Saskatoon real estate week in review: June 14-18 2010

It was the highest volume sales week out of the last five with Saskatoon real estate agents reporting firm sales on eighty-three detached houses and condominiums, up from seventy-two last week but falling short of the numbers for the same week last yearwhen ninety-eight home sales were closed. This was the fourth consecutive week of year-over-year sales declines, a trend that is likely to continue through the summer, perhaps with the odd exception. You may recall that unit sales were just beginning to ramp up at this time last year, spurred by massive interest rate cuts.

On a weekly basis, new listingsstayed level as one hundred and fifteen properties were added to the Saskatoon MLS® system, just eight more than were listed during the same period in 2009.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

After remaining fairly steady for three consecutive weeks the residential listing inventory had showed some signs that it was ready to turn lower this week and by Wednesday it had dropped to 1,386 properties. Friday saw a surge of forty new MLS® listings and total inventory actually moved higher by ten units on a week-over-week basis to finish at 1,416 properties, just fifty-one fewer than were available at the same time last year.  Single-family inventory grew the most jumping fourteen units to reach 842. At the same time, condo inventory slid slightly losing four units to finish the week at 500 even.

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Cancelled and withdrawn listings remained steady at forty-one with twenty-five relists quickly following, most at a lower price. An additional eighty-five price changes were processed over the course of the week, the largest number that I can recall for quite some time, but not at all surprising given the softening in sales activity over the past four weeks.

Prices continued to slip back from the wild bounce they started on two weeks ago when an unusually large share of high-end sales skewed the numbers up. This week, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home slipped $26,000 from the week before to finish at $284,057. The six-week average dropped $3,000 from the previous week to $297,001 and finished $22,000 higher than it was at this time last year. The four-week median lost $3,500 on the week falling to $286,500 to pick up a gain of $17,500 over last year.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Seventy-four of eighty-three sales traded below the asking price with an average discount of roughly 2.8% or $8,378. Five sellers got their price while four managed a bit of a bonus as buyers agreed to pay an average of $3,075 more than list price.

Click the image for a larger version of the chart.

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.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra