Saskatoon real estate week in review: October 21-27, 2012

Saskatoon real estate sales came back from what felt like a brutal slide last week as local agents reported 77 firm house and condo deals to the multiple listing service®. That’s a gain of 24 sales compared to last week, up just one from the same week a year ago. New MLS® listings continued to cool. Just 99 properties were added to the system. That’s the smallest number of new Saskatoon real estate listings since January. Those numbers were lower than last week by 17 but ahead of the same week last year by five.

Residential real estate inventory on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® slipped lower this week to 1168. While that number is down just 24 properties from levels seen a week ago it is the lowest number of listings available since May. This week’s final number comes in with about 47 fewer properties available than we could find on the system at the same point in 2011. Today, buyers can find 702 single-family homes and 377 condos on the MLS®. Last year at this time we had 747 single-family homes and 394 condominiums showing an active status.

Prices didn’t see much change this week by any of the measures we track except the weekly median price which slipped lower by more than eighteen thousand dollars to $301,500. In spite of an unusually low count of Saskatoon home sales above the $500,000 mark, the weekly average sale price fell just six thousand dollars to $320,311. Meanwhile, the six-week average sale price remained steady on a weekly basis at $326,521 which is actually lower than it was a year ago by a few hundred dollars. This would be the first week this year where the six-week average price has slipped lower on an annual basis. At the same time, the four-week median sale price managed to inch up by one thousand dollars this week to $321,000 to claim an annual gain of roughly eleven thousand dollars.

For the second week in a row, overbid sales were a complete non-factor. Ten lucky Saskatoon home sellers did manage to obtain a full price offers to wrap up a deal on their home while 67 of this week’s 77 sales were reported to have sold below the asking price by an average of $8,843.

Other notable MLS® activity this week included 46 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 8 expired listings and 32 price adjustments.

Highlights from the news this past week

Station 20 West in Saskatoon opens its doors - Star Phoenix
Are we worrying ourselves into a housing crash? - Financial Post
Flaherty eyes privatization of CMHC - Globe and Mail
Canadians would feel the squeeze of higher interest rates: BMO - Financial Post
Wretched excess a recurring theme in these home ads - Star Phoenix
Higher mortgage rates would hit households hard: BMO - Globe and Mail
What if interest rates went even lower? - Financial Post
Carney digs in heels on consumer debt - Globe and Mail
Home prices 3.6% higher in September than a year ago - Globe and Mail
Bank of Canada’s Carney says rate hikes will be gradual - Reuter’s Canada
Home ownership still achievable - Star Phoenix

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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 Saskatoon Real Estate