The number of new listings added to the multiple listing service® moved in the opposite direction as 213 homes came to the market, somewhat inflated by a rash of renewed listings that had expired the week before, and a healthy dose of canceled listings that were brought back in hopes that some inattentive buyer might actually think it was “new.”
Active residential MLS® inventory pushed to a new record high of 1827 homes, well up from 1760 at last week’s close, and significantly ahead of the 1369 homes that were available at this time last year. Again, history would suggest that we have ten to twelve weeks of upward growth ahead of us. Today’s supply of single-family homes is at 1,030 properties, up from 824 a year ago. Condo inventory now sits at 600 units, up from 435 at the close of the same week a year ago.
Lack of selection is certainly not a problem. It’s going to be a challenging year for home sellers. The smartest of them will expect fussy buyers at home showings and they will prepare accordingly. This is a time when even small problems mean big discounts, or no offers. Your preparation time will go a long way towards making your life easier. More importantly, your price is going to need to be attractive. Being “in-line” with the price of other active listings basically draws a “who cares” response from buyers. Fix it up, price a few thousand dollars below your competition, hire a good REALTOR® who understands the market, and marketing (we are available), and you will still draw decent offers in a reasonable period of time. Greed will cost a seller equity right now. This is a time when the details matter, both in how you present your home and in how it’s marketed.
Following a week of unusual softness in the average sale price of a Saskatoon home, that number bounced back to reach $349,337. A fair bit more upper end activity also caused the median sale price to recover from just $309,000 a week earlier to $347,250 this week. Higher sale prices over the course of the week couldn’t stop the six-week trend of a softening six-week average price which slipped to its lowest point this year, $338,999. That number is roughly sixteen thousand dollars lower than it was a year ago. The four -week median price took a small upward turn to increase three thousand dollars from last week. At the close of business Friday, it was at $333,000 for a near seventeen thousand dollar year-over-year decline.
In spite of growing listings and softer sales, a couple of sellers us showed us that buyers will still pay more than asking price for a well prepared, well priced home. Two deals were reported to have close above the asking price by an average of $2,800. This week’s activity saw another eight sales close at the full asking price. Meanwhile, 56 others sold below the listed price with a historically modest discount averaging $8,925.
Other notable real estate activity this past week included 73 cancelled and withdrawn listings (68 and five respectively), 11 expired listings and 64 price changes.
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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
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