Please note that the association’s comments often touch on “year-to-date” numbers, and some of their comments may touch on sales within the association’s full trading area. The charts that you see on these posts , as always, reflect data for activity within the city if Saskatoon on a month-to-month basis over the past five years.
Active listings in the Saskatoon market have exceeded the 2,000 unit mark for the first time. This is significantly higher than the five-year average which is just over 1,500 units. At the current rate of unit sales in May, it would take just under 5 months to liquidate the current inventory.
Unit sales, year-to-date total 1,583 units which is a 15 percent reduction from the same period last year. The five-year average for unit sales is 1,700 units for the first five months of the year.
In spite of the rising inventory and declining sales, the average price remains virtually unchanged. This appears to be due to a greater decrease in unit sales in certain price ranges below $500,000. "For this reason average price can be misleading and the expert advice of a REALTOR® should be sought when deciding on price,” cautions Jason Yochim, CEO with the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®. "The decision where to price a home when selling, or what should be offered when buying, is the single most important decision that most of us will make and should not be taken lightly."
On average it takes 45 days for a home to sell in Saskatoon which is approximately 20 percent longer than the average of the past 4 years.
According to the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI), single family property values are beginning to level off for most areas of the city. The HPI measures residential price trends based on four benchmark home types, with the index set at a base of 100 for January 2005. The HPI is a more accurate way to measure housing price trends than the average or median price. As summer approaches it is expected that prices will start to decrease slightly overall. This would be based on inventory levels continuing to remain high and sales decreasing slightly from the spring market activity levels as they traditionally do.
"It should be kept in mind that the past couple of years have been exceptionally good years for the real estate market and today's sales levels are more reflective of the norm,” adds Yochim. The five-year average for May sales in Saskatoon is 445 units which is marginally more than the 422 unit sales last month. The sales to listing ratio was at 43 percent which is still within balanced territory. A balanced market is considered to be when 40-60 percent of the homes that are listed for sale end up with a sale. In recent years this number has been closer to 50 percent. New construction appears to have cooled off with a significant decrease in the number of permits issued in 2015 compared to last year. As of the end of April, 268 permits were issued for fsingle-family homes compared to 466 for the same period in 2014.
Jason Yochim Chief Executive Officer - Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®
Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it<a href="http://teamfisher.com/find-out-what-prices-homes-in-your-area-are-selling-for-and-how-fast-theyre-selling"> here</a>, now.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is<a href="http://www.teamfisher.com/contact.html"> here</a>. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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