Saskatoon real estate week in review: March 4-10, 2012

Coming off of the strongest sales week this year, Saskatoon real estate sales plunged to levels more typical of winter months as local agents brought just 57 firm sales of detached houses and condominiums to the MLS® system this week for a weekly decline of nearly 40 units. Sales for the week closed behind the same week a year agoby ten properties.

New listings also took a dive with just 117 new house and condo listings being added to the Saskatoon multiple listings service® this week, down from 167 last weekand below the numbers seen during the same period of 2011 when 125 properties were offered for sale.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The inventory of active residential listings on the Saskatoon MLS® system finally saw a notable increase after stalling out for three consecutive weeks. At the close of this week’s activity, 1024 residential properties showed an active status on the system. That’s up 34 properties from the close of the previous week but still substantially lower than it was at the same date in 2011 when 1139 homes were available to prospective buyers. The annual decline is most significant in the condominium category, which has slipped to just 337 homes, down from 431 at the same time a year ago. Single-family inventory is off by 44 from levels seen a year ago to 599.

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This past week, there were 30 property listings that were cancelled or withdrawn for the system. Another 43 Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking price while nine others came to the end of the term of their listing and saw it expire without a sale.

The average selling price of a Saskatoon home edged higher again, picking up a little more than nine thousand dollars compared to last week to finish at $323,465. The median sale price finished up, about as much as the average as it finished the week at $325,000. The six-week average price inched up just a few hundred dollars this week to $319,178 for an annual gain of about 24K, while the four-week median slipped lower on a weekly basis to $314,900 finishing higher than it did a year ago by $22,400.

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Overbid sales lost some luster falling from 12 last week to just seven this week. The average overbid remained pretty high at almost $16,000. Another five sellers got their full asking price while 45 of this week’s 57 sales closed below the asking price by an average of $8,298.

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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 Vidorra