Saskatoon real estate week in review: October 3-7, 2011

A large number of month-end expired listings that quickly returned to the market caused the number of new listings to skyrocket this week. Saskatoon real estate agents brought 143 house and condominium listings to the MLS® system, a gain of 61 units compared to last week, and up 47 from the same week a year ago. Meanwhile, sales numbers moved in the opposite direction falling 21 units from the previous week to finish at 68 but still managed to exceed the numbers recorded during the same week of 2010 when just 61 Saskatoon homes changed hands. Click the image for a larger version of the graph. The large gap between sales and new listings caused total number of active listings available on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® to move higher. At the close of the week, there were 1266 residential listings showing an active status on the system. That represents a gain of nearly seventy units when compared against the close of the previous week and puts us right on par with listing numbers for the same time a year ago. On a weekly basis, the single-family inventory grew by 40 units to 763, while the condo category grew by 15 to 435. At he same point in 2010, those categories stood at 770 and 427, respectively. Click the image for a larger version of the graph. Cancelled and withdrawn listings declined to just 30 units this week, with 23 of those homes immediately returning to the system with a new MLS® number, most offering an improved price. An additional 58 Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking price this week. Just 16 listings reached the end of their term and expired without a sale. A couple of big sales at the upper end of the market pushed the average selling price of a Saskatoon home higher for the second week in a row, this time to its peak high for the year, $334,179. The weekly median price edged lower falling about $1500 to $295,745. Both of the longer-term measures that I look at on a weekly basis slipped lower. The six-week average price dropped just a few hundred dollars from last week to $317,416 for an annual gain of nearly $9,000. The four-week median price fell $4000 on a weekly basis to $300,000 and finished ahead of the same week last year by about $10,500. Click the image for a larger version of the graph. Overbid sales declined as just two sellers found a buyer who was willing to pay more than the asking price. Those overbids averaged just $100. Another 11 sellers closed a deal at their full asking price. 55 of this week’s 68 sales closed below the asking price with an average underbid of $11,401. Click the image for a larger version of the chart. 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