is 40-50 percent higher than it has been most weeks thanks to an area two luxury listing that sold $175,000 below asking price.


Other notable MLS® activity this week included 44 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 11 expired listings and 32 price adjustments.


Highlights from the news this week

How Canada’s new immigration rules could slow high-end real estate sales - Financial Post
Is the real estate market cooling down? First wait for the heat - GlobeAdvisor
Consumer debt hits record but Canadians getting better at paying it back- Financial Post


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

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The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), released national sales statistics for the month of January, 2014 recently. According to the CREA, "The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations and other co-operative listing systems fell 3.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis in January 2014. This marks the fifth straight monthly decline, and leaves activity 9.1 per cent below the peak reached in August 2013."
Highlights of CREA's report    
  • National home sales fell 3.3% from December to January.
  • Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 0.4% above January 2013 levels.
  • The number of newly listed homes edged up 0.2% from December to January.
  • The Canadian housing market remains in balanced territory.
  • The national average sale price rose 9.5% on a year-over-year basis in January.
  • The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 4.8% year-over-year in January.
Read the entire report on Canadian MLS® sales for January, 2014.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

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If you purchased a home in 2013 you may qualify to claim a $5,000 tax credit if you and the home you bought “qualify.” Check this short video or read on below it to find out if you and the home qualify.


Do you qualify?


You or your spouse or your common-law partner must have purchased a qualifying home in 2013.


You must not have lived in another home owned by you or your spouse or common-law partner in the year of acquisition or in any of the four preceding years. Does the home qualify?


The home must be located in Canada and it must be registered to you, your spouse or your common-law partner. You or a disabled relative must move into the home within one year of purchase. The home can be new or used. Types of homes that qualify include:

  • Single-family houses
  • Semi-detached houses
  • Townhouses
  • Mobile homes
  • Condominium units
  • Apartments in duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, or apartment buildings

I qualify! How do I make the claim?


Enter $5,000 on line 369 of Schedule 1 of your federal income tax return.


More on the tax credit from the Government of Canada.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

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The Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors® (SRAR) released the MLS® residential real estate statistics for January of 2014recently accompanied by the following release.


Please note that many of the association’s comments touch on “year-to-date” numbers, and some are based on all sales within the association’s full trading area. The charts which you see, as always, reflect activity within the city of Saskatoon on a month-to-month basis over the past several years.


Unit sales appear to be strong so far in 2014. January recorded 331 sales compared to 297 for the same period in 2013, an increase of 11 percent. The number of units listed also increased by 13 percent with 958 new listings bringing the total inventory in the Saskatoon market to 1,324. In January of 2013 there were only 1,061 properties on the market. Many homes priced between $500,000 and $750,000 saw reduced asking prices late last year. Buyers appear to have responded accordingly with sales in this range increasing by 84 percent with 35 units sold year-to-date.


Two other factors of interest are the sales-to-listing ratio and the months of inventory. These two indicators will vary greatly depending on price range. The sales-to-listing ratio compares the number of newly listed homes to the number of sales for a given period. With homes priced between $350,000 and $650,000 the sales to listing ratio averages 28 percent. However, with homes priced over $650,000 this ratio drops to just 14 percent. At the lower price range (below $350,000) one out of every two homes is selling.


The number of months of inventory is simply determined by dividing the number of sales for a period by the number of properties available on the market. When looking at inventory priced below $350,000 there is three month supply of homes. With homes priced between $350,000 and $550,000 there is more than six months of inventory while homes priced between $650,000 and $750,000 face a 20 month supply. Overall the number of months of inventory in Saskatoon hovers just below six months. According to Jason Yochim, Executive Officer with the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®, "The more months of inventory, the longer a seller can expect to wait for a sale. This just means that there are a smaller number of sales relative to what is available for sellers to select from.”


