After posting two consecutive record weeks for this calendar year, new listings of Saskatoon homestook a tumble and fell to their lowest level in the past five weeks with just one hundred and thirty-six properties offered for sale, a decline of thirty-two units compared to last week, but still exceeding the number of houses and condos listed during the same week in 2009 by four.
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In spite of strong sales and weaker listing activity, the inventory of Saskatoon residential listings continued to grow gaining thirty-four units over the previous week to finish at 1,214. Still, total active listings sit roughly two hundred and fifty units lower than they did at this time last year. This week, the majority of the gains were counted in the condo category, which moved from 416 to 436, while single-family homes picked up just ten units over the week to finish at 717.
2008 and 2009 numbers provide little insight into what we might expect this year as the two could hardly be more different. The inventory started to grow late in 2008 and didn’t peak until September. The following year, we see inventory taking off earlier but peaking at lower numbers in early May. This year, inventory began to grow early like it did in 2009 but the growth line is clearly sharper and looking quite a bit more like 2008’s line.
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Cancelled and withdrawn listings amounted to thirty, but as usual, the majority of them (twenty-four) came back on the market during the same week bearing a pretty “new listing” banner with days on the market reset to zero. Additionally, a whopping seventy-one price changes were recorded with sixty-five of those moving lower and six edging higher. The inventory that saw increases were mostly new condos in the low $200’s, and two single-family homes priced in the mid $400’s.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home pushed slightly higher on a week-over-week basis gaining thirty-two hundred dollars to $299,399 and picking up gains of fifteen thousand dollars compared to the same week last year. The six-week average inched up just eight hundred dollars from last week and finished twenty-seven thousand dollars higher than it was at this time last year to close the week at $291,153. The four-week median selling price of a Saskatoon home was $279,900, lower than last week by two grand but twenty-thousand dollars higher than the number recorded during the same week in 2009.
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After an unusually large spike in overbid activity last week, above list price sales took a dive and accounted for just three of the eighty-eight sales reported. The average overbid went in the opposite direction increasing by close to four times to $19,112. It was driven higher by one sale that went over by $45,000. Given that it was a new home, on the market for close to one hundred days I expect that the price probably included additional improvements that were not included in the asking price. Ten sellers managed to get their full asking price. Seventy-five negotiated with their buyer to the tune of $7,410 on average.
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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