Saskatoon real estate sales sputtered some as just 46 single-family home and condo sellers reported a firm sale on their property, down from 69 sales the previous week, and 76 for the same week last year. Residential unit sales for the month of January will come in well below numbers produced last year. They’ll also fall short of claiming that “second best January” prize, but SRAR’s final report due for release next week should show home sales exceeding the five-year average for the month. All things considered, not a bad start to a year that should prove itself both interesting and challenging.
Eighty-eight houses and condos were offered for sale on the Saskatoon MLS this week, up just three units from last week and a gain of five properties compared to the same week last year. Additionally, twenty-one of thirty-four cancelled listings came back flagged as a new listing. The final week of January brought its share of expired listings once again and total actives dropped to 1,124 as the month closed. Currently, there are 688 detached houses and 363 condominiums for sale through real estate agents. That’s down about fourteen units from the close of December. I expect that the coming week will likely see a fairly significant surge in new listings as a good portion of this week’s expired properties come back to the market.
Home prices picked up some steam on a year-over-year basis. The weekly average came in at $290,407, up from $268,072 last week, and up over $40,000 from the same week last year when an average sale price of $246,829 was recorded. This sharp change can at least partly be attributed to a number of high-end home sales including two units that sold for more than $500K and one that topped the $1 million dollar mark. The six-week average price remained stable compared to last week at $273,965, roughly $19,000 ahead of last year’s number of $253,008. The four-week median saw some slight gains rising to $265,000 from $262,000 the week before, and up from $250,000 a year earlier.
In addition to the price changes on the canceled/re-listed properties mentioned above, another sixty-four reductions were recorded this week. Townhouse prices took a bit of a blow as three projects adjusted prices by about $20K in an effort to move some inventory. These units (no longer available) had broken the $300,000 mark at one point and are now available as low as $247,000. A number of re-sale owners will need to give some thought to their price position in light of this change.
Buyers played ball just a little harder last week. Only 22% of sellers managed a sale within $5K of listing price, compared to 35% a week earlier, while the $5,001 to $10,000 range grew from 22% to 30%. The $15,001-$20,000 range more than doubled to 13% this week and the $20,001-$25,000 saw some growth rising to 11% of sales from 8% the week before. Discounts greater than $25K were fewer, falling from 9% last week to 7% this week. “Overbidding” was nearly non-existent as just one property seller managed a sale above asking price.
That Saskatoon condo seller priced 10% below the most recent comparable sale and buyers lined up for a shot at it. A bold move which delivered the desired result quickly, if not painlessly. Only one other seller managed to get full asking price.
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 Viorra
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