The Saskatoon MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) reflects market trends for five specific property types as well as a composite of the Saskatoon market. The HPI works similar to the Consumer Price Index using a benchmark price and start date of January 2005. The composite benchmark price for Saskatoon had reached its peak in May of 2008 at a value of $308,900. By January of 2009, with the market adjustment, it had dropped to a low of $258,700. The market then began a slow climb until October of last year reaching a new high of $312,600, however, by years end the composite benchmark price declined to $306,600. "Since October of 2013 the Saskatoon MLS® Home Price Index had been trending slightly downward, indicating a shift to more of a buyers' market especially in the higher price ranges." states Yochim. "The recent burst of activity in January should arrest that decline."


"Irrespective of the stats, every home is unique in its own way and every seller's situation is unique. Trends in the market will affect sellers directly. To find out how, it is highly recommended to contact one of the more than 600 professionally licensed and trained REALTOR® members of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®. REALTORS® subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are dedicated to developing professional standards and continuing education in the real estate profession.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call of email me.


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: February 2-8, 2014
Saskatoon real estate sales continued to track last year’s numbers quite closely through the second week of February. Local REALTORS® reported 64 firm deals of houses and condominiums this week, down six from the previous week to finish ahead of the same period last yearby 15 home sales.


New listings, on the other hand, took off like a raging bull with 165 houses and condos being added to the Saskatoon multiple listing service® database over the course of the week, up 32 from last week to finish well up on new listings for the same week last year when just 118 properties were added to the system.


As usual, a good number of the “new listings” recorded on the MLS® system were actually doing the old cancel/re-list trick. There were also more than two dozen listings that came to the end of their term without a sale. Some of those were certainly re-listed. Those two factors kept the total number of active listings on the Saskatoon MLS® lower than you might have exacted they’d be with that kind of a sales to listings disparity. Still, after a short pause last week, active listings (all residential types) surged higher to reach 1187 for a weekly increase of 46 and a year-over-year gain of 178, leaving us with more inventory than we’ve seen before mid-March over the past five years. Today, single-family home options sit at 701, up from 590 at this time last year. Condo inventory is currently at 369, up from 329 a year ago.


The median sale price (the price point at which half of all sales are above and half are below) of a Saskatoon home slipped lower this week to $300,000. With sales above $500,000 accounting for just a small handful of the units sold this week, the average sale price of a local home took a solid plunge slipping to $326,996. On the heels of four consecutive weeks of gains to the six-week average sale price, we finally saw its first decline this year as it slipped to $336,835 for a weekly decline of a bit more than five grand and an annual drop of eighty-five hundred dollars. The four-week median price slipped four thousand from last week to reach $324,450 and finished the week roughly where it was a year ago.


Sellers hoping to land an above list price offer were largely disappointed as just one buyer showed any willingness to overbid. That deal netted the seller an additional $5100. Another seven buyers said yes to a full price offer. Meanwhile, 56 of this week’s 64 firm deals closed lower than the seller’s asking price with an average discount of $8,761 being reported.


Other notable MLS® activity this week included 42 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 28 expired listings and 24 price adjustments.


Highlights from the news this week

Saskatoon’s east-west gap closing - Star Phoenix
CMHC sees home prices rising this year - Globe and Mail
Why Canadians don’t see low inflation in their bills - Globe and Mail
Sub 3% mortgages are in sight again - Financial Post
Home prices 10% overvalued: TD - Canadian Press via Star Phoenix


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.


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 Saskatoon Real Estate

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Saskatoon real estate week in review: January 26 - February 1, 2014

I’m away on a bit of a break this weekend so we’re giving you the shortened, commentary free version of this week’s Saskatoon real estate activity. Thanks very much for reading.


Saskatoon real estate sales for the week of January 25-31, 2014



Active Saskatoon real estate listing on the MLS at January 31, 2014



Average and median prices for Saskatoon homes sold January 25-31, 2014



Saskatoon real estate statistics for MLS home sales from January 25-31, 2014


Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now. 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 Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA) IDX Reciprocity listings are displayed in accordance with SRA's MLS® Data Access Agreement and are copyright of the Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA).
The above information is from sources deemed reliable but should not be relied upon without independent verification. The information presented here is for general interest only, no guarantees apply.
Trademarks are owned and controlled by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Used under license.
MLS® System data of the Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association (SRA) displayed on this site is refreshed every 2 hours.