Saskatoon real estate week in review-December 28 to January 1 2010

A total of twenty-five single-family homes and condominiums were reported sold to the Saskatoon MLS system over the past week,a drop of five from the previous week, but nearly double the number that traded during the same period last year.

Thirteen new listings were offered for sale over the past seven days, down two from last week, and lower on a year-over-year basis by nine properties.

Saskatoon home sales exceeded new listings for the third consecutive week, a fairly common occurrence at this time of year as people are generally not inclined to be listing a home for sale over the holidays unless they really have to get a move on. Throw in one hundred and five expired listings this week and watch the total listing inventory tumble to just six hundred and fifteen properties, about fifteen percent lower than last week’s close, and in fact, approaching seasonal norms for the first time in twenty months. We saw similar activity during the final week of 2008 when nearly fifteen percent of active listings fell out of the system but close to half of them returned the following weekas sellers put the holidays behind them and got back to work on the selling effort. I expect we’ll see equally strong listing activity next week. As of this morning there are 353 single-family homes and 220 condominiums showing an active status, down from 671 and 358 respectively at this time last year. Based on December’s final sale numbers of 211 units we now have less than a three-month supply of homes, a seller’s market by most definitions.

This week, there was just one cancelled. Three sellers adjusted their asking price.

Following four exceptionally strong weeks for home prices, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home slid lower falling about forty–two thousand dollars from last week to $268,336, but still managing to finish ahead of last year’s average by roughly three thousand dollars. The six-week average found higher ground breaking $290K for the first time this year and reaching its peak during this final week of 2009 at $291,889, twenty-two thousand dollars higher than it was for the same week last year. The four-week median moved in the opposite direction falling just over seven thousand dollars to $276,750 and finished roughly thirty-three thousand dollars higher than it was during the closing week of 2008.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The average underbid fell to $8,997 from $10,420 last week, for an average discount of 3.1% of the asking price, down from 3.4% last week.

Does anyone have a 2010 predictions they’d like to share?

Happy New Year, and thanks again for reading.

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.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra