It was one of those rare weeks in which sales increased on an annual basis. Saskatoon real estate agents processed a total of 77 firm home sales through our local MLS®, down nine from the previous week, but topping sales for the same period last year, also by nine. The number of new residential listings that were added to the multiple listing service® database remained steady at 209 to match last week’s numbers. That falls well short of the 260 Saskatoon homes that came up for sale during the same week in 2017.
For the 15th consecutive week, the number of residential properties offered for sale through the MLS® remained at four-year lows (comparing year-over-year numbers) even as they pushed higher from the previous week to close the period at 1999. That represents an increase of 44 listings from last week and an annual decline of 231 homes for sale. As usual, the majority of those inventory declines can be counted in the single-family homes category where total listings now sit at just 1061, down from 1243 a year ago. Condominium listings total 816 as of Saturday morning, down just slightly from 825 a year earlier.
There was some solid upper-end activity this week, included a sale that approached the $1.5 million dollar mark. However, with 31 sales reporting a price of less than $300,000 the weekly median price fell lower to $324,900 even as the average sale price for the period spiked higher and grew by more than 20K to reach $349,988. The upper-end activity was enough to move the six-week average price higher. It grew by four thousand dollars compared against last week’s number to finish the week down on an annual basis by just fourteen thousand dollars. That’s the smallest year-over-year decline we’ve seen in nearly two months time. Meanwhile, the four-week median price gave up last week’s gains and came back down to $320,000 which is now just thirteen thousand dollars below where it was a year ago, and also showing the smallest annual declines in a couple of months.
A little bit of competitive action led to three overbid sales this week, one paying the seller a $2100 bonus, and the other two coming in at just $100 over the list price. Some solid activity in new homes led to 10 sales being reported at the asking price. On the flip side of the negotiating table, 64 Saskatoon home buyers made off with a discount that averaged $14,560.
Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ratio looked like on this week’s sales. Please note that those sales that do show a sale price that is greater than the list price are all new properties that spent some period of time on the market, and most likely included additional improvements that were not reflected in the original list price. We report these to you as “at list price sales”, which is likely too generous in some cases, but it’s simply not practical to obtain the full details of each sale.
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
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