Saskatoon real estate week in review: June 22-28, 2014

The number of homes that traded hands through the local MLS® system reached a new high for the year as Saskatoon real estate agents reported 125 firm deals on houses and condominiums this week. That number represents an increase of five from a busy last week and is up just two from sales closed during the same week last year. Interestingly, this was the week that sales reached their peak for 2013. I would say that there’s a good chance that will be the case again this year. Typically once we move out of June we have passed the peak weeks and can expect to see sales decline slowly but surely until they hit the skids in December.

The number of new Saskatoon real estate listingsalso continued to moderate recording their smallest number for any week since early March. Local agents brought 154 house and condo listings to the multiple listing service®, 18 fewer than the previous week and falling short of numbers generated over the same period last year by two, a rare occurrence this year.

A week of strong sales and fewer new listings brought the total number of residential properties listed for sale on the Saskatoon MLS® system lower for the second consecutive week, somethings that’s occurred just once before this year. Today, there are 1554 homes available to Saskatoon home buyers, down just nine properties from a week ago, but still well ahead of the 1289 homes that were available at this time last year. At present we have 945 single-family homes available, up from 770 a year ago. Condo inventory sits at 484, up from 429 at the close of June last year.

A good mix of sales in all price categories removed the skewing that pushed the average sale price of a home to a new annual high last week. This week, that number came in thirty five thousand dollars lower at $352,050. The weekly median price slid lower by about twenty thousand. Meanwhile, the six-week average price of a Saskatoon home also slipped off of its annual high dropping a little less than a thousand dollars from last week to $363,254 to finish about 11K ahead of where it was a year ago. The four-week median price managed to gain seventeen hundred dollars from last week to hit its annual high of $351,600 and take a year-over-year increase of more than thirty one thousand dollars.

The number of homes that sold at a price greater than the asking price tumbled to just three. Those deals netted the seller an average bonus of $933. Another 11 sales closed at full price. Finally, negotiations on 111 of this week’s 125 closed transactions saw the buyer earn an average discount of $9,321.

Other notable activity through the Saskatoon multiple listing service® included 51 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 7 expired listings and 59 price changes.

Highlights from the news this week

Don’t get complacent about risks of a housing downturn:OSFI - Financial Post

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate