New Saskatoon real estate listings outpaced home sales this past week by nearly two to one leaving total active listings of single family homes, condominiums and duplexes at 479 units, the highest level we’ve seen this year. Residential real estate activity in Saskatoon produced some good news and some bad news for both buyers and sellers. Here are a few of the highlights as I see them.
- Second highest number of new Saskatoon residential real estate listings for any week this year, topped only once during the week of May 14-18.
- Second lowest number of unit sales for any given week since I began the “week in review.” The week of July 2-6 saw fewer sales at 63 units.
- In four of the five Saskatoon real estate areas the percentage of listings which sold for more than list price was very close to 50%. Strong performance in Area 1 (almost 80%) skewed the overall average up to 62%.
- Average list prices and average selling prices reached their highest level this year.
- The average overbid was the lowest we’ve seen since the week of March 26-30.
- 17 listings in the categories described above expired or were withdrawn from the market without a sale.
These weekly stats combined with some of the marginal changes which we’ve been seeing in recent weeks, start to give the impression that there is some kind of a trend towards a more balanced market. While prices remain very strong we are seeing a smaller gap between the average list price and the average selling price. If inventory continues to grow we will eventually see a more meaningful connection between the two.
You’ll notice a new column in the chart this week. Last week, Doug Hay commented on the fact that while the “average overbid” was consistently present in my review; there was no reporting of an “average underbid.” Initially, I thought that there was little significance to those numbers given the small percentage of homes which were selling below list, and the fact that much of the pressure associated with the real estate transaction comes with competitive bidding. I didn’t think that they would be particularly instructive. However, I decided to delve into them as a bit of an experiment and found that there may be something there that others might find interesting. One should keep in mind that the average underbid is subject to some skewing by extraordinary sales like one in area 1 which sold for $772,500 against a list price of $819,500.Many of the under list sales are within a few thousand dollars of asking, as are many of the over list sales. My thanks to Doug for the little push on this.
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.
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Norm Fisher Royal LePage Vidorra