The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) recently released the residential MLS® sales statistics for May of 2017. The text below comes from that release. We added the charts to provide some pretty visuals and some historical data that is not present in the SRAR releases.
Home sellers need to put forward their best efforts when pricing and presenting their home for sale in any market but especially now with a total of 2,112 active listings available in Saskatoon. This is a record number of homes for sale eclipsing the peak of 2,081 in June of 2015. “Pricing is the most important decision a seller can make, especially in a buyer’s market,” advises Jason Yochim, CEO of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®.
Of those properties listed for sale, just under 1,300 are single-family homes and about 850 are condominiums, with close to 500 of them being apartment style. Additionally, 350 of the apartment-style condominiums are priced between $150,000-350,000 making this a very competitive segment of the market. With 848 single-family homes priced between $250,000-500,000, there is a lot of choice for buyers who are being selective on what they want and what they are willing to pay. Homes priced over $500,000 total 278 with 76 of priced above $750,000. The MLS® system saw 1,035 new listings for Saskatoon in May, a seven percent increase over last May, and the highest number of new listings ever recorded in a single month.
In May, there were 423 sales in Saskatoon representing a seven percent increase compared to last May. So far, year-to-date, the total number of sales is down two percent to 1,459 units. The price range of $250,000-500,000 showed positive increases to the number of sales year-over-year. In May of 2017, there were 358 sales in this range compared to 329 last May. There was a 13 percent decrease in the number of sales priced between $500-750,000 in May of 2017. Year-to-date, there were 12 sales in excess of $1,000,000 in Saskatoon. Six of these sales were single-family homes, two were bare land condo units at the Willows and one was a downtown apartment unit. The highest selling price for a Saskatoon home this year was $2,000,000.
The average number of days required to sell a home in Saskatoon is 48. The five-year average for days on the market in May is about 41. Based on the number of sales that occurred in May and the number of homes available on the market, it would take five months to liquidate the current inventory of properties for sale. The average selling price continues to remain stable at $349,000. The median sale price also remains relatively unchanged year-to-date at $329,250. Although the total MLS® dollar volume was up 11.5 percent when comparing this May to last, dollar volume is down 1.3 percent to $670,000,000.
The market surrounding Saskatoon showed an increase in sales of 10.4 percent in May, however year-to-date sales in that market were down eight percent. The average selling price for this area is up seven percent this year to $331,450. This market includes the cities of Warman and Martensville as well as other surrounding communities and acreage property.
Jason Yochim, CEO, Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®