Following one of just a handful of weeks in which sales fell short of last year’s numbers, Saskatoon real estate sales bounced back. Agents reported eighty-six firm and completed deals for a weekly gain of twelve, and a year-over year gain of thirty, according to stats pulled from the multiple listing service® today. New listings of Saskatoon houses and condos softened compared to last week, falling five units to one hundred and six, well ahead of the same period in 2010 when just eighty-six new listings were offered for sale on the MLS®. Click the image for a larger version of the graph.
Total active listings in the residential category slid sharply this week falling seventy-three units to just thirteen hundred and ninety properties reaching its lowest level in seven weeks. It remained modestly higher than it was at this time last year by eighteen units. The inventory of single-family homes declined thirty-four this week to settle at eight hundred and twenty, just eight fewer than were available at the same time last year. Condo numbers slipped by thirty-four units to four hundred and eighty-nine and maintained a gain of nineteen units compared against last year’s numbers. This is about the time when we would expect inventory and sales to have passed their peak weeks for the year, gradually declining through the balance of the year. Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
This week, there were forty-four cancelled and withdrawn listings. Twenty of those were reintroduced to the multiple listing service® as a new listing, most with a lower price. An additional forty Saskatoon home sellers changed their pricing strategy by simply reducing their asking price on their current MLS® listing. The median selling price of a Saskatoon home dropped more than twelve thousand dollars this week, settling just below the three hundred thousand dollar mark at $299,250. The average sale price of a Saskatoon home also slipped lower dropping roughly five thousand dollars on the week to $311,974. The six-week average sale price continued to trend lower for the fourth consecutive week falling about two thousand dollars from last week to $311,829 for a year-over-year gain of nearly sixteen thousand dollars. The four-week median sale price bucked the trend seen in other price measures gaining thirty-two hundred dollars to finish the week at $303,200 or about twenty-eight thousand dollars higher than it was during the same week last year. Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
Overbid activity continued to be soft with just three of eighty-six sales being recorded at a price that exceeded the list price. The average overbid was just two hundred and sixty-six dollars. Another nine sellers reported a sale at their full list price. Seventy-four buyers managed to grind themselves a bit of a deal with an average discount of $9,513 or just under three percent 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