On the heels of one of the Saskatoon real estate market’s quietest weeks this year home sales rebounded from 52 last week to 75 this week. That was enough to finish up when compared against the same week last year. During that period 72 Saskatoon homes were reported sold. As we enter the final week of November sales appear to be shaping up for a better month than October proved to be. As of today’s date, we are behind last November by just a small handful of sales, eight to be exact. We’d need another week like this one to come in near even with November of 2014 but even if next week sees the softness that was present last week we shouldn’t be down by more than ten points by the time the dust settles. October sales fell short by 24 percent.
The number of new listings added to the multiple listing service also surged higher on a weekly basis. A total of 143 listings were added to the inventory, up from 118 last week, but just slightly below additions over the same week a year ago when 147 Saskatoon homes were brought to the MLS®. That’s the second consecutive week that listings were down on an annual basis, even though just slightly. That’s only notable because it’s the first time it has happened this year.
The inventory of active residential MLS® listings continued to trend lower, slowly but surely, slipping 32 units over the course of the week to fall below 1900 for the first time since April. We closed the week with 1885 active listings for an annual increase of 334 homes, the smallest year-over-year increase in several months. As of this morning, the database of properties for sale includes 1060 single-family homes, 25 fewer than could be found on the system last week, but up from 907 a year ago. Condo numbers sit at 637 today, down from 658 last week, up from 495 at this time last year. If listings follow the typical historical trend, and they should with over 600 properties scheduled to expire, they’ll drop like a rock over the next thirty days, but that means little at this time of year. January and February will set the tone for what will be experienced next year. Once the numbers (both listings and sales) bottom out by the close of the year they’ll start their climb by week two of the new year.
The median price of a Saskatoon home managed to head higher this week by nine thousand dollars to hit $359,000. More upper end activity also pushed the average sale price ahead to $357,210. The six-week average price saw more modest growth as it inched higher by just a few hundred dollars to close the week at $355,175 to lose nearly 12K when compared against the six-week average recorded at the close of the same week last year. The four-week median price grew by close to five thousand dollars from the previous week and finished up at $349,950. That’s just 50 bucks shy of where it was one year ago.
Eight home buyers showed some extraordinary motivation to grab the house they wanted to own, with six coming in with a full price offer and two going over the seller’s asking price by an average of $5100. Meanwhile, 67 of the week’s 75 sales cl;used below asking price with an average discount of $11,814 being recorded. A quick look through the list and sale prices shows the product under $300,000 dishing up some of the larger discounts, the biggest being a Nutana area condo which was likely well overpriced at $289,900 being sold for $250,000. There’s a wake-up call for someone.
Other notable real estate activity this past week included 80 cancelled and withdrawn listings (72 and eight respectively), 50 expired listings and 78 price changes.
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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra