And we’re off!  The first week of the new year is behind us. Most typically one of the two final weeks of December brings us to the annual low point for Saskatoon real estate sales and listings. Now, whether it’s a strong or a weak year, sales begin to grow and climb towards the spring peak. I’m excited to share with you what’s happening through 2022.

After reaching an annual low of just 26 sales last week, Saskatoon real estate agents reported a total of 41 residential sales to the MLS® system this past week. While up from the previous period by 15, sales fell lower on an annual basis by 20.

The new listing activity followed a similar pattern. Local agents added 123 new residential listings to the multiple listing service® to record a gain of 96 units on a weekly basis but finished down annually by nearly 40 units.

In spite of a week that produced far more new listings than sales, the inventory of Saskatoon homes for sale fell again, now for the 16th consecutive week. This decline is largely due to a number of listings that were canceled and removed from the system, and a hefty number of listings (81) that expired since our last report. 

There are currently just 833 active residential real estate listings in Saskatoon, lower than the previous week’s close by 39, and further down by 77 units on a year-over-year basis.

Eager buyers have 380 options in the single-family homes category, down just six for the week, and lower annually by 47. 

There are also 400 Saskatoon condos for sale. That represents a drop of 22 from the week before and a decline of 86 units when compared against numbers recorded at the close of the same week last year.

30-day sales continued to fall, as expected, this week reaching an annual low of just 225. Here’s what “months of inventory” look like today.

All residential - 833 active listings / 225 sales = 3.7 month supply (up 0.3 months from last week and now up for the fifth consecutive week)

Single-family homes - 380 listings / 143 sales = 2.7 month supply (up 0.4 months from last week, and improving for the third week in a row).

Condos - 400 listings / 70 sales = a 5.7 month supply. (the same as last week and approaching buyer’s market territory).

After a week with far fewer than normal upper-end sales, activity at the higher price points grew, as transactions below 200K fell. With that, the weekly median price bounced up again to reach a more typical level, $365,933. The weekly average sale price of a Saskatoon took a bigger bounce after having fallen below 300K for the first time in 2021 last week. This period, it grew to $376,080.

Looking a little longer-term, the six-week average price tumbled just over 10K this week to settle at $366,644. That’s higher than it was at this time last year by twelve thousand dollars. The four-week median price, meanwhile, grew by 10K from the previous week to hit $345,000 to take annual gains of $18,000.

 

For the first time since the opening week of 2021, there was not a single resale home that sold for more than the seller’s asking price, proving again that those buyers who were willing to engage in a negotiation over the last 10-15 days of December were not likely to encounter competitive bids. There were 36 sales that went below the seller’s proposed list price by an average of $13,453.

Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that this chart may show over-list price sales, even when I have reported the number as 0. Those sales are typically new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely sold and included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. For example, a new home listed at $450,000 sells at a price of $490,000 after 120 days on the market may have included a basement development that was not anticipated in the listing price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.

More weekly stats and numbers for those who love them. 

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Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra