Saskatoon real estate week in review - August 17-21 2009

It was a week that may have brought pleasant memories of better days to local home sellers as Saskatoon real estate agents reported one hundred and fourteen house and condo sales to record the biggest week this year; if fact, the biggest week since late April of 2008. Unit sales finished twenty-three higher than last week, and more than doubled compared to the same week in 2008when just fifty-four Saskatoon homes traded hands.

New listings held steady at one hundred and one properties, down just one home from last week, but thirty-three units fewer than were listed over the same period last year. This week was one of just three in the past twenty months during which the number of unit sales exceeded the number of new listings.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The active inventory of Saskatoon MLS listingsresumed its slide, which was temporarily stalled last week, and fell nearly fifty units from 1213, to finish the week at 1165 properties. Active listings are down roughly thirty percent on a year-over-year basis, dropping five hundred and two units from 1667 last year at this time. As of today there are six hundred and seventy-six single family detached houses for sale, approximately thirty-eight percent fewer than were available last year at this time when the inventory of houses climbed to 1,067. Condominium inventory sits at three hundred and eighty today, twenty-two percent off of last year’s number of four hundred and eighty-eight.

Fifty-six home sellers adjusted their asking price through the course of the week and fourteen of thirty-one canceled or withdrawn listings came back to the system as a new listing, most sporting a new price.

In spite of brisk sales activity and falling inventory the average selling price of Saskatoon homes maintained some steadiness, inching up just slightly from $281,095 last week to $282,464. The six-week average fell by approximately twice as much slipping to $282,459 from $285,337 the week before, and remained down from the same week last year by roughly seven thousand dollars. The four-week median took a bounce and reached its highest point in a year, increasing five thousand dollars from last week to $280,000, just five hundred dollars below the number recorded at this time in 2008.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

While the underbid chart looks similar to last week’s, overbidding made a remarkable comeback in just one week as eleven sales were reported above the seller’s asking price, by $9,605 on average. Most of the overbid sales were in the $3,000-$5,000 range, but one new home sold near $650,000 at $66,500 above the asking price, driving the average higher. Perhaps more interesting to me is the fact that eight of the eleven overbid sales come from one Willowgrove condo development. Given that it took sixteen months to sell thirty-one of thirty-five units available at this development, it seems uncanny that eight properties should be reported sold in a single week, and somewhat mind boggling that all eight sales should come in above the asking price.

Another eight properties sold at the asking price, and ninety-five sellers negotiated an offer below their list price. The average underbid on properties that sold for less than the list price slid slightly lower, falling from $10,734 last week to $9,605, an average discount of roughly 3.3 percent of the asking price.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra