Saskatoon real estate week in review: January 5-11, 2014

There are two things that you can pretty much count on in this business. Firstly, home sales will peak in the spring and then begin a slow steady decline until they bottom out in December. Secondly, that homes sales will begin a slow but steady increase starting in January until they peak in the spring. This year will be no different and for this second week of the new year the Saskatoon real estate market began its push forward as local agents reported 44 homes firmly sold, up from 32 last week to finish just two ahead of sales for the same week last year.

It usually doesn’t take too long for sellers eager to get the jump on the spring market to get out of the gate either. This year they may have been stumbling over each other had it been an actual race as a whopping 166 Saskatoon home sellers broke away from the starting line. That’s a weekly increase of 96 listings and a year-over-year increase of 70 homes.

Naturally, a soft sales week and a hefty listing week has an impact on the total inventory of active residential MLS® listings. After slipping by nearly 100 units as the month of December closed, they took an upward bounce this week adding 59 homes to close the week at 1091 for an annual increase pushing the 200 unit mark. Today’s totals show 665 houses, up from about 566 a year ago and 337 condos, an increase of roughly 55 units from inventory levels recorded at the close of this week last year.

A growing number of sales brought price increases in all but one category. The average sale price of a Saskatoon home surged forward more than thirty thousand dollars to $350,007 while the median sale price for the week edged up just thirty-five hundred dollars to $313,500. The six-week average moved higher following seven consecutive weeks of declines. It gained a bit more than four thousand dollars over the week to finish at $340,972 and closed the week lower than it was a year ago by about 24K. The four-week median price was the only one measure that slipped lower as it lost about fifteen hundred dollars and slipped to $323,450 to find itself lower than it was the previous year by almost thirty five thousand dollars.

Buyers saw some of the largest discounts we’ve seen in awhile this past week as 34 of 44 sales closed below the seller’s asking price by an average of $13,152. The remaining deals wrapped up at full list price. Not a single seller saw an above list price offer this week.

Other notable MLS® activity this week included 51 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 26 expired listings and 26 price adjustments.

Highlights from the news this week

Modest growth in local house prices - Star Phoenix
Housing market on solid footing - Globe and Mail
Housing prices going up in 2014 - CTV News
December 2013 housing starts remain stable for sixth consecutive month - CMHC
In 2024, all homes will be dream homes - globeadvisor.com Key takeaways for Canada’s housing market in 2014 - Global News
Sellers to benefit in strong spring housing market- BNN

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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 Saskatoon Real Estate