New listings of Saskatoon houses and condos came on equally strong this week as 133 properties were brought to the market, not including the twenty-four homes which were canceled and re-listed. Ninety-two single-family homes and forty-one condos were offered for sale over the course of the week. Total active residential listings continued on an upward path growing by fifty units to finish the week at 1,394 properties including 857 houses and 453 condominiums.
Some of you have been watching the price graph wondering if we’d see an eventual intersection of lines, and if so, when. This was the week that it happened as prices showed year-over-year declines using all three value measures. The least significant is the weekly average, which often spikes around. It slid $20,000 below last week’s number to finish at $260,953. The six-week average moved nearly $7,000 from the week before to finish at $268,144 down about $4,500 from the same week last year. The four-week median saw similar changes sliding $6,500 from the previous week to $253,500, down from $260,750 for this week in 2008. All of the gains for 2008 are now but a memory, a sad reality for some and a hopeful sign for others who may have wondered if the ship had sailed without them.
Some have suggested that a rally is nearly imminent and that prices will be pushed to record highs in the months ahead. I have to say that it would be one heck of an impressive thing to see, and almost certainly the biggest adrenaline rush of my lifetime to participate in.
Can this market turn on dime? I suppose it’s possible, but frankly, it seems fairly improbable. It seems far more likely we will be facing our little period of year-over-year downs that has found most real estate markets around the world. We have some near impossible numbers to beat to avoid it. Last March, the average selling price of a property in the residential category was $289,440. This year, were sitting at $255,455, month to date. If the magical real estate fairies brought us another hundred unit sales at the highest weekly average we’ve ever seen($332,000) we’d still finish March below last year’s number. Take comfort in knowing that we are rapidly moving back towards healthier market conditions, a market in which an average Saskatoon family can afford to buy an average Saskatoon home, and one in which an average Saskatoon homeowner can find a buyer for their home in sixty days or less. This is the spot we should be hoping to find again. It’s a pretty happy place in the real estate world.
This week’s average underbid grew in dollar amount and percentage of list price to $11,363 and 4.2% respectively. The percentage of sellers who bagged an offer within $5K of their asking price remained steady at thirty-five, while the $5,001-$10,000 category slid slightly from thirty-five percent last week to twenty-nine. The following two categories ballooned, nearly doubling over the previous week, while the two categories representing the largest discounts saw just five percent of sales, nearly one-third of the number seen the previous week.
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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