New listings continued to significantly outpace last year’s early activity for the fourth consecutive week as agents brought 129 single-family homes and condominiums to the Saskatoon MLS service®, up just one from last week, but a gain of thirty-two properties compared against the same week in 2010.
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Naturally, the total inventory of residential listings on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® made another move higher gaining forty-one listings from the close of last week to finish at 1041, thirty percent higher than it was at this time last year when 801 residential properties displayed an active status on our system. Today, you’ll find a total of 567 single-family homes and 414 condominiums that are still available to buyers, up from 449 and 309 respectively on a year-over-year basis.
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Listing cancellations and withdrawals came on a bit stronger this week at thirty-four. Nineteen of those made an immediate repeat appearance on the system as a new listing. An additional thirty-nine Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking prices hoping to take advantage of reasonably strong market activity.
Prices moved higher, thanks largely to more upper end market activity including one sale that closed at almost $900,000 and another at $730,000. The median price for the week closed up over twenty thousand dollars compared to last week at $300,950. The average sale price of a Saskatoon home spiked higher by nearly thirty thousand dollars on a weekly basis to $308,089 to finish lower than it did during the same week last year by roughly four thousand dollars. The six-week average price moved higher by thirteen hundred dollars compared to last week to finish up sixteen thousand dollars over the same week last year. The four-week median edged up on a week-over-week basis to gain almost two thousand dollars and close at $289,900 for an annual gain of just three thousand dollars. Overall, year-over-year gains have softened quite substantially in recent weeks.
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Overbid sales nearly fell off the chart as just one lucky seller bagged an above list sale with a $2500 overbid. Six others managed a deal at their full asking price while sixty-five of seventy-two closed transactions were reported to have sold at a price below the list by an average of $9902, a discount of roughly three percent of the asking price.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart. 
Over the past week I’ve been asked if the pending changes to mortgage rulesare impacting the Saskatoon real estate market. For those who haven’t heard, the maximum amortization period for a CMHC insured mortgage will be reduced from thirty-five years to thirty years, effective March 18. There seemed to be some general consensus that the two-month notice period might push some buyers off of the fence and encourage a quick purchase. I suspect that’s probably happening. January closed with a year-over-year sales increase of ten percent, but that increase couldn’t realistically be attributed to a change that was just announced on January 17. Most sales go through a process that requires at least a week to firm up and be counted in the sale numbers. February, on the other hand, is producing some pretty robust numbers with 200 firm sales having been reported already. There were a total of 236 home sales for the entire month of February in 2010, so we’ll clearly finish the month well ahead of last year. For those who plan to sell this year, the next thirty days may hold some advantages for you compared to the following few months.
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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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