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Saskatoon real estate week in review: December 13-17 2010

Saskatoon real estate week in review: December 13-17 2010
Local home sales numbers fell below the fifty-unit line this week as Saskatoon real estate agents reported just forty-one firm sales of single-family homes and condominiums, a decline of fourteen sales from last week, and down just as much from the same week last year. If unit sales follow the typical seasonal trend they’ll remain below fifty for the next four to five weeks before beginning a pre-spring ascent.


New listingswere surprising high given the fact that the holiday season is now upon us. Fifty-three new house and condo listings were added to the Saskatoon multiple listing service® this week, nine fewer than were offered for sale last week, but up on a year-over-year basis by twenty homes.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Total active residential listingscontinued to trail lower losing twenty-nine units over the course of the week to finish at 967, up 202 properties from this point in 2009. As of this morning, there are 527 single-family homes and 382 condos available on the Saskatoon MLS®, both numbers down from last week, but up from 437 and 280 respectively, year-over-year. As the year draws to a close, all of the speculation about where active listings might trend are put to rest. In hindsight, 2010 active listings flowed neatly between the highs and lows of the previous two years all year, with the two previous years switching sides at half time. We’ll almost certainly finish with a larger inventory that we had at the close of last year, likely by a hundred units or more, but there doesn’t appear to be a huge surplus of properties moving into 2011. Today, there are 185 residential MLS® listings showing an expiry date between now and January 1 so it is even possible that inventory could close 2010 even closer to 2009 levels.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Sixteen MLS® listings were cancelled or withdrawn from the system this week with half of those returning immediately as a new listing and sporting a new price. An additional twenty sellers adjusted their asking price in a last ditch effort to get a deal done this year.


Encouraged by upper end market activity that was nearly non-existent last week (weekly median price increased to $320,000 from just $270,000 last week) the average selling price of a Saskatoon home bolted higher gaining more than forty thousand dollars on the week to reach $321,710. The six-week average price moved far more modestly, but also headed higher gaining twenty-three hundred dollars from last week to finish at $311,927, roughly twenty-four thousand dollars above last year’s number. The four-week median actually slipped lower by nine hundred dollars to $297,000 to claim a gain of seventeen thousand dollars when compared with the same week a year ago.


Click the image for a larger version of the graph.


Thirty-seven of forty-one homes sold this week were reported to have sold below the seller’s asking price. The average discount was $9,894 or roughly 3.1% of the advertised list price. Two Saskatoon home sellers managed a deal at full asking price and another two sold above their list for an average gain of just one hundred dollars, but hey, times are tough. :) Click the image for a larger version of the chart.


As 2010 draws to a close, I’d like to take just a moment to say thank you for making our website part of your routine. It’s been another rewarding year for TeamFisher and having the opportunity to share with you and hear your thoughts has been a big part of that. I hope we’ll see a lot of you next year as well.


Regardless of whether or not you celebrate through the holiday season, I hope the next couple of weeks provide a special opportunity for you to spend some time with those you love. I hope you’ll find some time to slow down, relax, refresh yourself and reflect. I hope that you can look back on a year that was full of pleasant surprises and special moments, but regardless of what you see in the rear view mirror I wish you and yours the very best for the year that is ahead of us. I truly hope it’s the year that you knock one out of the park, a year where everything just goes your way. Cheers!


I will publish a week in review for this coming week, though we’ll most certainly hit the publish button Sunday, instead of Saturday.


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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