It’s one of those weeks that doesn’t really have much to say. As is typical for Christmas week reported sales fell hard, partly due to the season, and patly due to a three day work week at the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS®, the organization that hosts and manages the local MLS®. Still, Saskatoon real estate agents posted 26 residential sales for the week, the lowest number of weekly sales reported since the opening of 2015. This week’s numbers are down 20 units from the previous week and two below numbers recorded during the same week last year. Another sluggish week will follow before numbers begin their slow but steady increase into the spring.
Remarkably, 46 Saskatoon homes were added to the Multiple Listing Service®, well below the 100 new listings added last week, but enough to top those that entered the system during the same period last year when just 32 were added to the inventory.
The total number of active residential listings remained stubbornly high for this time of year as we closed the week with 1648 homes for sale, down just 42 from a week ago and well above the 1284 homes that buyers would have found on the Saskatoon MLS® a year ago. As we enter the final stretch to year end, another 245 listings are set to expire before the calendar turns. It remains to be seen how many of those sellers will choose to extend their unsuccessful run in hopes of attracting buyer early in the new year. Taking a closer look at specific housing types we find 913 single-family homes for sale, down just 13 units from the count a week earlier, well up from the 759 that could be found showing an active status on the system a year earlier. Condo inventory slipped 36 units from where it sat a week ago to 568 finding itself up from 368 a year ago.
Far fewer sales typically plays havoc with the price measures. The median price paid for a Saskatoon home fell lower this week to $315,000 even as the average price bounced back from last week’s low to reach $344,387 a number more typical and more likely representative of the “average” for the year. The six-week average price stayed stable on a weekly basis at $355,011 to take some gains on a year-over-basis as it grew by a bit more than five thousand dollars. The four-week median price gained $250 on the week to reach $347,250 for an annual increase of about sixteen thousand dollars.
Saskatoon home sellers who did bag a sale worked hard for it at the negotiating table. While three of them found a buyer willing to pay full asking price, ghost town like conditions when it came to home showings prevented any of them from finding an above list price sale. On the other hand, 23 of this week’s 26 buyers ground themselves a discount averaging $13,913 which will be one of the largest average breaks recorded this year, which isn’t unusual for Christmas week.
Other notable real estate activity this past week included 26 cancelled and withdrawn listings (20 and six respectively), 46 expired listings and seven price changes.
As the year draws to a close I’d just like to say thanks again for showing up and reading our blog. We appreciate you. All our best for an amazing 2016!
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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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