On the heels of a very busy week for listings, new MLS® listingsslipped lower this week falling 33 units from the previous week to 145 houses and condos, still well above numbers generated over the same period of 2011 when just 118 properties were offered up for sale.
Total active MLS® listings in the residential category continued to advance at a slower rate than we would hope for at this time of the year. By the close of the week, the residential inventory had inched up just twelve units from the previous week to 1120 homes. That’s down 15 percent from the previous year’s numbers, which stood at 1310 at this point in the year. A search of the agent MLS® today shows 662 single-family homes (detached houses) and 381 condominiums that display “active” as their status. Last year at this time, those two Saskatoon housing categories stood at 753 and 489 respectively.
With active inventory down 15 percent and units sales showing a year-to-date increase of 12 percent, Saskatoon housing prices are seeing some upward pressure. There seems to be some general consensus that the nine percent increase we see in average prices is somewhat skewed by a growing number of transactions at the upper end of the market, there’s little doubt that buyers who are purchasing homes priced below $450K are paying more than they might have a few months ago.
The average price of a home sold in Saskatoon last week was $353,256. The median climbed nearly twenty-three thousand dollars to $344,900. Both of our longer-term measures reached new record highs as the six-week average gained five thousand dollars on a weekly basis and reached $342,732. That’s up about thirty-two thousand dollars from the same week last year. The four-week median price saw a weekly gain of just over two thousand dollars and hit $339,900 for a year-over-year gain of thirty-one thousand dollars.
While there are clearly a growing number of situations where multiple offers are being generated on homes, particularly those priced below $400K, buyers are rarely making offers above the asking price. Only four such sales were recorded this week. When it happened, the overbids were fairly strong averaging $8,600. Another 16 lucky sellers managed to close a deal for the full asking price while 71 of this week’s 91 sales required some pencil sharpening on the seller’s part, to the tune of $10,117 on average.
Other notable activity on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® this week included 36 cancelled or withdrawn listings, 11 expired listings and 41 price changes.
Highlights from the news this past week
CMHC set to be under OSFI supervision? – Financial Post
Government fixes mortgage market, but will it work? – Financial Post
Flaherty moves to tighten CMHC oversight – CBC News
CMHC could be pulled out of mortgage insurance business: Flaherty – Financial Post
Home prices move higher in March – Globe and Mail
Canadian home price gains slow – Financial Post
Flaherty on why Ottawa is increasing oversight on CMHC: Video – Globe and Mail
Ottawa trains its sights on hot housing market – Globe and Mail
A housing crisis of global proportions – Globe and Mail
Sask. GDP up 4.8 percent - Star Phoenix
Saskatoon home prices rise - Star Phoenix
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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate
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