Saskatoon real estate activity increased again over the second week of the new year. Local REALTORS® reported 68 firm Saskatoon home sales, up by eight units from last week to more than double sales for the same week last year when just 30 homes were reported sold. In the middle of January, we are showing a 28% increase annually.

New listing activity fell lower from 161 over the year’s opening week to just 127 units. That’s 18 fewer homes than were offered up for sale on the multiple listing service® over the same period last year.

Active listing inventory managed to make some gains, despite the increase in sales and the corresponding decrease in new listings. 

This morning, buyers had 993 options in the residential category of the MLS® system. That’s up just 18 from last week’s close. At this time last year, there were 1,331 Saskatoon homes for sale. It seems clear that there is significant momentum behind growing demand. Couple that with weak inventory levels, throw in some record low-interest rates and it looks like an interesting spring is ahead of us.

Buyers currently have 433 single-family homes to choose from. That’s up just six from the close of the previous period, and down nearly 340 units annually, a 43 percent decline. Condo inventory is at 497 today, an increase of nine from my last report, and a gain of three annually.

Now, let’s have a look at the balance between supply and demand. After falling to a low for the past six months of 238 sales, thirty-day sales began to rise again, this week hitting 240 units. With 993 active listings, that brings our months of inventory measure to 4.1, technically in balanced territory across the broader market. There’s no change to the months of inventory measure from the week before. 

Now, thirty days sales will continue to grow each week for the next few months, and with any luck, inventory will follow. The number of active listings appears to be the only thing keeping the market from exploding.

With just three sales reporting a price above $500K, and an impressive 24 sales below the quarter-million-dollar mark, the weekly median sale price made a rare appearance below $300,000. This week, that measure came in at just $295,750. You’ll recall that last week the four highest priced sales (averaged $1.3 million each) had pushed the average sale price for the week sharply higher. Absent those, this week’s average sale price tumbled roughly 90K to just $313,387.

Looking at price numbers over a slightly longer period of time, we see the six-week average price lose some ground. It slipped eight thousand dollars this week to $346,611 while maintaining year-over-year gains of twenty-one thousand dollars. The four-week median price fell again, now for the fourth consecutive week. It came in at $312,000 which is 15K below last week’s number, but up $12,000 annually.

After a complete shut-out last week, we saw three homes reported to have sold above the asking price by an average of $3,400. Meanwhile, 57 of the week’s 68 home sales reported a price below the seller’s asking price with an average discount of $11,491.

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. 

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to receive updates on the Saskatoon real estate market and insights I've gained managing thousands of real estate transactions.

TeamFisher.com hosted over 350,000 user sessions in the past year and displayed more than three million pages to our visitors. If you have a Saskatoon area home you'd like to sell, we know how to get people looking at your home. Reach out to me directly to engage our team and learn about our processes.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra