Saskatoon real estate week in review: January 25-31, 2015

The local housing market took another jump forward as residential real estate sales increased for the second week in a row. Saskatoon real estate agents reported 61 firm deals to the multiple listing service® for weekly growth of 15 sales, but still falling short of numbers generated over the same week last yearwhen 70 sales hit the system. It’s looking like January will wrap up with about 180-185 residential unit sales. That’s well off of last January’s 227 units (a roughly 20 percent decline), and the first time we’ve seen a year-over-year decrease in sales since July, the only month that occurred last year.

The number of new MLS® listings that were added to the system saw some big declines this week reaching their lowest level since the start of the new year at 140 homes, down 41 from last week, but still higher than the number added during the same week last year when new listings registered at 133 Saskatoon homes.

A decent sales week, and fewer new entrants to the MLS® listing market created a kink in the inventory line that has been climbing fiercely since the start of the year. As of this morning the multiple listing service® shows 1447 active residential listings within the city of Saskatoon, up just 16 from the close of last week for the smallest weekly gain this year. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that those levels are up over last year by 306 homes, an aggressive annual increase by any standards.

The number of single-family homes for sale in Saskatoon registers at 823 this week while condos sit at 482. Somehow I neglected to record those numbers this week last year. If I recall correctly, I was probably enjoying a Red Stripe at Reef Watch in lovely Jamaica and I took a short cut to the post’s close. Yeah, mon.

In spite of some ups and downs with the weekly average, which slipped lower to $331,000 this week, prices remain pretty resilient even with tougher conditions for sellers. The lower average was caused by far fewer sales at the high end of the market as the median price slid to $326,500. The six-week average price of a Saskatoon home stayed stable on a weekly basis at $351,344 but fell below last year’s number by about a thousand dollars. The four-week median price edged higher to grow by $1,200 from last week. It reached $336,250 to find itself up on an annual basis by about eight thousand dollars.

Four sellers managed to close an above list sale with an average bonus of $11,725 while 53 buyers made off with a negotiated discount averaging $8,202. The other four closed deals were reported as being sold at the asking price.

Other notable real estate activity this past week included 37 cancelled and withdrawn listings (35 and two respectively), 21 expired listings and 36 price changes. Get the most current market intelligence with our FREE Market Snapshot including prices of homes recently sold in your area. Get it here, now.

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.

Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra